Skipton BID is delighted to share that around 700 people took part in the first ever Woolly Sheep Trail held in the town over the summer.

Following more than 800 hours of work from local volunteers and representatives from Spinning Jenny, the Skipton Sheep Trail ran from early July until Sunday (September 27^th) – the end of the Yarndale festival.

Each of the unique sheep models were then auctioned off on Sunday evening to raise money for the Spirit of Endeavour charity – which has spent almost half a century providing accessible canal trips around Skipton. The Spinning Jenny team were very pleased to announce that the auction raised more than £800 to support the great work the charity does within the local area.

Data collected by the Business Improvement District (BID) team shows that almost 700 people came into town to join in with the ‘baa-rilliant’ trail – which guided them to different areas of town with the aim of increasing footfall and spend for the Skipton business community. However, it’s believed that more than 700 completed the trail over the summer, with so many families spotted around town across all three months.

Visitors that have taken part in the trail have travelled to Skipton from postcodes in areas including Portsmouth, Liverpool, Bristol and Brighton in the UK, as well as the Netherlands and Ireland overseas.

Sarah Howsen, Skipton BID Manager, said: “It’s been great to see so many families walking around town with their maps and passports collecting all of the names.

“We organise and fund trails such as this to encourage people into our town centre – and feedback from businesses suggests that the Sheep Trail has done exactly that.

“We’ve had a fantastic number of entries across the whole summer, with some people from overseas taking part. A big well done to the winners that were drawn this week!

“Once again I’d like to thank all of the businesses that hosted a sheep model, along with Stephanie and the Spinning Jenny team for all of their hard work to help bring the trail to life.”

Celebrating Skipton’s heritage as ‘Sheep Town’, this was the first time that the trail had been organised and funded by the BID and Spinning Jenny working in partnership.

Stephanie Haithwaite, of Spinning Jenny, said the team were excited to be a part of the trail.

Stephanie said: “We were thrilled to have been able to bring the field of knitted, crocheted and sewn sheep to Skipton over this summer.

“Our group of volunteers worked for over 800 hours to create the sheep, and we’ve loved the enthusiasm of visitors and local people as they have gone round getting their passports stamped.

“Raising £815 for a local charity through the silent auction was also fantastic and we are in the process of sending the sheep off to their new homes, both local and overseas!”

Positive feedback from the businesses that took part in the Sheep Trail shows that it helped to raise awareness, all while helping to draw people into Skipton across the summer.