A herd of cows escaped and ran riot through the streets of Brandlesholme in Bury earlier this week.
An off-duty police officer came across the herd of just under 30 cows who had escaped their enclosure on his way home from work.
Police Constable Matthew Hilton, of GMP’s City of Manchester division, said: “I called the police however due to demand on the force and the threat, harm and risk of the situation police were not able to respond straight away.”
He managed to corral the cows off the roads and to safety in the enclosed ground of the Woodbank Cricket Club and informed the local police of their location.
The cows are believed to have escaped through a gap in the fence panels of a pub bordering the farmer’s field, from where they found their way out the car park, through the residential area to a nearby park.
Owner of the cows and family-run Higher Woodhill Farm, Darren Entwistle, wasn’t too surprised to find his cows out on a ‘merry wander’ at 1am, as this has happened before.
He said: “There wasn’t much hope of me getting them back on my own at that time, so I went up there the following morning when it was light.”
A phone call tip-off alerted the farmer that his cows were by then on the pitch of the cricket club, from where he coaxed them back to the farm with a bucket of food.
The missing fence panel at the root of the escape has since been replaced and Mr Entwistle’s herd is back where they belong.
Constable Hilton said it was “a MOOOVING end to the story.”
