SPENDING TIME IN NATURE BRINGS REASSURANCE We meet Amanda Owen, the ‘Yorkshire Shepherdess’
Hill farmer, TV star, bestselling author and mother of nine, Amanda Owen has become known as the Yorkshire Shepherdess. Here, she offers a glimpse into her working life surrounded by some of the UK’S most glorious countryside
Amanda Owen sounds a bit flustered on the phone. ‘Can we chat a bit later, love?’ she asks. ‘I have a lamb in my oven. I’m not roasting it; I’m warming the poor thing up!’ It’s an unusual reason to postpone an interview. But then nothing about Amanda’s life is predictable. Her work as a shepherdess at Ravenseat, a remote farm in the heart of the Yorkshire Dales, brought Amanda unexpected fame after a chance encounter with a walker back in 2011 led to her being filmed for Julia Bradbury’s BBC series Wainwright Walks: Coast To Coast. Since then, she has starred in her own TV show for Channel 5, Our Yorkshire Farm, and written three books about her family’s countryside adventures. ‘If you want something doing, ask a busy person,’ she says. ‘If I’m not out there doing it, I’m inside writing about it.’
Amanda lives with her husband, Clive, their menagerie of animals and nine (yes, nine!) children aged from three to 18. When she lists them, her tone is full of pride. ‘Raven is 18 now, Reuben is 16, Miles is 14, Edith is 12, Violet is 10, Sidney is eight, Annas is six, Clemmy is four and Nancy is three. As you can imagine, it can be chaos,’ she laughs. ‘Good chaos. I wouldn’t change anything. We’re very lucky to have space and fresh air. People don’t realise how much we all need that.’
Ravenseat is one of the most remote hill farms in the country. Perched in the very north of the Yorkshire Dales in Swaledale, the ancient stone farmhouse sits at more than 13,000 feet above sea
level and is surrounded by wild, peaty moorland. The family’s land is brooding and rugged – 2,000 acres of vast, rolling and beautiful countryside. The nearest supermarket is 27 miles away with narrow roads winding through verdant fields dotted with cagoule-wearing walkers and grazing sheep. ‘It’s Cathy and Heathcliff country,’ says Amanda. ‘You stand on the hills and you can see for absolutely miles. The sunrises are glorious.’
Amanda’s life wasn’t always this rural. Although now deeply wedded to both the landscape and the lifestyle, she was born and raised in Huddersfield to an engineer father and a mother who modelled. She found farming through vet James Herriot’s books, which she devoured as a child, realising early on that this was a path she wanted to pursue. Her school’s careers service, however, didn’t have a book on ‘how to be a shepherdess’, so Amanda made it up as she went along, cycling miles on her push bike, offering labour to farmers in her area. The work was gruelling, but she learned tractor driving, dry-stone walling, how to milk cows and, most importantly, how to look after sheep. In her early 20s, she worked as a contract shepherdess at various farms in the area.
Then, in 1996, she met farmer Clive Owen when she visited Ravenseat to collect a ram. ‘Like me, he had a passion for farming and the great outdoors,’ she says. ‘He was funny and easygoing. We became friends, and then something more.’ Four years later, Amanda proposed to Clive. Today, Ravenseat is home to their family and many animals. ‘There are terriers
Chalky, Pippen and young pup Sprout, a host of sheepdogs, an amorous peacock, too many hens to count, three horses and an aged pony, a small herd of cows, and about 1,000 sheep,’ she says. ‘It’s a working farmhouse, so practicality is key. I couldn’t guess the number of times I’ve had lambs being bathed in the kitchen sink, or had to step over a recumbent calf on the fireside rug. This is the essence of a farmhouse, not a highly polished Aga or a Cath Kidston apron.’
As well as the day-to-day running of the farm, Amanda and Clive have a shepherd’s hut on their land, which they usually rent out to guests during summer months. ‘If that doesn’t keep us busy enough, we also have a stream of customers wanting to enjoy the alfresco afternoon teas that we provide during the walking season,’ she adds.
It’s a simple but beautiful life, although in recent months, the lockdown brought noticeable changes to the landscape. ‘There are no walkers,’ she says. ‘None at all. We do isolation here; I’m living it every day. But it’s an odd situation. The coronavirus crisis has had an impact on my whole perception of what I can see. You go up to the moors and you have this kind of heavy feeling. It’s beautiful but desolate; the moorlands stretching out towards this big, inspiring sky. Standing beneath
it, you can feel a bit exposed. But I do also find reassurance in the fact that the landscape hasn’t changed in centuries.’
The routine of Amanda’s life has helped in recent months. ‘Day-to-day, you forget what’s happening,’ she says. ‘There’s comfort in that. The animals still need feeding and the land needs tending to. Nature endures. Life carries on.
I go about my routine as normal, sneaking out of the house in my dressing gown and wellies at 5am to check the sheep in the barn, popping back to bed for an hour or so, then showering, dressing and heading downstairs for a quiet cup of coffee before I hear the patter of feet that tells me that the little ones have woken up. After that, it’s locating clean clothes from the washing machine, putting bobbles into hair and helping with breakfast as the older ones slowly get up.’
Another fundamental change, of course, is having all nine children at home at once. With schools shut, Amanda and Clive have found their house far busier than usual. Raven has come back to the farm from university, where she is studying biomedicine. Reuben has finished school and is waiting to move into the world of work, while the others are occupied with a combination of farm life and homework provided by their schools.
Amanda is unperturbed. ‘They’re all very self-sufficient,’ she says. ‘They know what they need to do. I don’t make them sit down at the kitchen table at a certain time. I’m a big believer in learning that you need to do things for yourself. This morning, I came back in from looking at the sheep and the children were all up cooking their eggs together – there were fried eggs, poached eggs, scrambled eggs, it was all going on. Raven lit the fire, and was tidying the kitchen, standing up wellies and retrieving cups with the help of the little ones.
I think those lessons in responsibility are just as important as sitting down and doing maths homework. The younger children are definitely getting their PE, running about every day. We have milk from the sheep and cows, eggs from the chickens and we’re planting seeds, watching flowers and vegetables grow.’
Spending so much time in nature is not only beneficial for the children, it also brings balance and perspective for Amanda, and has become more important to her now than ever. ‘Being here is definitely helping my mental health,’ she says. ‘In the house, we have an internet connection, but it’s very slow. When I’m out on the moors, I have extreme quiet and headspace because there’s no signal at all. You can cut yourself off from everything should you choose to. It’s just me and the sheep, getting on with the job.’
It sounds idyllic. ‘I do know we’re very fortunate,’ she says. ‘With nature comes reassurance for us all. The other day, I put a particularly stunning picture of the moors up on Instagram, and I received a lovely message from an NHS nurse thanking me, telling me that the photo had transported her to another place.’
If there’s any positive to come out of this situation, she says, it’s that people are falling in love with the countryside again. ‘We’re realising how much we value open spaces, green fields and fresh air,’ she adds. ‘It’s like going back to basics. All we can do is focus on the present moment. Throw open your windows, get outside if you can, take in the air and smile. Brighter days will come.’
• Adventures Of The Yorkshire Shepherdess (Pan Macmillan) by Amanda Owen is out now
It’s just me and the sheep, getting on with the job