A DORSET church has introduced livestock to help manage their churchyard greenery.

St Wolfrida’s Church in Horton has had to resort to employing the help of animals such as sheep, due to a lack of funding available for a gardener.

The church does not have enough money to afford the gardening bill, leading to the weeds and greenery getting out of control.

The church is currently saving up money to rectify the damage that has been done to the internal structure of the building.

The secretary for Wimborne Minster, Ruth Marshall, said there are death watch beetles present, which are eating away at the internal structure of the church.

The building is of very old heritage, dating back to the 1300’s and needs as much financial support as possible.

The money-saving idea came from the church warden, Phillip Bailey.

He stated: “St Wolfrida is a rural church in a rural setting therefore we should be as simple and as close to the natural world as the church is humble.

“St Wolfrida’s is not a pristine clean town church with pristine clean parishioners, we are whatever the seasons bring - sun, rain, mud and wind with animals.”

The idea to bring in sheep specifically came from Ruth, as she has experience with shepherdess work.

Using Ruth’s knowledge and contacts they sourced a rare weed-eating sheep breed called Ronaldsay sheep.

All the neighbours and the verger, Jackie, keep an eye on the animals, feed and water them daily.

There’s a team called ‘flockwatch’ made up of residents that help to monitor the church

There are thirteen members of the ‘flockwatch’ team that assist in making the sheep project a success.

Alongside them there’s an extended neighbourhood team made up of volunteers who manage the other gardening that the sheep aren’t able to.

The church community, as well as those nearby contribute huge amounts of effort to ‘flockwatch’.

Ruth describes it as: “A real community spirit in the heart of the Wimborne countryside.”