Yorkshire Dales Countryfile

Yorkshire.

The Dales - endless rolling hills,

interrupted by stone upon stone

of handcrafted walls.

The moors - bleak, yet beautiful.

The coastline - simply stunning.

But how do you choose your favourite bits of such a vast county?

Well, the locals here have voted for their top 75 icons of Yorkshire

and I'm here to have a look at some of them...

..as is Ellie.

There's a vast array of things on the shortlist,

from people to places, from food to drink,

and from caps to cricket.

It would be impossible to cover it all in one programme,

but between us, we're going to do our best.

Adam's meeting the three finalists for this year's prestigious

Outstanding Farmer Of The Year Award...

This is Steven Jack.

He's a potato and carrot grower.

This is Luke Hasell.

He farms traditional British beef organically.

And this is Neil Darwent. He's a dairy farmer.

..and Tom's tried to answer a tricky question.

When May here was rescued, she had nearly starved to death.

You can still see

her bones poking through.

A few weeks ago on Countryfile,

Princess Anne suggested that

considering eating more horses

could help abandoned animals like May.

Could that really work? I'll be investigating.

Yorkshire, God's own country.

The largest county on our islands

boasts beauty in abundance.

Engulfing the North of England,

Yorkshire is home to the Dales,

the Moors, and a few familiar towns and cities along the way.

I find that the Yorkshire Dales have a very calming effect on me.

I find them very cosy. And when you look out here,

you do get the sense that these hills could tell 1,000 stories.

And speaking of stories, there's one publication

local to these parts that's very special indeed.

It tells the tales of the men and women who were born and bred

in this wonderful landscape.

This little pocket-sized magazine

is The Dalesman.

At 30,000 copies a month,

it's at the top of the pile

when it comes to regional magazines.

Now, this month is its 75th anniversary

and, to mark it, they're celebrating with 75 icons of Yorkshire.

Number 17...

the brass band.

MUSIC: "Symphony No.9" by Dvorak

Thank you!

I'll see you down the pub!

I'm going to see as many as possible,

and first on the list is number 33,

a man who's dedicated his life to documenting

the stories of the people who made Yorkshire what it is today.

Bill Mitchell was the second editor of The Dalesman

and was so for 20 years.

At 86, he's written more than 200 books

and still writes for The Dalesman to this day.

And this first edition came out of that front door.

It did, actually. Yes. There's a little desk where I sat.

-Just looking at the first edition here, JB Priestley!

-Oh, gosh. Yes.

JB Priestley had a funny little car and so did I, actually.

That funny little car, I used to use for going out for Dalesman stories.

On one occasion, I was going down a dale and I looked down,

I could actually see the road passing underneath

and so I thought, "My gosh!"

-The floor was beginning to break up.

-What, in your car?

-In the car.

So I took it into a little garage and he said, "Come back in an hour."

I went back in an hour and he'd put wooden flooring in

and creosoted it...

and then screwed the seats back again.

This was the car I used when JB Priestley

came to see me at Settle.

I said, "Would you like to have a chat with

"the editor of The Dalesman?" He said, "Yes."

So I popped him in the car. Going up Bucker Brow, I thought, "Oh, my God!"

I kept thinking about this floor and the creosote, and all the rest of it.

I thought, "I might go down in history as the man

-"who killed JB Priestley."

-Wow.

Did you ever think it would last this long?

Did you ever think it would be as popular as it's become?

Well, it became exceedingly popular

and I don't think that it ever gave me an impression

that it was going to fail.

It's been one of the happiest experiences of my life.

We sent two other stalwarts of The Dalesman

up to another icon -

the Cow and Calf on Ilkley Moor -

to tell us what the magazine

and the county mean to them.

Unfortunately, the weather can come down pretty quickly in these parts.

Poet Ian McMillan, professional Yorkshireman,

and his partner in rhyme, cartoonist Tony Husband, from Lancashire.

Here we are, then, Tony - Yorkshire. Look at this. What a view!

-Can't see anything, Ian.

-Well, you've got to use your imagination

because here we are in one of the great iconic places of Yorkshire.

Now, The Dalesman, as you know,

is one of the great Yorkshire institutions.

For us Yorkshire people, it's a combination of sacred book,

a defining myth of Ordnance Survey map.

Are people from other places allowed to look at it?

They do look at it occasionally, as a kind of view of a better world.

So Yorkshire's been going for 75 years?

It's been going for longer than that. As you can see

by the Cow and Calf rocks,

Yorkshire's been going for thousands of years

and because of that, it's accumulated 75 icons.

-Could you imagine Lancashire having 75 icons?

-We have 76.

-It's a strange county.

-That's one way of looking at it, Tony.

We in Lancashire look on Yorkshire as being a strange county,

with all these dialects and all these people hoarding money

and building a wall around Yorkshire.

See, that's a myth about Yorkshire people.

