For the past 30 years, St Kyneburgha Church in Castor, near Peterborough, has used a rather unique approach to lawn care...a small flock of sheep.

Instead of relying on mowers, these animals keep the grass neatly trimmed in a section of the graveyard.

Church verger David Edwards, who oversees six other churches, believes this remains a rare practice in England.

He told the BBC: "They can strip a field fairly quickly," explaining that the sheep only graze in areas where headstones are no longer maintained by living relatives.

A fence keeps them within their designated section.

The rector is the official keeper of the six sheep, all of which are tagged.

Their diet includes grass, hay, and sheep nuts, and they have two shelters for bad weather.

The churchyard itself has a deep history, once serving as a Roman camp and later a monastery.

Edwards said visitors appreciate the sheep, and there have been no complaints.

"I suppose the only consequence is that every now and then you can see a bit of wool - they quite like to rub up and down the gravestones - and every now and then you get one topple over, but that just goes with the maintenance of the graveyard", he said.