00:00The sheep drive itself has only been taking place for just over a decade. In 2013, the
00:07worshipful company of Woolman decided to exercise the ancient rite of driving sheep across London
00:17Bridge and raise money for charity at the same time. London Bridge has now been switched
00:25out for Southwark Bridge which closes to vehicles during the event. The sheep taking part this
00:33year were selected from a farm in Bedfordshire and are said to have had media training also
00:42appearing at other events such as country shows and are comfortable with the crowds of London.
00:50I didn't know what to expect at all. I was really worried that the sheep would be jumping
00:54into the river but the farmers got them immaculately behaved. These sheep have come out of a field
00:58in Bedfordshire and here they are in the middle of London and so the sheep behave themselves
01:01very well. I was given a sheepdog as well to take along and he was great so it just worked
01:06beautifully really but when I turned up I had no idea that it was so huge. This is the
01:11second biggest event in London next to the mayor's show so quite extraordinary. I think
01:16ancient traditions across the UK are really important to keep going you know they're part
01:21of our living heritage and we're celebrating agriculture, we're celebrating wool which was
01:26such a valuable product to the British Isles and yeah and it's just so good to keep them
01:32alive and going. What we do for this event is we have to marshal everybody, we have to get
01:37security in, we have to get permissions from the city and there's an awful lot of work that
01:41goes on in the background. Then of course we've not only got the drivers of sheep of which
01:45there are 1200 today which is a record number incidentally and we need to marshal those but
01:50we've also got a record number of stall haulers and the stall and livery fair is a very important
01:55part of the whole event. I've got the great honour to be the Lord Mayor of London. I'm the 696th
02:01Lord Mayor and here we are today we are exercising our ancient right to drive sheep across the bridges
02:08of London without having to pay a fine. London has been this incredible commercial centre for many
02:14many centuries and before we came to do all the things we do now, the insurance, the banking, the
02:20legal services and all the other things that we do here, London was this great centre of agricultural
02:27markets. We used to have a great market for everything.
Comments