There's a myth about Yorkshire people that we are tight and stingy.

Yet look where I've brought you. Come and sit on this bench, Tony.

Look at the view from here.

What you get here is a view that takes in history,

culture and poetry.

The mist's lifting a little bit. Why don't you draw me,

with the Cow and Calf in the background,

-looking wistful in the mist?

-Right.

While you're doing that, I'll recite the greatest ever

Yorkshire poem - Ilkla Moor Baht 'at.

Right. Here we go.

-Wheear 'ast tha bin sin' ah saw thee?

-Pardon?

-I'm just doing the poem.

-Oh, sorry. I thought I'd just be

walking down with you. Sorry.

Wheear 'ast tha bin sin' ah saw thee?

On Ilkla Mooar baht 'at

Tha's bahn' to catch thy deeath o' cowd

On Ilkla Mooar baht 'at

Then we shall ha' to bury thee

On Ilkla Mooar baht 'at

Then t'worms'll come an' eyt thee up

On Ilkla Mooar baht 'at

Then t'ducks'll come an' eyt up t'worms

On Ilkla Mooar baht 'at

Then we shall come an' eyt up t'ducks

On Ilkla Mooar baht 'at

Then we shall all ha' etten thee

On Ilkla Mooar baht 'at...

-What a great poem of death and regeneration.

-It's a cheery poem.

It is quite a cheery poem. I think it's a great poem about the way

that Yorkshire will always reinvent itself. I think it will.

Let's have a look, Tony.

That's really good. I look like an Easter Island statue.

Tell you what, Tony, I'll treat you to a proper Yorkshire cup of tea.

-Come on.

-You're going to treat me?

-Definitely having that!

-Come on, then.

Can you lend us a quid?

Come on. Come on. Just come on.

Proper Yorkshire cup of tea.

We've seen a good chunk of the icons from The Dalesman's list,

but it's not just me exploring this enormous county.

Ellie's just down the road in The Dales,

visiting more of Yorkshire's treasures.

Many historic monuments were on the list, several of them abbeys.

Rievaulx, near Helmsley,

Whitby Abbey,

and Fountains Abbey,

which was right up there at number six.

But this is Yorkshire's 13th most popular icon,

Bolton Abbey.

The abbey gets around half a million visitors each year,

but it's more than just the Swaledale sheep they flock for.

Moira Smith loves this place

and has been the estate's visitor-manager for 20 years.

Why do you think it's as fabulous as it is?

Well, as you can see, it's beautiful.

The place speaks for itself.

And I'm sure for many, it holds really fond memories,

whether they've been and enjoyed a picnic by the riverside,

sand castles, paddling,

enjoying a walk along the riverside and the woodlands,

exploring these amazing ruins.

There really is so much for everybody to enjoy. It's brilliant.

-So it deserves its place, number 13?

-Absolutely.

-I think it could have ranked higher.

-Do you?

Not that I'm biased or anything like that, but...

You know, the guys that look after this place...

It is the countryside, but it really is a managed environment,

and the love and the care that goes into it is huge.

Bolton Abbey is set in 30,000 acres, half of which are woodland.

Head forester Roy Lingard is responsible for keeping

its many nature trails on track

and he's showing me one of his favourite on the estate.

This is the Valley of Desolation, so named after a storm.

-It sounds a bit bleak, as a name, doesn't it?

-Well, it is.

It was a storm in 1836 and it devastated the whole area,

knocked quite a lot of oak trees down.

Since then, it's been known as the Valley of Desolation.

Roy has planted this area to illustrate

the landscape as it would have been 25,000 years ago,

way, way before the monks and the Abbey were here.

If we go down into the valley there, where the waterfall is,

you can effectively imagine that you're in a wildwood,

which I'd love to have seen, you know, 5,000 BC.

-There's no pylons, no sign of the year we're in.

-Nothing.

The only thing missing are things like lynx, brown bear and wolves,

which would make a walk in the countryside quite interesting.

-It would be more exciting, wouldn't it?

-It would!

'But for the woodland walk to flourish in the future,

'there's a lot of maintenance that needs to be done today.'

So this one looks a bit dodgy.

It looks a bit dodgy.

So I just need to assess

the depth of this decay.

That looks like it's quite deep.

It's only gone in an inch, actually.

-Has it? Oh, right.

-It's not too bad.

So then you will leave this bit here,

which will be great for invertebrates,

and your ecological box ticked,

-but this will be safe for people walking by on the path?

-Exactly.

How do you feel about the fact that all of the work you have put in here,

you won't really live to see?

It's all right, because all the work I start,

I know someone else will continue it on.

At the same time, I'm taking on the work of our predecessors.

Being one of Yorkshire's best-loved landmarks means the grounds

and surrounds of Bolton Abbey

have a fair few claims to fame.

Cricketing great Fred Trueman is buried here.

And it has made

plenty of appearances on film and TV.

