Mrs Down's Diary

The story goes like this.

There are only a few of his year's lambs left to go to market. They have reached about 100lb weight each, nearly a cwt or, 45 kilograms if we are being euro correct. This is a good market weight but John has judged they still want a bit more finish on them. By that he means more flesh on their backs. They have a field of their own, 15 acres, so with only 23 lambs there is plenty of grass and plenty of opportunity to do well. There is not a lot of goodness left in the grass so John feeds the lambs some rolled barley every day. This also gives him an opportunity to make sure everything is OK. And this morning when he counted up it was not. He counted 22 lambs and not 23.

There are not many places in this particular field where a lamb could get lost. It is a good level field but in the corner there is an inspection chamber for the drainage system. It stands just over a yard high, about 4 foot in diameter, goes down approximately 8 feet and has an open top. There is a concrete bottom to the chamber and two drains from a couple of fields drain into the chamber and then out into eventually a dike. If there is a lot of rain the water can back up and stand in the bottom, but usually it just runs through.

Just before John decided to leave the field as there was no sign of the lamb, a faint bleating sound drifted across to him. At first he thought it came from the hedge bottom but when he went to look, no lamb. Then maybe it had got through to the next field. But still no lamb. However, as he walked the boundary of the field he realised that the bleating was growing louder and that the source appeared to be the inspection chamber. Peering into it, he found his lamb. Eight foot down and with four wet feet.

For full feature see West Sussex Gazette