Dales village where wildlife photography was born

THE TRANQUIL village of Thwaite in the Yorkshire Dales is an unsurprisingly popular spot with walkers, given that it is on the routes of the Coast to Coast, Pennine Way and Herriot Way walks.

But Thwaite has another claim to fame as the birthplace of brothers Richard and Cherry Kearton, who Sir David Attenborough has credited with “virtually inventing natural history photography” during the late 19th Century. Sir David credits them with inspiring his own career.

The pair of farmer’s sons developed all kinds of techniques to photograph animals in the wild, such as Cherry standing on Richard’s shoulders to picture birds’ nests, and in 1895 published the first natural history book entirely illustrated by wild photographs.

Clive Aslet’s book Villages of

Britain explains the ingenious steps the pair were willing to take to in order to take pictures of animals in their natural habitat with the rudimentary camera equipment of the day.

“The lengths they would go were demonstrated by the Stuffed Ox – a hide in the form of an artificial cow, into which one or other of the brothers would insert himself to capture images of ring doves and turtle doves,” it says. “Other habitats required other disguises: the stuffed sheep on moorland for sand piper and wheatear; artificial rock for ouzel and dipper; a sod house on the peat land of the golden plover; a stone house for the oystercatcher’s rocky shoreline.”

As their success grew, Richard continued to focus on his wildlife research but Cherry became one of the first makers of wildlife documentary films. One of his most notable was Roosevelt in Africa, which followed former US president Theodore Roosevelt’s safari into Africa. Landing in

Mombasa in 1909, Roosevelt – accompanied by Cherry – spent months in the wilds of East Africa hunting big game.

Cherry’s ongoing influence to this day is highlighted by the Royal Geographical Society’s annual Cherry Kearton Medal and Award. The brothers’ name lives on in the village as well through the Kearton Country Hotel. Technical information: Nikon D3s camera, 28mm lens, 1/640th second at f6.3, ISO 400.