He said his “heart sank” when he first heard the fireworks and saw that they were going off near the field with his sheep in it.
Once he got outside, “the sheep were running in every direction because they could hear banging above their head, but they can’t see it and don’t know what is going on,” he said.
The fireworks were being set off for an hour and a half from about 20:30 GMT, but it was the aftermath that left him “emotionally drained”, in particular when four ewes gave birth prematurely to six lambs the following day, he said.
“The heartbreak of seeing a sheep with a dead lamb on the floor, and she is kicking it trying to get it to get up,” he continued.
And other sheep that night injured themselves as they ran across the field and fell into rabbit holes, he said, leaving one ewe with a shattered hip and nine others going lame.
“We spent weeks treating injuries and trying to calm sheep that were terrified and disoriented,” Mr Cleator continued.
He is now asking the public to make sure they inform their neighbours if they are setting off fireworks, and wants to raise awareness about the serious impacts it can have on livestock owners.
“Beyond the financial loss, the emotional toll was huge,” he continued.
