Sheep get a bad press. It’s as if these dumb creatures lack brains and any sense of their own danger. That is a travesty and I am going to plead their case. I see sheep all the time, on walks, on runs and even from my house. They never fail to make me smile. A man was driving out of a field and I closed the gate for him. The ewes all clustered about, clearly wanting to escape through the open gate. Why? On other occasions they stare at me and Ann running through their fields. They take up strange poses and you cannot help but smile. On a litter pick, we entered their field carrying a plastic bag. Thye came running, thinking we had food.

The death wish

They are also remarkably agile, when they want to be. A ewe, in front of us, leaped up onto a wall that had a strand of barbed wire along it. She then leaped the wire, rather neatly, and dropped down into the field. However, they otherwise seem to have a death wish. We have found them trapped behind walls and on tracks that lead to busy roads. On one occasion, a ewe had dropped into a hole between rocks. It was so tight she could not get her legs out. It was a struggle for us to lift her out but we managed. That was a remote spot and she would have died had we not walked that way.

Sheep

In the 1960’s I walked up Kinder Scout after a period of heavy snow. The snow drifts that had melted exposed dead ewes easing out into the sunlight. I will never forget that scene. However, consider that these dumpy creatures eat grass and turn it into tasty meat and fats. That is an amazing conversion. And if we did not eat lamb and mutton, huge numbers of ancient breeds would disappear. Creatures that we may have farmed in these isles for 6,000 years. They also have their own birdlife, following them around fields. Sheep are a vital element of our farming scene and a feature of what it means to be British!