A FRIGHTENED cow drowned when it leapt into a well during a thunderstorm.

The animal jumped through the wooden well cover and into the deep drinking water below. It was dead when landowners Peter and Linda Bateman discovered it at their Higher Ramsgreave Road farm.

They drank bottled water until their private supply was given the all clear by the health authority.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.