MY FIRST COUNTRYSIDE MEMORIES

To mark our milestone birthday, we invited a star-studded cast of country lovers to take a trip down memory lane

With Joanna Lumley, Dame Judi Dench, Simon Callow et al

Alan Titchmarsh

“I grew up in Ilkley, in Wharfedale – one of the Yorkshire Dales – and Sunday afternoons were the time for walks with my mum, dad and sister. The choice was always the same: moors, riverside or woods. The moors remain a favourite. All most folk know about Ilkley Moor is the song; I know it as a special place filled with heather and, in those days, a little dog running through the bracken. It remains my spiritual home.” Marigolds, Myrtle and Moles: A Gardener’s Bedside Book by Alan Titchmarsh (Hodder & Stoughton; £12.99) is out now.

Sarah Raven

“I remember walking with my dad through foot-high lady orchids in a secret wood on the North Downs in Kent. He showed me that they’re made up of 100 or more ladies in their balldresses, dancing all around the stem.”

Joanna Lumley

“My early childhood homes were far away, in India, Hong Kong and Malaysia, but we returned to England when I was eight. When we disembarked at Southampton in June, after a month at sea, I was struck with sorrow – everything seemed cold and grey, and secretive. Then we got on a train to Kent to stay with friends, and suddenly a new soft world opened up to me, with fat sheep in green fields, a cuckoo calling and hedges thick with roses. We stayed in a converted oast house, where apples were stored, and the smell of woodsmoke reached into the attics. This was the beginning of a lasting love affair with hop gardens and cherry orchards, wallflowers and sweet peas, cottages and cobblestones. I was besotted: I still am.”

Dame Judi Dench

“I was born and brought up in York. One of my earliest memories is cycling with my father, mother and two brothers out to Castle Howard and learning to swim in the lake there. One fateful afternoon, I lost what I can only describe as my Jesus Christ sandal in the mud at the side of the lake. Strange thing is, we were never able to find it! My whole childhood consisted of picnics, swimming and collecting wild flowers, which I kept pressed in a book.”

James Martin

“I was brought up on a pig farm called Lime Kiln Farm. Its name came from an old disused lime kiln built into the hills nearby. This is where I would ride my little scramble-type bike, which was great fun as a boy. The Vale of York was behind me and the York Moors in front of me. Great memories!” James Martin’s Islands to Highlands (Quadrille; £25) is out now.

Fern Britton

“After my parents’ divorce, my mother and sister and I moved to a brand-new 1960s brick semi. It was tiny, but it was next door to a dairy farm. Twice a day, the cows would come to the milking parlour on the other side of our garden fence and I would put my hand through and let them suck it into their warm, soft mouths. Their tongues were so long and strong. I adored the way they could lick their nostrils, too. No handkerchief needed – so clever! And then there was the fascination with their very long pees and splattery poos! Even now I love the smell.” Daughters of Cornwall by Fern Britton (Harpercollins; £12.99) is out in June.

Simon Callow

“I was born in Streatham, which was pretty leafy as London suburbs go, but nothing prepared me for the countryside when my mother went to work as a school secretary in Goring-on-thames. The school stood in the midst of fields, flanked by orchards policed by pigs, in case of scrumping; stables were attached to the school and I sat perilously on ponies. Not far away was the Thames in all its silvery, swift-moving glory. And nearer the school were dappled rivulets – the water crystal clear and delicious to taste – where one paddled and splashed until the light faded and they became frightening. I had always hated the sea, but these cool hidden streams were paradise to me by day, and I came to love the multitudinous natural odours wafting on the air, the smell of the seasons – spring, summer, autumn, winter – each with its own unique olfactory character.”

Alex Jones

“I grew up in west Wales and we made the most of the beautiful countryside there – we always had our bikes on the back of the car. On weekends, Mum, Dad, my sister and I would head to Pembrokeshire and go cycling, walking or to the beach. There’s a lovely little place called Newport with a big beach, coffee shops and a market on Mondays. We often go there as a family now.” Alex Jones co-presents The One Show, weeknights at 7pm on BBC One.

