Mabel Peacock, Dales farmer

Born of farming stock in 1916 in the village of Arkengarthdale on the east side of the Pennines in North Yorkshire, she had grown up during the First World War in an era of paraffin lamps rather than electricity.

Along with her brother and sister, she learned the ways of farming early: milking the cows, cutting the hay and making the butter.

As happened so often in those days, she first met her husband, Reg, at the local dance. They married in 1937 at Church of St Andrew in Marrick in Richmondshire before moving to Carlsmoor near Kirkby Malzeard, where they raised Shorthorn dairy cattle and some sheep.

They had two children there, later going on to have four more.

In 1942, the family moved to Wood Top at Wath where Reg became a full-time farmer, earning extra money occasionally as a beater, with Mabel taking him part of the way by horse.

Once a week, she would come from Wath Bridge by bus to visit Weatherhead’s butchers on Pateley Bridge High Street. The visit became as much a habit as her passion for going to the agricultural show at Pateley, where Reg had taken on the role of steward in the sheep section.

Mabel was an avid reader, a skilled rug maker and keen baker; her cakes were often to be seen at the show, and she was fond of recalling the year in which she tripped up and dropped her cake tin, but still walked away with the first prize.

After Reg died more than 30 years ago, she went to live in Pateley Bridge and, on her 70th birthday, moved into a bungalow with her daughter, Margaret.

Even as her health started to fail, kept up appearances at the show, being pushed around in a wheelchair.