A COW charged through Knutsford on Friday leaving a trail of dung and bemused onlookers behind it.

Dozens of people herded the 1,300lbs animal to safety after it took a bad turn and headed towards Mobberley Road.

Drivers were stunned to see worried residents - including a number of children - manoeuvring the beast along North Downs. "You don't expect to see that," said Rod Umpleby, 61, of Lichfield Close.

"I slowed down and saw kids running away from it." One man almost fell off his bike as he cycled past, but the cow eventually came to a standstill in Jim and Betty Rattray's garden in Delmar Road.

After marching across the lawn it became transfixed - apparently by its own reflection - and started licking their window.

Police were called, but Sergeant Jez Taylor said they could only alert the farmer.

"It is not a call we get very often," he said.

Earlier the cow had wandered off from a farm at Booths Hall across fields and past Booths Mere. Marc Regan, 27, of Longridge, saw the cow running through the estate and said regulars at the Falcon Bearer popped out to see the animal.

"Everyone was laughing," he said. "It was a big cow and it just came out of nowhere."

Residents directed the cow away from Mobberley Road, but it did not stop until it reached Delmar Road.

There is had its picture taken - many times - and offered some home entertainment as people got out their camcorders.

They provided it with a bucketof water after it stopped in Mr and Mrs Rattray's garden looking hot and bothered.

But the retired couple, who both worked for NNC, were away from home visiting their son.

"The poor thing just stood there mooing," said neighbour Lorna Fitzpatrick, a supply teacher at St Vincent's Primary School. "It didn't fancy any more action because it was tired and thirsty."

The cow licked the house's windows as it waited to be rescued at around 6pm.

Mrs Fitzpatrick, 43, said the unexpected visitor amazed her three children and their friends.

"It's usually very quiet down Delmar Road, so the cow had a big audience," she said. It is believed the animal had recently given birth and then been separated from its calf.

Mr and Mrs Rattray arrived home on Sunday afternoon to find dung on their lawn and saliva on their windows.

They did not understand what had happened until neighbours arrived to tell the story. "There was saliva all over the windows," said Mrs Rattray, 64. "We hadn't been back long when the neighbours all came round to explain."

On Monday piles of dung still lay in the streets.

Mrs Fitzpatrick said the incident had created much excitement along the cow's route. "It really was a conversation starter," she said. Yesterday (Tuesday) it emerged that Mike Mitchell, of Moseley Hall Farm, Chelford Road, had bought the cow a day before it escaped.

Yesterday the farmer said the four-year-old animal could have been looking for its calf.

"We'd just turned it out and it disappeared," he said.