But I hear it is exposure of a very different kind

that is going on today.

The Abbey is being used as a backdrop for a daring photo shoot

-that would certainly knock Fred Trueman for six.

-That is fabulous!

This group of ladies is the Cappuccino Cycling Club,

who are having a series of photos taken for a charity calendar.

And it is not just the cycles that are racey!

So, ladies, tell me, what is the Cappuccino Cycling Club all about?

It is just about getting to know each other, being friends,

meeting for cycling and cake, really.

So every single ride ends with tea and cake, or something like that?

-Or part way through!

-Depends how desperate we are for the cake!

Today is an interesting day, what was the idea behind the photo shoot?

The kind of call I got was, this may sound strange,

but how do you fancy doing this?

So, I kind of contacted the ladies,

who were initially really, really eager.

I think now that we are here, the nerves are kicking in a bit!

The dawn of realisation is here.

It is an odd thing to do,

but we have looked at it as a once in a lifetime, it will probably

never happen again, it is for National Air Ambulance, so why not?

The ladies will be stripping off in front of notable landmarks

such as the abbey here and the Settle-Carlisle railway,

all on the upcoming Tour de France route around Yorkshire.

OK, that is going to be fine. Put your bikes on the other shoulder.

The gents who dreamt up the calendar

are two of The Dales' photographic gurus.

Michael Dunne has photographed many supermodels

for high-end fashion magazines.

Paul Berriff's portfolio includes photos of a very young Mick Jagger

and some young band called the Beatles.

Same way.

With Paul's popstar pedigree,

I suppose you could call this Bolton Abbey Road.

That's fabulous.

THEY ALL CHEER

Rosie, well done! That was amazing!

Group hug! You are all brilliant, absolutely brilliant.

-How did it go, Paul?

-Very well. I was very pleased with it.

-They were brave, weren't they?

-Hats off to the girls, fantastic.

Time for a look at the finished photos, and another Yorkshire icon.

-Wow!

-Brilliant!

-That is lovely!

-That is fantastic.

-That is so nice.

-So this will be on the cover.

And then we will have "Cappuccino Girls" at the bottom there, I think.

Awesome. You are going to be a distraction on the Tour de France!

-That is lovely.

-And then...

THEY ALL CHEER

-You like that?

-That is brilliant!

-Look at you two!

-Amazing.

-You look so mean and moody, Judy!

-We had to be really serious.

-It is great with the steam.

-I look like I'm ready to kill somebody!

With shots like these, the Cappuccino Calendar Girls

may well become Yorkshire icons themselves.

Now, as we heard a few weeks ago, Princess Anne suggested

that eating their meat could be a solution to the horse welfare crisis.

Tom has been finding out whether that could really work.

There are something like a million horses in the UK.

And most of them, like these, are well loved and cared for.

But increasingly, across the country,

we are seeing thousands of horses and ponies abandoned and neglected,

with no value and no real future.

Animal welfare organisations and facilities

are already at breaking point.

Over the last two decades, a trend for keeping horses

has led to a glut of indiscriminate breeding.

And since the economic downturn, many owners have felt unable to keep them.

Horse welfare charities are predicting

this year will be particularly bad,

with up to 8,000 animals abandoned or neglected.

It is clear we are in the grip of a welfare crisis.

So, what can we do about it?

A few weeks ago, on the programme,

we heard a radical suggestion from Princess Anne

that the welfare problem might be solved by eating horse meat.

In the light of your recent pronouncements, I have to ask,

how do you think eating horses would help Annie here?

Well, it is a good question. I do think...

I threw the question out because an awful lot of the abandonments

are because they don't perceive any value in the animals.

So, OK, chuck them out. You know? They survive or they die.

But the meat trade has a way of adding value to the animals.

So there is some point in keeping it healthy,

if it has got an end-point that it can go to.

It is a bold proposition and one that is highly controversial.

But could it work?

Princess Anne is patron of the charity World Horse Welfare.

I have come to put that question to its Chief Executive, Roly Owers.

So, who is this and what is the story?

This is May, she is a seven year old,

we found her near Gatwick Airport, a classic case of the equine crisis.

Abandoned, being illegally grazed,

and as you can see, in a pretty woeful state.

Tell me, how could Princess Anne's idea about eating more horse meat

help animals like May?

It is all about responsible ownership.

When you look after horses, you have great responsibility

during their lifetime, but great responsibility

when it comes to end-of-life decisions.

You need a series of options

for people to be able to make their minds up.

What are the options?

The options are, obviously, you can have it put to sleep,

put to sleep by a vet, or by a knackerman.

But both of those options will cost you, between £150 and £500.

So it is a significant cost.

What we are finding is that people are avoiding doing that

by selling the problem on.

Selling it to a market, selling it to someone else.

As soon as they do that, they abject all responsibility for that horse,

which may well end up in a downward spiral and suffering horribly.

