A CLEVELAND farm has been hit by the foot-and-mouth crisis just days before a family wedding.

Some 400 ewes and lambs have been culled at Town End Farm in Kirklevington in a bid to head off the disease.

But the precaution has meant Mr Ian Tate and his wife, Evelyn, have had to obtain a licence to leave the farm to be at their son Paul's wedding next week.

Mr Paul Tate has had to stay away from the farm altogether so he can marry Miss Jenna Cox from Ripon on Saturday, May 19.

Other friends and relatives who live on farms will not be able to attend.

But the family is determined to put the crisis behind them and enjoy the wedding day.

The couple's daughter, Mrs Jennifer Brooks, has also been hit. She runs a nearby riding centre in Kirklevington and said: "We are just managing to keep our heads above water."

She said foot-and-mouth had been creeping "like the Black Death" into the Kirklevington area with cases being confirmed at Crathorne and Picton.

The Tates thought they had escaped the worst but with outbreaks at nearby farms, the cull became inevitable.

Mr Paul Tate, who works on the family farm, has had to stay in the village since the cull order was made.

"All this has caused my dad a lot of stress," said Mrs Brooks. "With outbreaks in the area he was worried we would also get foot-and-mouth but we are clear so far."

The sheep were culled this week as part of Ministry of Agriculture measures to control the disease.

"It has been awful for my mum and dad," said Mrs Brooks, "especially as people are being given the impression the outbreak is more or less over. We had got so near the end of the worst and still had to have a cull."

Mrs Brooks said her riding centre usually did a lot of hacking out and activities had had to be curtailed with many children's holiday events being hit.

The centre was still running closed shop contests, mainly for youngsters.

"You have to try to do something," she said. "We are managing to keep going and I think we will weather the storm. We are determined to survive and will be staying open for business.

"Many riding centres are worse off than we are."

Mrs Brooks said ministry officials handled the cull very well. Town End was also an arable farm so there were other aspects to work on, she said.

"We will all try to put this behind us for the wedding day," said Mrs Brooks, adding that her brother and his bride would go ahead with a honeymoon in America.

"It would have been much worse to have actually had foot-and-mouth so we are lucky in that respect," she said. "You have to look for a plus side."

l Foot-and-mouth latest: page 14.