UK National Angora Rabbit Club

**Sally with award winning English Angora Chocolate Doe**

Sally May has been breeding English Angora rabbits for over 45 years as Bourne Stud Angoras, well longer than we can remember. They have always been a part of our life. Sally is our Mum and has been dedicated to her angoras since 1975, they are part of who she is and she wouldn’t be without them.

Her love of the English Angora has been a long one, and her passion for the English breed is shown in her dedication to breeding in accordance with the breed standard and reviving the Chocolate colour in partnership with Gillian Holford.

Sally has made so many friends in the Angora world and across the world as well. She is very well known for her knowledge on all aspects of showing, breeding, and caring for them. She has been inspired through her journey by those before her like Mrs Pratley, Peggy Grant Dalton and Joan Birkett. She has made great friendships with other Angora breeders like Yvonne Fothergill-Hobbs, Leslie Hordon, Richard Grindley and too many more to name.

I have been spending a bit more time recently observing my English Angora rabbits and some have some really funny traits and poses but all have great personalities. Most are really social and friendly, some more timid and quiet and then there is the one off occasionally who is moody or grouchy. Other traits can be anything from swaying, to chewing, standing on their hind legs or liking to sit underneath the hay. Even the positions they sit or lie in differ and some will lie down with their legs stretched fully out behind them in what I call the relaxed pose. If your English Angora Rabbit is showing any signs or traits you are unsure of though get in touch as it is probably something one of our members has seen before.

Other relaxing poses from our members Angoras

Sable from Chris Hamilton from the Virtual Stock Show 2021

No colour is as difficult to assess at an early age as the Sable, a colour which is the subject of so many beginners seeking advice. The problem starts at birth. So often have I had a beginner on the phone, horrified because the eagerly awaited litter, both parents Sable, appear to be entirely of Smokes!

Cinnamon

Head, ears and feet a mixture of chocolate and cinnamon
Wool to match head with depth of colour and banding essential
White belly with or without pale cinnamon under-colour
Eyes brown or glowing ruby red in subdued light

The National Angora Club is a non-profit making society which promotes the Angora rabbit and its welfare. Our members are spinners, exhibitors and companion animal owners. We sell the surplus wool of our rabbits to go towards the costs of keeping them. We keep our Angoras ethically, making it an expensive hobby. Vaccination alone can cost £70 per rabbit per year!

We produce Angora wool ethically by shearing the rabbit every three months. This does not harm the rabbit in any way. Rabbits sit quietly on the owner’s knee to be sheared. Wool is sorted into best quality spinning wool (above 2.5 inch staple) and second quality felting wool (coarser wool from chest and tummy, and shorter lengths.) Spinning and felting wool in White and a variety of colours is available by mail order. We also sell wooden bottom whorl drop spindles at prices suitable for just having a go.

Have you ever spent time observing rabbits in the wild, well here are a few images from some up on a local nature reserve. It is great to see some of the traits and characteristics observed with these Wild Rabbits still being visible within the English Angora rabbit from lying fully stretched out with legs behind, through to various half standing to standing poses as well as an alert pose to danger where they flatten their bodies to the ground.

I sit upon the grooming stool
as quietly as I can
The big show is tomorrow
and I’ve got to beat that tan.
I’ve got to get “Best Fancy”
I’ll try my very best
To please my mistress ’cause I know
she’s getting quite obsessed
“You are the best”. She tells me,
“But we’ve got to get you clean,
Your tail and paws are spotless
Just like a fairy queen”.
I’m really not complaining
‘Cause I’m treated rather well,
Except the day before a show
When I’d like to scream and yell!
I’m upside down and inside out
This way round and that
Examining every nook and crevice
For a knot, or worse – a matt!
And all the while that Hoover
Blowing cold air on my bottom;
I expect it’s an Angora’s lot,
But it really feels quite rotten!
At least she’s satisfied I’m done
And I can have a rest,
`Alas! No greens for me tonight –
As you may have guessed.
Up tomorrow, crack of dawn
And groomed up to the nines,
Then in my carrying box I’m placed –
I recognise the signs.
And at the hall I’m groomed again –
Thats taking things too far!
But mistress says its needed
If I’m to become a star…
Whether I should win or lose
I don’t care a jot
But it matters to my mistress –
And she’s the only mum I’ve got!
Poem from 1993 year book by Yvonne Hobbs

Meet Nibs, a chocolate English Angora doe

This is Nibs now in 2021. She is an English Angora rabbit doe and she is as happy relaxing inside as she is outside on the grass lawn in her new home in Wales. In the first image she has been clipped whilst in the relaxed pose her wool length is starting to grow back. She is a pet rabbit and her clipped wool is used in as part of my wool products.

As all in our household continued to go out to work, we were far from bored during the lockdown of 2020, but we certainly thought more about our hopes and dreams for the future. It started as ‘moving to West Wales and taking on a smallholding’, including a pair of donkeys requested by our son, but reality and finances gradually reshaped the plan to what we could do here and now, in a suburban terraced house in Cardiff. Something that could begin to replace a wage with more satisfying income.

Grow mushrooms, tomatoes, salad leaves, and currently, winter onions and garlic. Done.

A few chickens in the garden. Maybe in a few years.

No room for sheep, but perhaps Angora Rabbits…

Our mental health was greatly improved through researching and learning about the commitment and rewards it would involve. Seeing the treatment of Angoras in China was very upsetting, so we would do this right or not at all. Though showing a rabbit seemed beyond us as novices, the chance to use natural fibre for crafting really appealed.

I was thrilled to get the Wow factor in the virtual Products show and this actually confirms the reaction of people whenever I wear the poncho outside. I’m asked “where did you get it” and when told I made it and the history of the making I’m asked “can you make me one?” Well this item was really a labour of love – and one I thoroughly enjoyed. If I hadn’t made this I don’t think I would ever have got into spinning Angora. It goes back to 1983 when I discovered and fell in love with the wonderful Angora rabbit, bought my first Angora and spinning wheel and started to teach myself to spin. The only fibre I had was Angora and over time, about 5 years, I managed a sort of yarn. There was no internet then and I lived too far away from Angora members – except Ray Whitcombe who I met up with at local rabbit shows. I collected all the 2ply practice yarn which was not good spinning lumpy, too thick, too thin, over and under spun .

Being the daughters of a successful Angora breeder

The relaxed pose

Sable Angora rabbits

Agouti colours Cinnamon english angora

Cinnamon

Woolfest Online 2021

Wild rabbits

Mums the word

My English Angora rabbit called Nibs the adventure continues

Our Angora Adventure Begins

The History of the Poncho by Mary Tomlin

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