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By: watches2010 Mood: Date: 02/01/2010 01:26:09 Music: None

Byline: By Jamie Diffley

Northumberland College is running the UK's only course dedicated Replica IWC Watches to training the next generation of shepherds. Jamie Diffley went along to see the students at work

The last people I expected to meet at the reception of Ponteland's Kirkley Hall were three young girls.

To call them glamorous may slightly be overdoing it, but underneath those practical fleeces, waterproof trousers and Wellington boots are three gorgeous girls just waiting to get out.

"I can't remember the last time I wore make-up," butts in 20-year-old Jenna Ballantine, as if she is reading my admittedly-shallow mind. "I've never been your handbag kind of girl. I like to muck in."

Jenna is standing alongside Kimberley Robson, 22, and 20-year-old Lucy Graham-Cumming at the hall which is an annex of Northumberland College in Ashington.

The three are studying for the Advanced National Certificate in Agriculture (Sheep Management). Shepherd School to me and you.

The college is the only place in the country to run the course which aims to teach the modern shepherd everything about the craft.

If you thought all there was to the job was keeping a flock of sheep in check with a trusty dog and saying "come by" a lot, you'd be wrong.

"There are parts of the job that haven't changed," says course leader Chris Gwilt. "Shepherding was about sheep 2,000 years ago and it's about sheep now ( but there is much more to it these days.

"We're trying to train the next generation of full-time or part-time shepherds and shepherdesses."

And these three girls are part of that generation of shepherdesses. All but four of the 11 students on the course are female.

Lucy lives on campus after coming to the North East from Colchester, in Essex, specifically to study on the course.

"I used to be a hairdresser," she says deadpan. "But I hated being inside all the time. This is much better."

Growing up just outside London, Lucy was not exactly surrounded by rolling hills and green fields. And she didn't get the urge to roam the countryside from her mortgage-adviser father.

"I've always been practical I suppose," says Lucy. "I want to be a sheep dairier when I finish the course and milk sheep."

Having made our acquaintances in the warmth of the reception, the girls shepherd me out to the fields where the flocks of sheep await. As does Paul Bristow.

Paul is what I did expect from a shepherd. He leans on his crook shouting orders at his faithful border collie Bill from underneath his bobble hat.

Phrases like "look back," "away," "that'll do" all come tumbling from his mouth as does "come by", perhaps the most common parlance of the shepherd.

"It means run left," explains Paul, 33. "Away is run right and lie down means stop.

"Some dogs pick it up quickly and some don't, it depends on their character. They're like people in that respect."

Paul, from Mitford in Northumberland, has been a shepherd for the best part of a decade and has been teaching on the course since 2002.

He took a national certificate at Kirkley Hall in 1992 and now helps the new crop with
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