Forget the chicken who crossed the road, have you herd the one about the cows who went for a mud bath?

As a-moo-sing as it may sound, it was less of a laughing matter for the six cattle who found themselves stranded neck-deep in a ditch near Tunbridge Wells at the weekend.

The steaks were high when specialist crews from Kent Fire and Rescue Service arrived at the scene, but after some swift cow-culations they were able to deploy animal strops and winches to bring the unlucky creatures back to dry land.

It all happened at around 11.55am on Saturday in Lamberhurst, where the cows had wandered a little too far from their usual home and inadvertently into the ditch.

Firefighters and an Animal Rescue Unit were sent to the scene and were able to extract the animals one by one.

Read more: All the latest news from Tunbridge Wells