TWIN lambs from a rare breed of sheep made a pre-Christmas arrival on a farm on the outskirts of Sedbergh.

And the Texel cross Hampshire Downs may owe their lives to a sharp-eyed farmer after being born as snow fell.

Stephen Troughton, 45, who runs the 500-acre Moors Farm at Firbank, happened to chance across the sisters as he and his father-in-law Derek Bateman were out on the land as snow fell and temperatures plummeted last Thursday.

“They’d just been born because the mother was licking them - they must have thought it was January,” said Mr Troughton.

“They wouldn’t have survived the night, so we brought them in.”

The new arrivals are in the farm’s sheep shed and have proved a hit with sons Aaron, 12, and Luke, eight.

The breed, which Mr Troughton described as like ‘big teddy bears’ had been bought a few years ago for his wife Karen.

“He got me them because they are like big teddy bears to look at – although farmers don’t like them!” said Mrs Troughton. “Any lamb is cute...until they end up on your plate.”

They twins’ mum had lambed in February – making the new arrivals her second of 2013 in a gestation period which lasts around five months.