John Craven

“When I was three or four, I spent a few days in a caravan with my mum and Auntie Edna in the countryside at Eccup, a short trip from my home in suburban Leeds. It was wartime and people didn’t go on long holidays, but this little outing made a big impression – it’s the first memory I have of fields, hedgerows and cows. My most vivid recollection is being chased and bitten (or maybe just pecked) by a guinea fowl. I’ve hated them ever since, but it didn’t put me off my new-found love of life away from city streets.”

Lorraine Kelly

“When we lived in Glasgow, my dad would take us to Loch Lomond. We would stop and enjoy the scenery at Balloch and Luss and then climb a hill. My brother and I would jump into the water of the loch, ice cold even in the summer. The fresh air was so invigorating that we enjoyed the picnic Mum had made us even more. There’s something magical about eating chicken sandwiches outdoors.” Shine: Discover A Brighter You by Lorraine Kelly (Century; £20) is out now.

Peter Davidson

“My earliest countryside memory was the occasional Sunday drive to Box Hill, in Surrey. Four of us in the family’s Austin Ten, my sister and me in the back, all of us willing the old car up the inclines. From the top, you were afforded spectacular panoramic views of Dorking and the North Downs. I’d never actually been to either, so to my young self they were like distant and magical lands. The only downside was when my parents made us walk down the steep hill to enjoy a more hands-on experience of the countryside. There was much to enjoy, of course: you could even make your way all the way down to the River Mole, which I loved to do, despite an awareness that every step down the hill was another step up it at the end of a tiring day.”

Alexander Mccall Smith

“I lived each summer with an aunt on Unst, the most northerly of the Shetland Islands. I remember the first time I arrived there, getting off the small steamer from Lerwick, into a rowing boat that we shared with sheep. It was a landscape of tiny lochs, peat bogs and cliffs. The sea was a constant presence. In the evening, it did not get dark, and one could read outside at midnight. The air was filled with the cries of seabirds. It was pure north.” The Talented Mr Varg by Alexander Mccall Smith (Little, Brown; £18.99) is out now.

Julia Bradbury

“I remember walking across a huge rugged landscape in the Peak District, hand-in-hand with my dad, Michael, who is 6ft 4in; I was about six or seven, so everything around me seemed so big, including my dad. I can still feel my little hand cupped in his as we walked across the moor with the wind in our faces. I’ve loved the outdoors ever since.” The Greek Islands with Julia Bradbury is available to watch on the ITV Hub.

Timothy Bentinck (aka David Archer)

“I was born on a sheep station in Tasmania and brought up near farm and common land in Hertfordshire. I worked on farms for pin money and we were fencing contractors. I’m good with barbed wire. On the common land, we roamed free on our bicycles and made camps in bracken and gorse. There were old trenches from First World War training exercises, and we’d cover dugouts with branches, and lay bracken and grass on top, either to hide in, or to hopefully trap some unsuspecting rambler — like a heffalump. I still love that smell of damp earth, bracken and bicycle oil.” Timothy plays David Archer in The Archers on BBC Radio 4.

Melissa Hemsley

“I must have been around five years old. We were visiting friends in Sussex and were off on a big walk before lunch – I remember getting very hot and bothered because I was desperate to get stuck into the picnic, and nobody would let me into the cool box. I was interested in the egg and cress sandwiches, specifically.”

Eat Green by Melissa Hemsley (Ebury Press; £22) is out now. Melissa is talking at the Country Living Spring Fair. For details, see countrylivingfair.com

Tamzin Outhwaite

“My earliest memories of the countryside were when we moved from Ilford to Loughton in Essex. Although it was relatively close, the ratio of green to brick was vastly different due to being surrounded by Epping Forest. We would often walk through parts of the forest to get to school or the bus stop, but I didn’t appreciate how wonderful it was then. Now I find it imperative to breathe in natural surroundings... that’s why I bought a home in the Cotswolds. It was the peace I’d been missing.”

See next month’s issue of Country Living for more celebrities’ countryside memories.