Leamington and Warwick Living Nov - Dec 2021

Amanda Owen
The yorkshire Shepherdess
Tells us about her life in the Dales
Known to millions as The Yorkshire
Shepherdess, Amanda Owen is the author
of five best-selling books about her life
on Ravenseat ,one of the most remote
farms in the country, where she lives with
her husband Clive and nine children. She
currently stars in Channel 5’s popular TV
show Our Yorkshire Farm and her latest
book is Celebrating the Seasons includes
stories, recipes and photos from the farm
and is out now.
I understand that you had had no
previous links to farming, may I ask
how you became so involved in this line
of work?
I grew up in Huddersfield and no one in
my family is from a farming background.
I loved the James Herriot books when I
was a child, and watched the TV series.
Because of James Herriot I loved the idea
of being a vet, probably like most other
children of that era, but was told at school
that I was not academic enough to make
the grades. One day in the school library
I picked up a book called Hill Shepherd.
It was a photographic documentary of
hill farming in Yorkshire and Cumbria.
Reading that book was an epiphany for
me, the pictures of the hill shepherds on
the moors with the sheep made me realise
it was where I wanted to be. It ticked the
box of wanting to work with animals in
the countryside and importantly it also
ticked the rebellion box as it was so the
opposite of my townie life up until then.
Years later after I had married my husband
Clive, we realised that there was actually a
photograph of him in Hill Shepherd! So it’s
a very important book to me.
How did you learn your crafts? One of
the many things I learnt from your book
was how important it is to get the grass
in - in good time.
I started out as a farm hand, and then
moved on to being a contract shepherd,
working on different farms all over the
country. But really, I learnt everything as I
went along.
Most of my crafts came through natural
progression, learning to ride a horse
by riding it, learning to clip a sheep by
clipping my first one, learning to work a
dog, by taking the dog out with me for the
first time.
You can only learn what to do by doing it,
you have to get practical on the ground
experience. Nothing comes close to
learning how to be a shepherd, other than
actually doing the work of a shepherd and
it’s not just about learning about sheep,
it’s about learning about the land.
With the grass it starts with the sheep.
You’ve got to have your sheep in good
order - we grow hardy stock through the
winter, so it’s absolutely vital that you grow
your crop well, so they have food to eat
throughout the winter.
You enjoy sheep shearing - were you
nervous when you cut your first fleece?
Of course, but you know, you have to be
nervous in order to be any good at what
you’re doing. If you’re lambing sheep you
are dealing with nature first hand, but
there is no room for you to have time to
be nervous as you have to get on with the
job. It’s you alone in that moment and it’s
not optional to be nervous. That pressure
makes you work fast.
The first time I clipped, I would clip the
sheep while the professional shearers
were having their dinner, and they
would encourage me or discourage me
depending on what I was doing, and then
the more you do it you get faster. You
keep practicing and eventually you will
get there.
How do you spread yourself between
9 children - it must quite a noisy
household at times?
It is a noisy household. But we’re very
privileged to live where we do which
www.minervamagazines.co.uk | 21