Jake, who is Borough Farm's rather eccentric border collie and his charismatic master, David Kennard, gave an entertaining presentation about his life as a sheep farmer at Otterham and St Juliot Hall, Marshgate on Tuesday, November 18.

David Kennard farms in the beautiful North Devon countryside and stunning coastal area, with a flock of 800 ewes with their 1,200 lambs. David showed some slides of the magnificent area in which he and his dogs work his flocks.

The work for the dogs is very demanding, the dogs need to be reliable and highly trained, as a great amount of time David cannot see his flocks due to the hilly terrain where they graze.

Jake sat on a chair during the talk looking thoroughly bored and waiting for a command to round up the human flock of bleating sheep. Val Gill said: "We must have made a good job of imitating the sheep as Jake had no problem in deciding what action to take when his master whistled the commands."

David works seven dogs on the farm, all of which he trained himself to extremely high standards. With farming in decline David had to find another source of income and in 2000, with Channel 5 TV, a film was made with David and some of the dogs.

The most famous is Mist, but Gail, Ernie, Swift, Fern, Greg, and of course Jake, were all celebrities in the very popular programmes. Dog number seven had retired by this time.

The DVDs have sold a staggering 70,000 copies worldwide. David has also written books about the farm, 'A Shepherds Watch', 'The Dogs of Windcutter Down' and 'The Working Sheep Dog'.

The evening was staged by Marshgate WI and the sum raised was £280 which was split between the new hall fund and the Marshgate WI.