Okehampton commoners are warning that the future is ‘looking bleak’ after being ordered to take their hardy sheep off Dartmoor by a government body intent on rewilding uplands.

Farmers with rights to keep sheep and cattle on Okehampton Common have been told by Natural England to remove their sheep — some 920 in total — by the end of September. They will only be allowed back in March.

Natural England says the measure, which will apply every autumn and winter from now on, is necessary to allow gorse and other shrubs to grow. However, the farmers say the sheep are vital for keeping scrub down so walkers can access the common for enjoyment.

They say the government body is failing too to understand that the sheep are a vital part of the landscape.

Sheep keep to specific areas, known as lears, passed down through the generations from ewe to lamb — and farmers say this will be lost if they have to remove and slaughter their sheep.

John Hodge, 82, keeps 300 Scotch Blackface on the moor in the area stretching south from Okehampton Army Camp, which includes includes Yes Tor and West Mill Tor.

‘It is not the right thing at all to take hill sheep off the moor,’ he said. ‘We are a 100 per cent hill farm and our sheep have been there since 1890.

‘Natural England wouldn’t have a meeting. They just wrote to us and said “we’d like them off”. As I understand it, we’ll be fined if we don’t.’

He said the sheep were ‘part of the character of the moor’. ‘People like to see them, they have been there so long now.

‘If we take them off it will be the end of an era and people won’t be able to walk up there either, because without the sheep it will just grow over.’

Farmers Pete and Mary Heard also keep sheep on the common. Mary said the future for the sheep was ‘looking decidedly bleak’.

Pete said: ‘With taking the sheep away, a lot of gorse and other shrubs will grow up.

‘It won’t just be the farmers that will suffer when the common becomes overgrown, the public will too, that’s why we think the public should be made aware of this.’

He said they had asked Natural England to compromise, suggesting removing 50% of their sheep from September to March, but the body had responded that they wanted numbers reduced ‘close to zero’.

A spokesperson for Natural England said the measure was part of its Environmental Stewardship scheme ‘aimed in part at restoring the heather and bilberry vegetation heathland that once characterised the common’.

‘Okehampton Common is a site of national importance, and Natural England has worked closely with commoners to put in place grazing management which balances the needs of farmers, wildlife, cultural heritage, recreational users and the contribution the common makes to Dartmoor’s special landscape qualities. We are working with the commoners on changes they can make collectively to their grazing management to ensure their Environmental Stewardship scheme is a success on this wonderful site.’