A STORE of iron pyrites - shipped into Immingham - has been held responsible for causing sheep to turn pink, solving a mystery that's been rumbling on since 1967.
Elsham villagers were angry because parts of their clean rural community and its picturesque surroundings were gradually turning a shade of pink.
Residents were protesting about pink sheep, red roads, white cars which turn pink overnight and clouds of red dust which swept around the fields and hills in dry weather.
The substance causing the row between the villagers and a haulage company was iron pyrites being stored in a disused quarry near the village before completing its journey from Sweden via Immingham to a Scunthorpe steelworks.
Coincidentally, just a few months after Elsham's sheep turned from white to a shade of pink, Procol Harum topped the charts with pop classic A Whiter Shade of Pale.
It was number one in the UK singles chart from early June to mid-July 1967.
