A FORMER police officer and farmer has shared how a devastating family tragedy led him to spend decades researching a breed of sheep before turning that work into a sell-out book.
Mike Eckley was serving as a beat officer with Dyfed-Powys Police in the Hay-on-Wye area when he was called to a serious crash at Pontybat crossroads between Hay-on-Wye and Brecon shortly after midnight on August 30, 1998.
When he arrived at the scene, he made the heart-breaking discovery that his brother, Phil, had died in the crash.
Mr Eckley said the experience had a profound impact on his life and led to severe post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Before joining the police, he had been a fourth-generation farmer at Court-Llacca Farm where his family established a flock of Clun Forest sheep in 1902.
While PTSD affects people in different ways, Mr Eckley said he became consumed by researching the history of his family's flock and the wider Clun Forest breed.
That interest led him to make an appeal through the Hereford Times in 2018 for information about renowned sheep breeder Bill Williams of Brobury.
One aim was to trace two silver cups donated by Mr Eckley's grandfather, Tom Eckley, in the 1950s and 1960s.
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The trophies had disappeared after Mr Williams' death in the early 1970s and were long thought to have been lost forever.
However, following the appeal, Mr Eckley was contacted by a Hay-on-Wye resident who revealed the cups had been stored in her attic for decades.
After leaving policing, Mr Eckley began working at The Old Railway Line Garden Centre in Three Cocks, run by his wife Katie's family.
In 2023, after 25 years of collecting information, he decided to channel his research into a book marking the centenary of the Clun Forest Sheep Society in 2025.
“The book soon to a life of its own and it became part breed history, part Court-Llacca flock history, part family history, peppered with stories and characters from farming life in Herefordshire, Shropshire, Breconshire, Radnorshire and further afield,” Mr Eckley said.
Self-published in November 2025, the first 200 copies sold out within two weeks, with books reaching readers across the UK, Europe, Canada and the United States. Encouraged by his wife, Mr Eckley has now printed a further 200 copies, which are available to buy at the garden centre.
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