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Adam Shilton
Walk across London Bridge on any normal day and you'll probably spot some selfie stick-weilding tourists, a couple of keen runners, or a traffic jam of double decker buses. But yesterday, you were more likely to spot a herd of sheep as a group of Londoners exercised their ancient rights to walk a load of sheep up and down London Bridge, because why the heck not?
The annual sheep drive is carried out by freemen of the City of London as part of a tradition that started back in the thirteenth century. Back in the day, if you wanted to practice a trade or walk around the city with a drawn sword then you needed to be made a freeman - which came with the added bonus of granting you permission to herd your sheep across London Bridge. Handy. These days, it's pretty rare to be made a freeman, although actresses including Judi Dench and Barbara Windsor have joined the ranks over the last few years. Here's Babs making the most of it:
As well as exercising their (now slightly redundant) right to herd sheep across the bridge, the organisers of this year's sheep drive were raising money for charity, split between the Lord Mayor's Appeal and the Worshipful Company of Woolmen. And although only freemen were allowed to herd the sheep, us lesser freemen were able to get some sheepy selfies:
Take a look at some more un-baa-lievable snaps of the sheep drive:
In other animal news, a London couple found a panda on their pizza.