A BAA-rmy campaign to promote a new hotel and conference centre has left motorists counting sheep!

And news of the stunt has certainly spread -- as thieves have already "rustled" one of the plastic animals involved.

To passers-by on Preston New Road, Blackburn, the group of sheep look real, from a distance, making their ability to stand in synchronised formation spelling out the letters 's' and 'h' seem miraculous.

But closer inspection reveals that while the sheep might be life-like, they certainly aren't alive.

Thieves nipped on to the land at Mellor within hours of the pottery sheep being arranged and helped themselves to one of the 50 statues.

The S and H spell out the initals of Stanley House, the former manor house nearby which is being converted into a multi-million pound conference centre and hotel by local chef Nigel Smith, who runs the Feilden Arms in Mellor Brook.

It is due to open in the autumn, and staff behind the project say despite the theft the remaining sheep are doing their job -- they've already got bookings.