Environmental health officers acting on scores of complaints from residents forced indoors by the stench called at farms and businesses in the area - but found nothing out of the ordinary. Many callers likened the pungent smell to something being burned.
"Our investigations have only revealed muck-spreading and crop-spraying," said a council spokesman.
"But we have found no evidence of incineration."
But the spokesman pointed out that if the smell had been traced to muck-spreading or crop-spraying then they would have been powerless to act.
"Muck-spreading and crop-spraying are a feature of the countryside," said the spokesman.
"And we have had no complaints since then."
Mike Carr column
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