MAVIS the sheep has been saved from slaughter after she attempted to lead her flock on an escape to freedom through the streets of Chipping Norton yesterday.

Eight-year-old Mavis, who has mothered eight lambs, decided she didn't want to be anybody's roast, and made a break for it after a field gate was left open in Spring Street.

Behind her followed 15 aged woolly ewes - all of whom are facing the slaughter house next year.

Car technician Adam Lewis was parked outside the Co-op on his lunch break when he captured the whole thing on his mobile phone.

The 27-year-old from Witney said he was shocked by what he saw and feared the sheep were about to jump into his convertible Mini.

He said: "It was quite a shock. You often see one sheep but not often a flock of them in the middle of the road."

Mr Lewis captured the heroic efforts of a Thames Valley police officer who saw the sheep while driving past in his van, and quickly pulled it across the road so the they couldn't reach the New Street roundabout where they would surely have become mince meat in the busy traffic.

Police struggled with local volunteers to herd the sheep into a residents’ garden before a friendly farmer offered to take them back home in his trailer.

They had been free for four hours.

Ursula Halifax, 27, who owns the sheep which are temporarily pastured in fields next to her homes on Spring Street, thanked the people of Chipping Norton and the Police for their intervention, but suggested police should be given training courses on how to round up escaped animals.

Ms Halifax now hopes to sell Mavis to the highest bidder to raise money for charity.

Anyone interested in owning Mavis should call henwoodfarm@googlemail.com