FLORAL memorials to the thousands of animals culled in Wensleydale because of the foot-and-mouth epidemic were hung on many farm gates over the bank holiday weekend.

They were put there by farmers' wives who were so aware of the devastating effect of the cull on their families and livelihoods.

At Woodhall Park Farm, near Askrigg, Mrs Jill Fawcett put two window boxes full of flowers on a wall beside their empty fields. She commented that they could at least do something in memory of their cows and sheep. They were culled out shortly before being fully accepted as an organic farm.

The memorial idea was put forward by Mrs Joyce Sunter of Hill Top Farm, Leyburn, after reading on an internet website about demonstrators leaving flowers outside the Defra office in London.

She said many farmers were very despondent, not just because of the cull, but also because of the attitude of the government and many national newspapers.

"The bad press was a stab in the back but life has got to go on, with or without animals," she said. For many, however, it would be a long, hard road and the flowers were symbolic of the bereavement they felt