sheepish - our new project to bring sheep's wool into the 21st century

A market town in the Yorkshire Dales might seem an unlikely place to find innovative solutions to the climate crisis, but Masham is set to become home to a new project which could revolutionise the building industry. We're leading an exciting new initiative to get sheep’s wool more widely used in buildings across the country!

We're finding every way to make the refurbishment of 15 Silver Street as eco-friendly as possible. One of them is going back to Masham's roots to find sustainable solutions for our future. 

We're really excited and proud to be using sheep’s wool insulation as part of the refurbishments. But we didn't want to stop with our building! We're also leading on a new initiative called Sheepish which aims to get sheep’s wool insulation used in the building of new homes across the country.

​Peacock & Verity will be the first test site where contractors and builders can learn how to install sheep’s wool insulation. We'll also build a supply chain of farmers, insulation producers and social housing providers, creating a green circle economy based in Yorkshire.

The project is backed by £38,722 from the North East and Yorkshire Net Zero Hub and £16,000 from North Yorkshire Council, as part of a larger grant of £273,000 towards the wider conversion of Peacock & Verity. 

Jan Reed, Project Manager at Peacock & Verity, says: 
​

We’re really excited to be leading the Sheepish project at Peacock & Verity. We didn’t just want to refurbish our own building; we also wanted to do everything we can to share the knowledge and skills to make other buildings more sustainable.

Sheep’s wool is the perfect insulator for traditional stone buildings - not only is it a warm blanket, but the wool’s structure helps to wick moisture away and is a natural fire retardant. And most importantly, it’s environmentally friendly. It lasts for decades and can be composted at the end of its life, unlike man-made insulation which is often full of plastic.

She adds: ‘It makes so much sense for us to be using it at Peacock & Verity - we’re from Masham afterall! If it’s good enough for sheep on a windy moor, it’s good enough for us to use in our buildings.

​The links between Masham and sheep farming go back thousands of years. Sheep farming is thought to have been introduced to the area by Viking settlers, and Masham is still well known for its annual Sheep Fair which takes place at the end of September. There’s even a breed of sheep named after the town. 
​

Karen Oliver-Spry, Hub Manager for the North East and Yorkshire Net Zero Hub says:​
​

The North East and Yorkshire Net Zero Hub is all about using local assets to create clean energy and to make buildings across the region easier and cheaper to heat – what better way to utilise an often overlooked by-product from the region’s plentiful sheep population!’
“Bringing local people and organisations together to reuse, recycle and repurpose materials which otherwise may end up as waste is a huge part of that work and this project could have very interesting implications for improving the energy efficiency of buildings across the North East and Yorkshire and beyond – and we are delighted to be able to support it through our Energy Project Enabling Fund.

​If you'd like to get involved in Sheepish please get in touch with us at [email protected]