2011

S3.E1 ∙ Episode #3.1

Sun, May 12, 2013

Adrian visits the Owens at Raven Seat Farm to meet the latest addition to their family - baby Sidney who was born in a layby near Reeth on the way to the maternity hospital. He sees camcorder footage of the severe floods that washed around the farm earlier in the year, and talks to Amanda about the problems of living so far from their children's schools and to Clive about the possibility of their children one day taking over the farm. He helps Clive wash sheep in preparation for sending them to auction at Kirkby Stephen. He then goes to see the Wildman family in Kirkby Malham. It is the day that Will, their elder son, is leaving school to take on a more permanent role in the running of the family farm. He drives home from school in the farm's tractor! In Grassington he meets the original women whose nude calendar inspired the film Calendar Girls (2003), and watches rehearsals for an amateur production of the play by the Grassington Players.

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S3.E2 ∙ Episode #3.2

Sun, May 19, 2013

Adrian goes to Hawes where Maurice Scott gives him an insight into the work of a livestock auctioneer. He then meets Stephen Akrigg, a goat farmer in Carleton, Airedale, who is planning to expand the cheese-making side of his business. In Grassington, rehearsals are continuing for the amateur production of the Calendar Girls stage play, and there are just three days until opening night and the cast are still apprehensive about appearing in the nude in front of an audience that may include their friends and neighbours.

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S3.E3 ∙ Episode #3.3

Sun, Jun 02, 2013

Adrian goes to Reeth Show to watch 11-year-old Raven Owen, Amanda and Clive's daughter, taking part in a horse-riding competition for the first time. Amanda gives her a last riding lesson before the show. He also meets brothers John, George and Albert Allison, farmers from Marske, as they show prepare sheep for the show. They are competing for the William Allison Memorial Trophy, presented in memory of their late father, for the prize tup lamb. The Grassington Players are auditioning for a new production - Oliver Twist. Adrian finds out why the theatre group is so important to them.

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S3.E4 ∙ Episode #3.4

Sun, Jun 09, 2013

Adrian goes to Giggleswick School in Airedale which is staging a concert to mark the 500th anniversary of its founding. David Fox is retiring after teaching there for 44 years, and one of his final responsibilities is to organise the concert. He has invited the Hallé Orchestra to perform and Sir Tim Rice to compère. Also performing is David's daughter, Sarah, born and brought up in Giggleswick, and now a professional opera singer. Adrian then goes to Hawes where he meets Trish West of the Upper Wensleydale Community Office. She is responsible for The Little White Bus, a rural bus service which supplements the normal public transport by going wherever there is a demand by the passengers. Finally Adrian meets climber Ian Fenton. Ian shows Adrian how to climb a rock face on Twistleton Scar, between Ingleborough and Whernside.

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S3.E5 ∙ Episode #3.5

Sun, Jun 16, 2013

Adrian goes to Ripley Castle in Nidderdale where Patsy Campbell, a former receptionist and bar manager at the castle, is preparing to get married there. At Raven Seat, 16-year-old shepherd Will Wildman visits Clive Owen to get some advice about sheep-farming. This is a role-reversal, because when Clive moved from Doncaster, he went to work on the farm run by Will's great-grandfather, Gilpin Bland, where he himself learned about farming. Adrian meets wildlife photographer Simon Philpotts and tries to take some pictures of red squirrels.

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S3.E6 ∙ Episode #3.6

Sun, Jun 23, 2013

Adrian goes to Sedbergh to meet 16-year-old Sam Roper, a keen cyclist who is preparing to take part in the Three Peaks Cyclo-Cross which involves cycling and also running with his bike on his back, up and down Ingleborough, Whernside and Pen-y-Ghent. Sam gets some advice from Rob Jebb, eight times winner of the Three Peaks race. Adrian then goes to Grinton to meet Fourum Folk, a group of four teachers who have been singing about local traditions and folklore in the Dales since 1972. Bob Hattersley, a former band member who died in 2010, was a very skilled cartographer who drew maps to record the history of the Dales, and Bob's widow and the group now display Bob's maps at an exhibition in Richmond. Adrian goes to Gunnerside in Swaledale to meet Stephen Calvert, a sixth-generation blacksmith, and to learn about the craft.

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S3.E7 ∙ Episode #3.7

Sun, Jun 30, 2013

Adrian travels on the Wensleydale Railway, a private line which runs from Leeming Bar to Redmire. Reopened in the 1990s after being closed by British Rail in the 1950s, it plans to extend east to Northallerton and eventually west to Garsdale. Volunteers are working hard to reopen the track to Northallerton and to renovate the stations along the way. In West Witton, Wensleydale, the villagers are preparing for the ancient "Burning of the Bartle" ceremony in which an effigy is paraded around the village, to the accompaniment of a chanted poem, before being burned at the stake. The ceremony commemorates a steep-stealer in the 1600s who was chased off the nearby Pen Hill into West Witton where he was tried, convicted and sentenced to death. In Kirkby Malham, teenage sheep farmer Will Wildman is taking a hundred lambs to sell at market, to raise money to buy some better quality lambs at the end of the summer sales. Chris, his father, is about to open the new charcuterie at his farm.