So that is the issue about responsible ownership.

Don't avoid it, make the difficult choice when you need to.

You got to May just in time, but in effect,

you are saying that if there was a market for her flesh,

she would have been less likely to suffer.

Absolutely - less likely.

Whether people eat horses or not is a personal choice.

What we believe is having the option to put horses into abattoirs.

To be humanely slaughtered and go into the human food chain.

That is the option that we passionately believe

is right for equine welfare,

so long as the slaughtering is done humanely.

So, in theory, the idea might be sound, but what about in practice?

There is a long bond between humans and horses.

They were ridden into battle in the past, on the racecourse today,

and of course, used for a good hack through the countryside.

So given all that emotional investment, are many of us

really prepared to eat the noble steed?

With the help of chef Alice Forrest,

we thought we would try it out on the good city folk of Wells, in Somerset.

In terms of nutrition, horse is pretty good for you.

It's got less cholesterol and salt than beef, and also, it's much,

much cheaper. So let's see who's prepared to try it.

Roll-up, folks!

Who's hungry enough to eat a horse? That's what I'm wondering.

Lovely piece of meat. Similar to beef. Slightly more sweeter.

Very tender.

I don't like the idea cos I love horses,

which is absurd because I don't dislike cows and calves.

Good man. You managed to get two on that skewer.

Don't think I didn't see that! THEY LAUGH

I think it's a lot better than horses just being abandoned.

There's just something about a horse that I just feel

we shouldn't be eating it. I'm sorry, it's just...

No, no, don't apologise.

-Have a couple more.

-Thank you so much! Nice one.

Oh, great. That's lovely, that is. Can I finish it all off?

Many people here today seem keen,

so why isn't it on the supermarket shelves?

The big stores told us they don't feel the demand is there.

Whether they liked it or not,

for most people, this was the first time they had ever eaten horse,

whereas in some other countries, it's been on the menu for centuries.

Stephen Potter is the farmer who provided

-the horse meat for our taste test.

-Come on, girls.

He has an abattoir in Somerset that's been exporting meat to the continent

for the last 60 years, and he doesn't see any reason

why we couldn't send more.

So, most of the horse meat that you are dealing with, where does it go?

Mostly to France.

95%, 96%.

We do supply a small amount to zoos here in the UK,

but the majority to France for human consumption.

Talk me through the various stages between a horse coming in here

and ending up on a Frenchman's plate.

A lot of horses come in directly with their owner.

So the owner may well go in with the horse to see it put down.

The horse is put down with a live bullet, so it's very, very quick.

It's almost instantaneous death.

We prepare the carcass here in the UK

and it's exported in carcass form to France,

where we're involved very closely with a company that sells meat

by retail through around 25 stores every day,

serving around 3,000 customers.

One thing that perplexes me is that when we think of most meat,

we think of young meat as being good.

Would we want to eat an old nag?

Older horses have redder meat, a darker colour, more flavour.

And certainly, the quality that we are looking for is very much

from an older horse, not from a young horse.

Stephen's abattoir is one of just two in the country

currently exporting horse meat, but together, they supply the continent

with thousands of carcasses every year.

So if exporting horse meat is a solution to the welfare crisis,

the mechanism to do that is already here.

But you can't just put any old horse into the food chain.

-No coughs, sneezes, nothing like that?

-No, fine.

There are strict regulations on the export of any meat to Europe

and vets like Joe Mackinder know how restrictive they can be

when it comes to a horse.

It must have a passport.

This is a medicinal treatment area of a passport

and here, a horse is either signed,

so it's never intended to go into the food chain for its entire life

or it is intended, depending on the type of drugs they can give them.

-Tell me about the drugs.

-Two main categories.

One means that if a horse has that drug, it can never be eaten.

The one that's been in the news a lot is bute, the painkiller.

And then other drugs that there are safe limits that we can

give them after a certain period of time,

they can be slaughtered for human consumption.

The problem here is that most abandoned horses

lack passports showing the details of their medical history.

So the idea that we could use human consumption as a way of sorting out

old horses quite quickly doesn't really work because...

It doesn't at the moment.

All horses are assumed to have had a painkiller

or drugs in their system,

and because some of those are completely banned

for human consumption, they can never go into the food chain,

because you don't know what that horse has had.

So, plenty of hurdles in the way of exporting horse meat

and expanding the market here.

On top of that, some organisations feel it shouldn't happen at all.

Mark Jones, of the Humane Society International,

believes Europe has its own welfare issues.

What are your core concerns about opening up a horse meat market?

Horses are what we call flight animals,

which means they're really easily stressed,

particularly if you try to handle them,

or introduce them to unusual situations.

We know that the transport and slaughter of horses for meat,

which goes on in Europe and certain other parts of the world,

causes huge distress in horses.

Mark is also worried that it will encourage over-breeding

and discourage medical treatment.

