MARSDEN'S commando sheep have captured the imagination of the nation.
The Examiner told how they've been wriggling on their backs across cattle grids to get into the village.
The news followed other reports of the woolly jumpers leaping 5ft over fences or squeezing through tiny gaps.
The Examiner sparked a media frenzy. The story has been seized on by the national Press and TV.
But we can reveal that Marsden's flocks are not the first to try such ingenious tactics.
Seven years ago, sheep living near the New Forest village of Bramshaw in Hampshire, were apparently seen choosing one of their number to lie on a cattle grid while others scrambled over her to get into a garden filled with tasty grass.
They'd also taken to rolling across the bars of grids.
A former Royal Marine officer said at the time: "The sheep are a pretty resourceful lot - and when there's a shortage of grass they're driven to use all sorts of tricks."
In Wales, where there are 11m sheep, there's a legend about a famous sheep in Merthyr Tydfil who taught her offspring to conquer their fear of the thin metal grids by rolling over them.
Countless townspeople say it's true - though many disappointed would-be spotters have failed to see it.
Marsden councillor Dorothy Lindley says she's seen sheep using the roll- over method for months.
But experts are unconvinced. Robert Nobles, of the National Farmers' Union in Honley- and a sheep farmer - says: "It's true to say they're not as stupid as they look!
"But I've never seen anything like this. I have known sheep to walk on tip-toes across flat-topped grids.
"But the only reason they'd be on their backs on a cattle grid is if they fell over," he added.
