Amanda Owen

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Amanda Owen
BornSeptember 1974 (age 46–47)
Other namesYorkshire Shepherdess
Writing career
GenrePastoral
Notable worksThe Yorkshire Shepherdess[1]
Websitewww.yorkshireshepherdess.com

Amanda Owen (born September 1974)[1] is an English shepherdess and writer.[2]

Biography[]

Ravenseat Farm in Swaledale, home of Amanda Owen and family

Owen lives and farms on a remote farm, Ravenseat Farm, in Swaledale in the Yorkshire Dales with her husband Clive Owen and their nine children.[3]

Initially best known through her Twitter feed as "The Yorkshire Shepherdess",[4] she has written four books:

  1. The Yorkshire Shepherdess[1]
  2. A Year in the Life of the Yorkshire Shepherdess [5]
  3. Adventures of the Yorkshire Shepherdess [6]
  4. Tales From the Farm[7]

In August 2017 she appeared on BBC Radio 4's The Museum of Curiosity. Her hypothetical donation to this imaginary museum was a shepherd's whistle, used to communicate with her sheep dogs.[8] On 14 July 2019 she was the subject of Radio 4's On Your Farm.[9] On 21 October 2019, she appeared on the podcast Trees A Crowd with David Oakes.[10] On 10 July 2021 she appeared as the featured guest on Radio 4's The Poet Laureate Has Gone To His Shed with Simon Armitage.[11]

Television work[]

Amanda Owen and her family first appeared as regulars on Adrian Edmondson's 2011 ITV documentary series The Dales (repeated on Together TV in 2021),[12][13][14] alongside the Reverend Ann Chapman, the vicar of four small churches, and a number of other people living in the Yorkshire Dales. At that point, the Owen family consisted of Amanda, Clive and their five young children.

In November 2015, the family appeared in an episode of New Lives In The Wild UK with Ben Fogle, a Channel 5 programme which is made by Warner Brothers' Renegade Pictures.[15][16] Their appearance led to their own observational documentary series following life on the Owens' farm on Channel 5 called Our Yorkshire Farm, which has become one of the channel's most popular programmes with over 3 million viewers watching each episode.[17][18][19]

Ravenseat Farm[]

Ravenseat Farm is the home of Clive and Amanda Owen, is a working hill farm located in Whitsun Dale at the top of Swaledale. The nearest village is Keld in North Yorkshire, and the nearest town is Kirkby Stephen in Cumbria.[20] It is predominantly a sheep farm of 2000 acres; as of summer 2016 there were about 900 sheep and 30 cattle.[21]

The place name was apparently not recorded before the first edition of the Ordnance Survey in 1860. The name must have been given first to the summit on Ravenseat Moor. Seat is a dialect word for summit.[22] Place names in the North of England that include the element seat or side are usually derived from Old Norse saeter, seter or setr (elevated summer pasture).[23][24]

Landscape features around the farm[]

Derived from Old Norse saeter (elevated summer pasture).[20][23]

  • Ravenseat Moor
  • Robert's Seat
  • Old Side Top
  • Side Edge

Derived from Old Norse dalr (valley).[20][23]

  • Swaledale
  • Birk Dale
  • Whitsun Dale

Derived from Old Norse bekkr (stream or river).[20][23]

  • Whitsundale Beck
  • Hoods Bottom Beck

Derived from Old Norse foss (waterfall).[20][23]

  • High Force
  • Jenny Whalley's Force

Scandinavian origins[]

In the year 876 the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle reported that the Viking ruler Halfdan had divided up the land of Northumbria.[25]

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b c Owen, Amanda (2015). The Yorkshire Shepherdess. Pan Books. p. 5. ISBN 978-1-4472-5178-1.
  2. ^ "Amanda Owen". bbc.co.uk. BBC News. 25 January 2017. video interview
  3. ^ Moore, Anna (4 February 2017). "Amanda Owen, Yorkshire shepherdess: 'I like to give birth alone, like a ewe'". The Guardian. Retrieved 27 August 2017.
  4. ^ Parker, Olivia (19 April 2014). "Amanda Owen: Yorkshire's tweeting shepherdess". The Telegraph. Retrieved 27 August 2017.
  5. ^ A Year in the Life of the Yorkshire Shepherdess (2017, Sidgwick & Jackson, ISBN 978-0283072413)
  6. ^ (2019, Sidgwick & Jackson, ISBN 978-1509852673)
  7. ^ (2021, Macmillan, ISBN 978-1-5290-7475-8)
  8. ^ "The Museum of Curiosity: Series 11, episode 4". BBC Radio 4. Retrieved 27 August 2017.
  9. ^ "BBC Radio 4 - On Your Farm, Yorkshire Shepherdess". BBC.
  10. ^ "Amanda Owen: Deep in the Dales with the Yorkshire Shepherdess - Trees A Crowd". 21 October 2019.
  11. ^ "The Poet Laureate Has Gone To His Shed". BBC Radio 4. 10 July 2021. Retrieved 19 August 2021.
  12. ^ "The Dales". togethertv.com. 31 March 2021.
  13. ^ "The Dales: where are they now?". togethertv.com. 12 April 2021.
  14. ^ "My5". my5.tv.
  15. ^ "Yorkshire shepherdess teams up with TV's Ben Fogle for new show on rejecting urban life". The Northern Echo.
  16. ^ "Renegade Pictures TV Programmes". renegadepictures.co.uk.
  17. ^ "Our Yorkshire Farm TV Guide from RadioTimes". Radio Times. Retrieved 1 September 2020.
  18. ^ "28-DAY RATINGS: 10-16 MAY 2021". TVZoneUK. 19 June 2021.
  19. ^ "28-DAY RATINGS: 03-09 MAY 2021". TVZoneUK. 12 June 2021.
  20. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e Ordnance Survey: Howgill Fells and Upper Eden Valley: OL19 Explorer Map
  21. ^ Owen, Amanda (2016). A Year in the Life of the Yorkshire Shepherdess. Pan MacMillan. p. 2. ISBN 978-1-4472-9526-6.
  22. ^ Watts, Victor, ed. (2010), "Ravenseat", The Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 9780521168557
  23. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e Rollinson, William (1978). A History of Cumberland and Westmorland. Phillimore & Co Ltd. p. 34. ISBN 0-85033-315-6.
  24. ^ Gambles, Robert (1997). The Story of the Lakeland Dales. Phillimore & Co Ltd. p. 4. ISBN 1-86077-033-9.
  25. ^ Williams, Thomas (2017). Viking Britain - A History. William Collins Books. p. 161. ISBN 978-0-00-817195-7.


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