The Day They Announced Foot and Mouth. Taken on the Minox at the end of a very wet day in the Lake District, at the end of February 2001. Water had seeped in the top of my gaiters and my boots were full. The Minox was soaked, despite being carried in its case. But I was drawn to the shapes and contrasts as the Herdwick sheep huddled together, and I grabbed a couple of shots before walking past them out of the valley into Borrowdale, planning to come back the next day with different film and a different camera if the weather was the same, to try to make the most of these grey atmospheric conditions.

But that night we heard reports that F&M had been found on the other side of the country. The immediate local advice was to stay off the fells altogether. In retrospect it feels as if these sheep somehow knew of the coming disaster. The rest, as they say, is history...

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