It's a real concern that if we are giving these animals

a carcass value for the meat trade,

that they won't be treated when they need to be treated

with those veterinary drugs

because people are concerned that they wouldn't then

be able to realise that value.

It seems there is no easy solution,

but most agree

that for the sake of these animals,

it is time to open debates like this.

Our food safety regulations and horsey culture make it unlikely

we'll see a big expansion in the horse meat market any time soon,

but Princess Anne and the welfare organisations

are agreed on one thing - being a responsible horse owner

doesn't just mean giving your animal a good life,

it means ensuring it has a good death.

We all know what an important role farmers play in our lives,

whether they're growing food or looking after the countryside.

Adam knows better than most,

which is why he has been asked to judge this year's

Outstanding Famer Of The Year, for the BBC's Food And Farming Awards.

On today's programme, he's meeting three farmers

who've been shortlisted for the award.

It's a real privilege to have been asked to help judge

Outstanding Farmer Of The Year.

We received around 175 applications this year that we have whittled down

to the final three, and now I can't wait to have a look around the farms.

This year's award will go to a farmer

who's made an outstanding contribution to farming,

to an individual that's making a real difference.

Someone's who's shaping Britain's food future and inspiring others.

The first finalist farms at the foot of the Chew Valley Lake,

in Somerset. Luke Hasell has been in the business for ten years.

He farms a pedigree herd of cattle organically.

Luke, tell me how you got into farming.

Well, sadly, in 2003, I was kind of forced into taking over

to support my mother when my father passed away.

-And what was your background before?

-As a civil engineer.

-So quite a change in your life.

-Yeah. Massive change.

And a decade on, I'm really proud about where we've taken the farm.

And what sort of things have you done?

We've gone from continental breeds to native.

So we've gone for the pedigree South Devons and pedigree North Devons.

They are a big animal, but they are so docile

-and so easy to handle.

-And you've gone over to organic.

We've gone back to a pasture-based farm.

It's crazy to be feeding a beef animal

that will finish off grass cereals

when we could be feeding that to the rest of the world.

And you've changed who you supply to.

We've gone from supplying the supermarkets

to actually trying to supply direct.

We want to bridge that gap between the consumer and the farmer

and tell a real story about the provenance of the food.

It's not just organic beef that lights Luke's fire.

He is also passionate about veg.

He rents out 30 acres of his land to a community project

he co-founded in 2009.

The innovative scheme offers people the opportunity

to buy shares in the farm.

The aim being to raise awareness of where our food comes from.

'Andy Dibben is the community farm manager.'

-What are you growing here?

-Potatoes, a main crop of new potatoes,

all the brassicas, all the roots - beetroot, carrots, parsnips.

We've then got protected cropping, so that's for...

the more risky crops in the summer like tomatoes,

cucumbers, and then gives us salad through the winter as well.

-And who is running it all? You need lots of people for that.

-We do.

We've got a fantastic paid workforce, but even more fantastic

is our volunteer workforce, who come out for just literally the company,

a bit of education, the big great outdoors

and they are the mainstay of our workforce, really.

It's a lovely idea of a model, isn't it?

That it's a profitable business, which means it will last

-and roll on, but also, the food is local.

-Absolutely.

I mean, bridging that gap, for us, is the main objective.

And reconnecting people with food and where it's from

and how it's grown is key for people to understand.

Once the veg is harvested, it is stored and packed ready for delivery.

So you've got the meat and the community farm has got the veg.

-Yeah.

-And now you're going not only to people's doors,

-but into the wholesale trade too.

-Yeah.

One of my main businesses is to try and work with

some of the best chefs in Bristol and Bath.

-Grab that one, Adam.

-OK.

I'm helping with a very local delivery.

This restaurant is less than half a mile from the community farm.

This is Josh Eggleton, who runs the Pony And Trap

-and turns our produce into Michelin-star food.

-Wonderful.

-So what have we got here?

-How you doing?

So we have chargrilled fillet of beef, salt-baked turnips,

pickled turnips, turnip top puree, bashed swedes and carrots,

all vegetables from the community farm.

-And the beef from your farm too.

-The grass-fed beef.

What does this make you feel like, seeing it on a plate like this?

This is great, this is exactly what I set out to achieve

as an experience, and no better place to be than here.

Wow! That is stunning.

I mean, really, looking out of the window, across the farm,

the food has come from just out of there,

into this amazing restaurant, onto the plate,

and this is what Luke is all about.

Local produce, telling a story,

re-educating people about where their food comes from.

With a successful business running alongside. Works for me.

I'm on a journey exploring the rolling hills

of the Yorkshire Dales, crossing off the icons voted for

by readers of The Dalesman magazine to celebrate its 75th anniversary.

MUSIC PLAYS IN CAR

Oh, yes, in at 43, The Arctic Monkeys.

Sheffield's finest.

