Red skies, crooks and a loyal dog at his heel – the word shepherd conjures an age-old image.

But a nature project is hoping to shed these ancient adages by recruiting modern-day shepherds.

The Old Surrey Downs Project desperately needs volunteers to help tend their flocks to encourage the development of precious chalk grassland.

Kate Mayo, 30, who works on the project, said: "Shepherds can really be anyone or everyone.

"You just need to be relatively healthy and able to walk across steep terrain. It only takes about an hour a week."

The project currently has flocks of sheep grazing on 13 different sites, including and around Banstead Woods, and they need volunteers to check on them daily.

The sheep's grazing helps to stop the woodland growing over the valuable chalk grassland habitat – which attracts hoards of butterflies in the summer.

Kate said: "Chalk grassland is quickly becoming a very rare habitat. But over 50 different kinds of wild flower can survive in one square metre of chalk grassland, including orchids.

"We use the sheep to stop the Banstead woodland growing over it. We move them from site to site to graze so we can maintain as much of this type of habitat as possible."

But with over a hundred sheep to look after, the project needs volunteers to help check on the various flocks.

She said: "We just need people to come up and count the sheep, fill up their water trough and check they are all healthy.

"If there are any problems with the sheep, you don't have to deal with it yourself. We have a 24/7 helpline you can ring if there's any trouble."

Kate said if they recruit enough volunteers, then shepherds only need to check on their flock one day a week.

She said: "Everybody gets trained up before they start so you'll know what to do.

"It would be lovely to have lots of modern-day shepherds all looking after such a precious environment."

If you are interested in becoming a part-time shepherd, call the Old Surrey Downs Project on 01883 341140.