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For the suburb of Auckland, New Zealand, see Southdown, New Zealand

The Southdown breed of sheep was originally bred by John Ellman of Glynd about 200 years ago. His work was continued by Jonas Webb of Babraham in Cambridgeshire who developed the larger animal that we see today.

It was exported to New Zealand and was used in the breeding of the Canterbury Lamb. The Southdown is recognised by the Rare Breeds society as an "at risk" breed, although today it is popular amongst the smaller scale breeders of sheep. The Southdown Sheep Society http://www.southdownsheepsociety.co.uk/breed.htm promotes this breed.

The sheep has a body weight of about 60 kg, its fleece weight is around 2.25 kg and it has a short staple of about 70 mm with a diameter of 25 micrometres or more.

This sheep was involved with crossbreeding to develop other breeds

• with existing stock, the Hampshire,
• via the Hampshire, the Oxford Down
• with the Norfolk Horn, the Suffolk .

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