And I'm told the place I'm on my way to may have another on the list.

Andy Swinscoe runs this cheese shop.

His family have been involved in cheese-making for generations.

You look like the man who can help me.

-I'm after some Wensleydale cheese.

-Well, I think we can.

-We've got Richard III Wensleydale over here.

-Do you know what?

That is more than perfect because Richard III,

Richard of York, I'm ticking off 75 icons of Yorkshire

and I've killed two birds with one stone if I can take some of this.

Wensleydale is one of those traditional cheeses

which has changed quite a lot over the years.

If you go back 100 years ago, we saw the Wensleydale as a blue cheese.

-Oh, right!

-Wensleydale was a blue cheese.

If you go back 1,000 years, it was probably a sheep's milk blue cheese.

It's only recently it has become the sharp fresh one we expect nowadays.

Yeah. As a cheese expert, how do you like to eat your Wensleydale?

Personally, I like it by itself.

Just a clean, neutral Wensleydale,

with a nice piece of cake or a sweet apple pie.

-Oh, right, so with cake, then?

-Yeah.

-Because you would think,

-glass of red, cracker, but...

-That's the Yorkshire way to do it.

-'They make mistakes...'

-Yeah, here's another one.

Former Yorkshire and England cricketer,

often outspoken and controversial,

Geoffrey Boycott.

'Short, wide, you could have hit it with anything you wanted.'

-'Stick of rhubarb.'

-Rhubarb!

Thanks, Geoffrey,

I'll have that one.

'Some of the shots were pretty poor really.'

With all this talk of Yorkshire folk,

let's find out a bit more about the local lingo, shall we?

-Now then, Eric.

-Now then, Matt, how is te?

-I'm good. Now, look at you.

My goodness me, you look the part. Look at this.

I think you'll enjoy this, Matt.

Aye, that looks gradley. A bit of

gradley piece of cake that, lass.

-Thank you.

-Hang on, let's rewind on that one.

-A bit of what, sorry?

-Gradley.

I've got some cheese to go with it. How do you react to that?

Wensleydale cheese. You can't beat a bit of Wensleydale.

So let's hear some good phrases, then.

A typical one that everybody

comes out with is "ee bah gum".

And, I mean, that's basically, if you think of the old name for York,

-Eboracum.

-Ah!

Say it today, "ee bah gum" said today is, "Oh, my God."

Eebah was one of the gods.

Proper real tea. You can't beat it.

Am I allowed to say Yorkshire tea?

-And if I'm going to leave you, how do we say goodbye?

-Sithe, lad.

-Been grand to meet thee.

-Same here. See you later.

-Bye now.

I think I'll go uphill.

Earlier, we heard from Adam

about this year's Outstanding Farmer Of The Year Awards.

Next up, it's finalist number two.

When you think of Scotland, you think of lochs

and snowcapped mountains, not deep rich soil.

And that is what our next nominee uses to his advantage.

The second contender farms 200 hectares,

that's nearly 500 acres, near Inverness.

Steven Jack specialises in award-winning carrots,

parsnips and potatoes, and he is not afraid to try something new.

-Steven, hi.

-Morning.

-Good to see you.

I passed all your fancy machines and here you are using a fork.

I can just about handle this thing, but that is way beyond me.

-What have you got here, then?

-This is a trial we've been doing

with some different coloured carrots.

This particular purple carrot,

we have managed to successfully

-grow the crop.

-What is wrong with the orange ones?

The purple one has got totally different characteristics.

Very strong antioxidant called Lycopene, which appears in

other red-skinned vegetables - tomatoes, for example.

But it also has a very distinctive taste. Help yourself.

Look at that, it looks like a beetroot inside.

Oh, yeah, very unlike a normal carrot.

-Quite distinctive, isn't it?

-Delicious. Really lovely, actually.

-Quite sweet.

-Typically used as a natural food colouring.

A cherry-flavoured ice cream might well have the colouring

-from a purple carrot.

-And you've got some more down there.

I've got some yellow ones as well.

Yellow carrots. Wow.

And what's the idea behind all these different colours?

We all think that the carrot's always been orange,

but it's only been orange for the last 400 years

and, prior to that, there were many different colours.

The orange carrot was bred by

a Dutch breeder as a gift to the Dutch royal family,

but there are different colours.

Different tastes, textures.

And these are the type of ideas

that we are keen to get out onto the shelves.

And it doesn't stop there.

Steven has also developed

a variety of carrot that can be grown here all year round.

It's a beautiful place to work,

but the location has been a mixed blessing.

Us Brits get through around 700,000 tonnes of carrots every year.

That's the equivalent of 100 carrots per person.

But the Highlands are both beautiful and remote.

Being so far from the market has meant that Steven has had to

get attention for his produce in other ways.

That's meant innovation in both what is produced and how it is farmed.

This is a pretty remote part of Scotland.

