THE chink of glasses and tinkle of laughter normally to be heard emanating from a Dartmoor pub's party marquee were replaced this week by the bleating of newborn lambs.

Julie and Ted Fisher from the Brentor Inn saw the plight of neighbour Fred Penwill's sheep — forced to give birth in a field knee-deep in mud — and stepped in to help the lambs.

The RSPCA, also concerned with the sorry state of the animals, delivered truckloads of wood-chippings to help create a dry area.

Janet Kipling, speaking for the RSPCA, said: 'The transformation was incredible, but it still doesn't solve the long-term problem.

'Those animals should be out in a suitable pasture — we've been urging MAFF for weeks, but Mr Penwill has now been served a D-notice and is definitely not able to move his animals.'

Ms Kipling said Mr Penwill's only other option right now would be to have his sheep slaughtered under the welfare slaughter programme, but he does not want to have them killed and anyway there is currently a backlog of some 1.6-million animals awaiting the slaughterman's attention.

'We will be doing everything we can to help him, but it's looking very worrying,' she said.

Mr Penwill said he could get some 70 ewes and their lambs into the tent and out of the mud at a time — from a total of more than 500 sheep confined to the one field — but lambing was nowhere near over and the population would continue to grow.

'What Mr and Mrs Fisher did was tremendous. It has eased the pressure, but it's building up again. I've had wonderful help from locals and the RSPCA, it's only MAFF being cussed — it's ludicrous keeping sheep in these conditions,' he said.

'If I was keeping stock like this under normal circumstances I would be banned for life from ever keeping animals again.'

Mr Penwill has made several applications to move his animals, all refused by MAFF, which then served a D-notice restricting animal movement.

The notice was served ten days late, which effectively extended the movement ban.

'I understand I am going to be getting a licence to get them across the road, but I haven't seen it yet and I'm not raising my hopes, I've been told all sorts before,' said Mr Penwill.

With his sheep confined to the one field and the weather stubbornly refusing to improve, conditions are deteriorating, but if MAFF does come up with the licence, Mr Penwill said he would be able to take advantage of a neighbour's offer of a dryer, grassier field until the end of April, which would help ease the problem.

Mr Penwill said he would definitely not choose to slaughter and is hoping he will be able to get the majority of his sheep and their lambs through the next couple of weeks — some of their bloodlines go back generations and are irreplaceable.

'And it's no good killing them just for the sake of it — some of these people who are having their animals killed are just doing it to make money,' he said.

'My main aim is to keep it going for as long as possible to the best of my abilities — we are going to keep going.'