Nowton Park takes delivery of new flock of sheep

Nowton Park has just taken delivery of six new sheep – and is looking for Bury Free Press readers to help them name one of them.

The flock is made up of three Manx and three Hebridean sheep which will be used as natural lawn mowers – grazing on the long grass tussocks to help other species of grass and plants grow.

Park Ranger Will Hardy said the herd would also improve the visitor’s experience at the park – a new attraction for people to see.

He said: “The main idea is to get them to eat the grass.

“We are not going to be lambing, we are not producing meat – they are here purely for conservation purposes.

“We decided this paddock was a perfect area for them.

“When we cut our flower meadows for hay we will start putting them in there and they will graze for a couple of weeks. It is basically to improve the diversity of vegetation we see.

“The other big reason for getting the sheep is for the visitor experience – it is another added attraction to the park. “We will hopefully use the sheep in events in the future too.

“They will need shearing every year so there is opportunity for shearing demonstrations and wool spinning.

“But we won’t get anything planned until we have got them comfortable.

“In the meantime they will be here in this paddock, at least until August.

“We hope our visitors will respect them – we don’t really want dogs worrying them.”

Nowton Park took delivery of the flock on Tuesday from the National Trust’s Wimpole Estate near Cambridge.

The team have named five of the flock but are looking for suggestions for the sixth.

The Manx sheep have been named Finn, Douglas and Ramsey in keeping with their Isle of Man heritage and two of the Hebrideans have been named Muck and Lewis after two of the islands.

The team is looking for a name on a similar theme.

Send your suggestions to: ‘Sheep’, Bury Free Press, King’s Road, Bury St Edmunds, IP33 3ET and the rangers will pick their favourite next week.