A SHEEP fair, which has become a tradition in a dales town, is to go ahead this year, despite the crisis.

However, there will be a difference.

The pens will go up in the market place, in Masham, North Yorkshire, in September, and it is hoped that people from across the region will still enter their animals in a number of different classes.

But none of the sheep will be real.

Schools, churches, youth clubs, businesses and individuals are being challenged to spend the next few months making their Swaledales and bluefaced Leicesters from paper and cardboard - or anything else they can lay their hands on.

"It does not have to be life-sized. They can any made of anything," said spokeswoman Nicola Read, who works at a nursery, where the children have already been designing a prototype.

"They all got absolutely covered in paint, but they loved it - and that is what the whole thing is a about," she said.

Anyone who would like more details about the competition, on September 29 and 30, can contact (01725) 689300.