How do you get your produce to the marketplace?

We feel we've got to try that little bit harder.

We are not a volume-driven business.

We are very much focused on niche areas and new product ideas.

And one of those ideas is getting exactly the right spot for his crops.

Over the years, Steve has built up

relationships with neighbouring farmers

so he can rent fertile land along the firth.

By slotting in with their crop rotations,

it means everyone's a winner.

It's taken us to where we are today,

with a mix of conventional organic and non-organic farming.

Being something of a carrot missionary,

Steve has also started grow-your-own projects in local schools...

We are a farmer, we plant seeds,

so we are going to plant some carrot seeds.

..where the children can learn more about the rainbow veg.

Pinkies in the air. Ready? See if you can get two or three colours.

OK. Ready? Shove it right down.

What's your favourite vegetable?

-Probably the carrots.

-Probably carrots? Nice one.

Good customers here, you've got.

Now, you are a busy farmer, how do you find time to do this?

Oh, it's just...fun.

They want to get their hands dirty, they want to see how it all works.

-Learning where their food comes from.

-Yeah, absolutely.

It's not difficult to see why Steven is such a strong contender

for Outstanding Farmer Of The Year.

From a relatively remote rural business, using innovative ideas,

he's really growing things and moving his farm on.

And he's also capturing the imagination of the next generation

that, one day, might even follow in his footsteps.

I've left the Dales behind

and I'm crossing the brooding Moors

to the craggy grandeur of the Yorkshire coastline.

40-odd miles south of me is Flamborough Head,

46 on the list in the East Riding of Yorkshire, which also boasts

the might of the Humber Bridge, number 29.

But it's the riches of Whitby I'm here to discover,

many of which were chosen as great icons of Yorkshire.

It's a picture-postcard fishing port

cradled between two distinctive landmarks.

The whalebone arch on its west cliff, a symbol of its once thriving

whaling industry, and Whitby Abbey on its east.

The town and the abbey in particular also provided

the inspiration for Bram Stoker's Dracula,

all on the list of Yorkshire treasures.

I'm on the trail of another dark legacy that put Whitby

firmly on the map, not just here in Yorkshire, but worldwide.

It is one of the earliest gemstones used to make jewellery, Whitby Jet.

Whitby Jet is only found on a 7.5-mile stretch of the surrounding

coastline and I am scouring a small section of it with Mike Marshall.

He has been hunting for Whitby's unique treasure since he was a boy.

So what are we looking for?

We are looking for sort of

beach-washed pieces of Jet

that are washed up after the storms.

When it comes to the Whitby Jet set, Mike is top of the tree.

That is what you're looking for.

-That's a good-sized piece, isn't it?

-It is, yeah. Lucky today.

That was a nice find. Very good.

So talk to me about its geology, what exactly is it?

Whitby Jet is fossilised monkey puzzle tree.

These things were washed into the sea by flash floods,

carried out to sea, waterlogged very quickly,

covered very quickly as well, and, under great pressure

-over 180 million years, it was turned to Whitby Jet.

-This wonderful stuff.

So how do you know if you have got a good piece of Jet?

-How do you test the quality?

-There is a simple test that can be done.

If you just score it on there,

then you get a really nice gingery-brown colour,

and that tells me that is good-quality Jet.

-Whitby Jet is the best quality.

-And what about its value?

-Let's talk about money.

-Money, yeah.

-What's it worth?

For that sort of thing, you will get a good price for that.

-Maybe up to £100 a pound.

-Well, that's good.

So, let's test the bit you got today. Your lucky find.

-That piece we found today.

-It's good!

That's a good quality piece of Jet.

-It's your lucky day.

-Yeah, definitely.

In the late 19th century, Whitby Jet

became the height of fashion

and the Victorians mined it

on an industrial scale.

Queen Victoria wore Whitby Jet for 30 years

as part of her mourning attire.

For her, Albert's loss was a tragedy.

For Whitby, it was big business.

In 1875, Whitby Jet brought in an annual turnover of around £100,000.

Just over £3 million in today's money.

The town's fishermen were soon outnumbered by men in attics

carving the Jet into ornate jewellery and trinkets.

Hal Redvers-Jones owns the last remaining example of an authentic

Victorian Jet workshop in Whitby,

discovered by a builder about to demolish a house.

Wow! What an amazing place!

This is exactly how it would have been when in operation.

Registered 1867, one of perhaps 200 that would've been in the town

at this time, so a remarkable find, because this is the only one left.

I see. Why would there have been so many?

Was there not just one big warehouse where they could have all done it?

Well, the architecture of Whitby isn't industrial in any way.

It is a fishing town. So what they did have was plenty of attics.

So a literal cottage industry

which turned out to be a huge economic force.

There was very little written down about the Jet industry,

as the workers were poorly educated,

but what Hal has here provides many clues to the past.

