Outdoors has room for work and play

For the many who live in towns, Easter means a return to the great outdoors. But how does it look to the few who make a living here? Frederic Manby meets a farmer in a tourist hot spot.

Malham, rhymes with Balham, gateway to the north. It is a Thursday in February in Malhamdale. A bit dreich as they say in the far north but not as bleak as the Monday that went before. Even then, wet and dreary, you could see walkers on the stride. This pair were in matching tank green rain suits, hoods in full sail, faces bent against the invading weather, heading for the top road. It runs past Malham Tarn and goes to Arncliffe in Littondale or Langcliffe in Ribblesdale. Or there is a bridleway that lollops towards Kilnsey, craggy cliffed, in Wharfedale.

It is no wonder that Malham is popular, and we haven't mentioned the vast curved Cove face or the jumbled screes in Gordale Scar. A copy of James Ward's early 19th century painting of the scene greets you at the gate to the Scar. It is an epic portrayal of the wonder of nature.

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Malham village has two pub hotels, the Buck and the Listers Arms, separated by a stream and a bridge. The Lister family owned Malham Tarn estate and were the lords Ribblesdale. There is a smithy, cafes, b&b, a staffed Yorkshire Dales National Park visitor centre, a large pay and display car park, a shop, a big YHA. Get your offering on song here and you should be able to make serious money from the flow of walkers and cyclists and trippers.

"There's nowt so queer as folk" is a familiar Yorkshire quip. The queerer folk visiting Malham dodge the modest car park charges and leave their hatchbacks in line on the roadside, uncaring that they ride their nearside wheels over the kerb and make a mud pie of the grass. "It does my head in," admits Neil Heseltine. "It is only 3 to park all day and if you have car of four that's only...." adds Neil.

He has just joined the national park's access forum, which looks at weightier matters than lazy parking in village streets. The work is to do with managing the way people use the land for recreation, most worryingly the debate over motorised access to the old farm and droving tracks, usually lumped under the term "green lanes". Neil carries on the family's sheep farm and a couple of these tracks cross their land.

Traffic restrictions have held the 4x4 drivers and motorbike trail riders at bay, but there is always debate about whether these fragile cross-country lanes should be closed to bikers and drivers. Neil has already been a useful voice on the green lanes advisory group, which looks at these historic routes. Through this work he was invited to be interviewed for the access forum. He went and was appointed.

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At face value it would be hard to find many people more rooted in the place and time and subject. He farms and is on the northern committee of the National Sheep Association. He plays rugby for Wharfedale and cricket for several local clubs, captaining Littondale CC. He is vice chairman of Malham Parish Council. He is chairman of Malham Show, one of the major agricultural events in the calendar of these lower dales. He was educated at Ermysted's Grammar School 11 miles away in Skipton before going to Seale Hayne Agricultural College, in Devon. He worked on farms in New Zealand as a traveller and then did two years on a farm in Kelso.

It's a busy CV for a 41-year-old, with the addition of the bunk barn accommodation (established by his parents John and Annie in the 1980s) which Neil runs with his partner, Leigh. They live nicely out of the village and its foot traffic, but near enough to walk in. Neil's house dates from 1617 and is the oldest left standing. From the beams hang bunting, some sheep shears, an aluminium billy can. There is a row of shoes and boots on a bench, a smart thumbstick, the familiar gear you need on a hill farm. He was getting ready for lambing, making sure the 450 breeding ewes, mainly Swaledales, were well fed on the last weeks before lambing.

Their offspring will sell as mule gimmer lambs at Skipton in September, sired by Blue-faced Leicester rams. Neil has one self-employed helper, Colin Rowling, plus, at lambing, a three-week stint by a friend from college, Tim Hill. He also has some Belted Galloway cattle — banded black and white hardy beasts.

Farming is having a rosy time, with prices as good as Neil can remember. He smiles a lot. "I am always extremely positive about farming. I enjoy it", he says, with a grin. Good enough. Nor did the long white winter do much damage to his flock.

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Neil's Belted Galloway beef is in demand for the table and has been marketed through the Yorkshire Dales Limestone Country scheme to bespoke suppliers. Similarly, his sheep are sought after and he has been appearing on BBC TV's Lambing Live as a respected breeder.

The access forum embraces advisory groups on caving and climbing, the green lanes, bridleways, footpaths and so forth. As a farmer he has come up against intruders on wheels, resolved amicably with advice. The legal traffic bans have had an effect.

"I can't think of a time in the last couple of years where there has been any sort of conflict," he reflects. After all, he adds, his preference is these should be bridleways not motorcycle tracks but realises that there are other opinions which have to be considered.

"My reason for wanting to be on the access committee is I would rather be part of the process of managing it, than not be". That makes sense.

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