Native Cumbrian sheep will cross the Thames (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Native Cumbrian sheep will cross the Thames

6:20pm Monday 6th July 2009

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AN expert sheepdog handler and trainer is getting ready to walk her native Cumbrian sheep across one of the most famous bridges in the world tomorrow (Saturday).

Katy Cropper, of Hause Farm, between Shap and Orton, has been asked to take part in the London Bridge Anniversary fair, celebrating the 800th anniversary of the first stone bridge across the River Thames.

Miss Cropper, who won the popular BBC television show in 1990, One Man and His Dog, has spent weeks training 16 of her sheep to walk with a halter on, so they can be walked over the water by liverymen and freemen, exercising their ancient rights to drive sheep tax free across the bridge.

It is all part of the Lord Mayor’s Appeal 2009, in aid of St John Ambulance and The Lord Taverners, and thousands of people are expected to witness the historic occasion.

She said: “All the sheep have to have a halter on and Herdwicks are not the easiest of sheep to do this with. I did wonder if I should have chosen a different breed, but I wanted to promote them as much as I could seeing as they are from Cumbria.

“I just hope that the Lord Mayor and livery men do not let go, otherwise the sheep will be in the Thames and we’ll never see them again!”, joked Miss Cropper.

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