A sheep farmer has spoken of his relief after a stroke of luck worth bleating about.

Eastern Daily Press: A ram stolen from Richard Weston. Picture: Jacquie CollinsA ram stolen from Richard Weston. Picture: Jacquie Collins (Image: Jacquie Collins)

Richard Weston, of Lowestoft, felt well and truly fleeced last week, after two of his prized rams were stolen from their pen in Woodton.

The ram raid had left Mr Weston out of pocket and without a single male in his flock and said it was like being sent back to square one in his aspiring business.

However, through shear luck, the pair are back safe and sound, after they were discovered returned to a nearby field around a week later.

Mr Weston, 24, said: 'It was a big shock when somebody called me and told me they were back, but also a huge, huge relief.

'I had already began making arrangements to go to the Lake District to replace them, but now I can buy new ewes instead, as I had originally planned.'

The farmer, who began building his flock in August 2016, now has around 60 ewes, but the two stolen rams were his only males.

And while they are now safely back with Mr Weston, the pair do appear to have been affected by the ordeal.

He said: 'They don't seem as friendly as they had before. I used to only have to shake a bag of food and they would come running, but now they are slightly more cautious.'

However, despite their sheepish behaviour, Mr Weston is delighted to have his rams back, particularly as one of the two was the first he had raised himself.

He said the incident - which happened overnight on Tuesday, August 1 - had become all the talk of the tightly-knit farming community, with colleagues keen to help him find them.

And it was a fellow member of the community that spotted them, immediately alerting Mr Weston

'It was a great relief to know they are safe, well and back home were they belong,' he added. 'I honestly didn't expect to ever see them again, so I'm delighted to have them back - although I do think they are a bit upset.'

The two rams, named Barfield and Frederick, are part of a breed called Herdwick, mostly found in the Lake District.

While the farmer himself is from Lowestoft, he keeps his sheep in Woodton, with the pair taken from an enclosed pen off Norwich Road.

Tyre marks leading up to the pen had indicated that a vehicle was used in the theft.