Foot & Mouth Disease Memorial: The poignant Yorkshire memorial marking the death of thousands of livestock

The virus caused fever, painful blisters on mouths, hooves and teats, and led to lameness, loss of appetite and greatly reduced milk production. It crippled rural economies.

Eventually, there were 133 confirmed outbreaks in North Yorkshire, the fourth-highest number in the UK, after the first case had been discovered at an Essex abattoir that February.

Control efforts for a time seemed to halt the disease’s spread but by late spring a cluster of cases on the south side of the Yorkshire Dales raised fears the disease was again on the rise.

A moving memorial to the outbreak on John Stephenson’s farm stands beside a narrow single-track road which runs over Malham Moor from the hamlet of Skirethorns in Wharfedale.

A large limestone rock bears a metal plate inscribed with the words: “The Stephenson family remember with great sadness the 10th of June 2001 when all their beloved animals were slaughtered by DEFRA - the F&M cull.”

Mr Stephenson, who still runs 1,000-acre Bordley Green Farm, finds it hard to talk about the day DEFRA – the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs – killed his herd of 850 sheep, mostly Swaledales, as well as his 200 cattle, which were Limousin and Limousin-Belgian blue crosses.

“It’s still a sad memory for us,” he says. “We really couldn’t see anything positive at the time.”

The memorial stands next to the spot where his sheep were culled. Mr Stephenson eventually restocked but with slightly fewer numbers.

However, his cattle have won numerous titles at local shows, including that of Supreme Champion at Skipton’s Christmas cattle show in 2018. But it took almost 20 years to recover, he says.