Escaped cows take bank holiday tour of Marlow
- Published
The herd of 35 escapee cows took a tour around Marlow town centre
A herd of "adventurous" cattle decided the bank holiday was the ideal time to take their own mini-break and explore a nearby town.
Residents in Marlow, Buckinghamshire, were surprised to open their curtains to find the 35 escapees outside.
Rachel Helliwell said: "Not what I was expecting to see this morning."
Farmer Ed Lacey, from Lacey's Family Farm, and other volunteers spent about 40 minutes tracking his herd and eventually returned them safely home.
The cows escaped early on Monday and made their way to Marlow where people started noticing them shortly before 09:00 BST, as the Bucks Free Press first reported, external.
Resident Ms Helliwell told the BBC she spotted them "on Oxford Road, heading towards Henley".
"There was a whole herd right in the middle of Marlow," she said.
"It was just like it was a normal thing for them to do."
The cows briefly stopped outside the local garage before continuing their town tour
The mainly dairy herd had been in a field about a mile (1.6km) from the town and when one broke through a fence and the rest probably followed, farmer Mr Lacey told the BBC.
"When cows get out, usually you find them fairly quickly but this time I had to follow the cow poo.
"There were 'latest location' notifications coming in from all over the place on social media and four of us were trying to track them in two trucks."
He estimated the cows' tour took in various sites across a two or three-mile (up to 4.8km) area of central Marlow.
Mr Lacey described the herd as "adventurous teenagers out for a stroll".
The herd was eventually tracked to a bridleway and safely rounded up and returned home.
"I think they'd enough by then," Mr Lacey said.
The adventurous herd was safely returned to its field
He praised residents for helping to post information as the cows made their way through the town, and local farmers for offering to help.
"The herd doesn't seem to have done any damage, they were just trotting around and being inquisitive," he added.
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