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S3.E8 ∙ Episode #3.8

Sun, Jul 07, 2013

Adrian goes to the Georgian Theatre in Richmond to see Fourum Folk as they they rehearse for their 40th Anniversary concert in memory of former band member Bob Hattersley, and at the rehearsal Adrian accompanies them on his mandolin. In the audience for the concert is Bob's widow Jean. It is the first time that the group have performed at the Georgian Theatre since Bob's death. Brother and sister James and Gayle Robinson, young farmers from Harmby near Leyburn, prepare their calves to exhibit at the Wensleydale Show. They will be competing against each other, so there is plenty of opportunity for sibling rivalry. At Raven Seat, Amanda Owen goes to sell some lambs at Hawes cattle auction mart, and she takes her six children to keep them from under Clive's feet. She talks about how having the children in the auction ring might persuade the farmers to pay a little bit more for the lambs?

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S3.E9 ∙ Episode #3.9

Sun, Jul 14, 2013

Adrian goes to West Burton in Bishopdale to meet weaver Clare Gardiner. She and her partner Nigel Musgrave, a builder, are building a weaving shed and shop for Clare. It will also sell work by other local craftsmen. They are running behind schedule because the very wet summer of 2012 is delaying the building work. At the opening ceremony for the shop, Clare surprises Nigel: she has bought him a vintage tractor as a present for all his hard work. In Carleton-in-Airedale, goat farmer Stephen Akrigg is expanding his herd and is planning to make a new type of smoked cheese with the extra milk. He gets advice from a friend and local restaurant owner Ian Ackroyd and then tests two possible flavours on the members of a rock band that he plays in. He now has to persuade local chefs to use his cheese in their dishes. He goes to Rudding Park, a hotel near Harrogate, and discusses his cheese with head chef Paul Mackie. Other local chefs are similarly impressed. Adrian goes to a meeting of the Wensleydale Young Farmers' Club in Leyburn and helps with the judging.

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S3.E10 ∙ Episode #3.10

Sun, Jul 21, 2013

Adrian is back at the Wensleydale Railway. The volunteers have finished restoring a 1950s carriage and it is about to make a special journey along a section of track from Leeming Bar to Northallerton which they are planning to re-open. The long-term aim is to restore a connection with the East Coast Main Line. In the short term they will need a temporary platform until access to Northallerton station can be agreed. Today's journey is a crucial day in the fundraising campaign: can Nigel persuade local investors to contribute to the cost. Adrian then goes to Richmond to meet Amy Swales, a vet who has recently moved to the area. He follows her on her rounds. Marion Porter, the teenage daughter of a farmer that she visits, is interested in becoming a vet so Amy arranges to show her round the surgery. At the auction mart in Hawes, auctioneer Maurice Scott gives some advice to the Wensleydale Young Farmers about how to sell animals.

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S3.E11 ∙ Episode #3.11

Sun, Jul 28, 2013

Adrian accompanies midwife Chris Warren as she visits Emma Warner-Reed in Masham who is expecting a baby son; Chris later goes back to see Emma after the baby is born. Adrian then goes to Northallerton where jazz group the Swale Valley Stompers are rehearsing for a concert at the Harrogate Flower Show. Percussionist Mike Naylor has encouraged his 11-year-old grand-daughter Charlotte to join them on a clarinet for this concert, and the band's clarinetist Peter Edmonds gives her some coaching. Finally Adrian visits Nigel Park of the Wensleydale Railway to see whether the fund-raising has brought in enough money to pay for the upgrade of the line so it can extend east from Leeming Bar to Northallerton. He helps them to replace some of the rotten wooden sleepers under the rails.

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S3.E12 ∙ Episode #3.12

Sun, Aug 04, 2013

Adrian visits Clare Gardiner to see how she is getting on in her new shop. She offers to sell some of the wildlife photographs of birds and red squirrels that he took when he met wildlife photographer Simon Philpotts in Episode #3.5 (2013). At Swinithwaite Hall in Wensleydale, Bridget Thornton-Berry is staging a Heather and Honey vintage car rally to attract visitors to the farm shop and café. They have attracted more entrants to the rally than they anticipated, so they are struggling to find food and tables in the café for everyone when they return for lunch after driving around the dales. Teenage sheep farmer Will Wildman goes to Middleton-in-Teesdale auction mart to buy some more lambs to improve his flock. At Raven Seat Farm, Raven Owen is about to start at secondary school, and faces a 2-hour journey to travel the 27 miles to Richmond.

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