A nickname for the 19th-century Jet carvers was the Red Devils.

This rusty old tin has nothing to do with Jet,

it's just a cocoa tin.

But when we opened it up, there was residue.

-Oh, yeah. Bright red.

-Bright red. Jeweller's rouge or ferric oxide,

which was powdered in the 19th century.

So they would have put it on a polishing wheel like this.

Of course, as the craftsman stood in front of that,

he would have been sprayed with a bright red cream,

giving him a bright red visage every time people saw him.

There's the Whitby red devil.

So it was nice that the rusty old tin could have underpinned that nickname.

Hal is one of the only Whitby Jet carvers to restore

the very pieces originally worked by Victorian hands.

This is something I just finished off this morning.

This is typical of 19th-century work.

Amazing to think that it just comes from a bit of old dead wood.

180 million-year-old wood.

Whitby Jet is still popular today.

But the town isn't only famed for its velvety black fossil.

You can't come to Whitby

and not have fish and chips.

Whitby fish and chips are number 36 on the list,

and this place is top of the chip shop pops.

-Stuart, how are you doing?

-Hello, how are you?

-Good, thank you.

-Number one chip shop in the UK. What a position!

-Fantastic.

We take a lot of time to source our ingredients.

I think the customers appreciate that and want to buy into it.

And there's even the science

that you look into once the fish has been caught.

We've looked into the freezing process

and we worked out that the rigor mortis in the fish

takes six weeks to come through in the frozen product.

To use fish before that date doesn't quite cook as well

so by leaving it for six weeks, you get nice, big, white flakes

and the really juicy, sweet taste of the cod, and it works brilliantly.

Now you're whetting my appetite.

-Can I please order fish and chips for one, please?

-Not a problem.

That would be lovely.

What better way to get a true taste of Whitby?

Fish and chips on the harbour side

and a good few lungfuls of sea air.

That gull can think again though. He is fat enough already!

The Outstanding Farmer Of The Year Award is a prestigious title

and the competition is seriously tough.

We've met community champions,

vegetable innovators

and now I'm off to the Somerset hills to meet the third finalist.

Neil Darwin's been a dairy farmer

since graduating from agricultural college in 1986.

As his experience has grown,

his ideas for the UK dairy industry have got bigger and bolder.

-Hi, Neil.

-Hi, Adam. How are you?

-Good to see you.

These are lovely cattle. What are these?

These are Montbeliarde cows that actually originate

from the Swiss-French border in the Jura Mountains.

Renowned in France for producing really high-quality milk for cheese,

making some famous cheeses like Comte, Reblochon, Mont-d'Or.

But for me, the strengths are that they are really robust,

strong castle.

And is there a compromise when it comes to milk yield?

Our cows are no slouchers when it comes to milk.

I mean, we're averaging just under 7,000 litres a cow.

We have cows here doing over 8,000 litres.

But we offset that perhaps lower milk yield

than some of the Holstein cows would be doing

with other attributes that the cow has.

She delivers us a really valuable beef calf,

she has a good value at the end of her working life and we also

enjoy other attributes such as great fertility and longevity.

OK, girls. Let's go.

Good girls. Come along.

Good girls. That's it.

Neil's cattle are used to routine and at this time of year,

they're turned out onto the pasture during the day.

As the mist is burnt off by the morning sun,

the cows seem really content.

Really, you believe that grass is an essential part of producing milk?

Absolutely.

At the end of the day,

it's what ruminants were born to do - graze grass.

We should be looking as much as possible to harness

that natural capability.

There will be a lot of dairy farmers who have their cattle in sheds

in the winter, but let them out to grass in the summer.

So what makes your system different?

We typify what a lot of dairy farmers do.

I think what I'm trying to do here is to enhance that system

in every which way I can, and at the end of the day,

what I'm really about is sharing that knowledge with other farmers

and getting farmers to help one another.

We have a wealth of knowledge between us,

but we're not very good sometimes at sharing it.

Good girls. Come on, then.

After a morning's grazing, it's time for milking,

and it's a short walk to the parlour.

And it's this milk that you're producing that you feel

-so passionate about telling the story.

-Absolutely.

I think milk is a very undervalued food.

We are producing a great nutritious product from cows

that are enjoying a great life.

And I want the world to know really what that means to them

in terms of the value of that product to them.

-And have you got other producers taking that on?

-I have, increasingly.

I have actually set up the free-range dairy initiative

for farmers and we are now marking milk and dairy products

under the Pasture Promise label, which I have here on this cheese.

And farmers who are committing to grazing their cows

for 180 days a year, I am allowing to use the label to demonstrate

their commitment to providing freedom to cows to graze.

Do you think this is the sort of thing consumers are looking for?

Yeah. I think consumers increasingly want to make an informed choice

when it comes to buying food and for us as dairy farmers,

it's important we distinguish our free-range grazing herds.

-It's a good story.

-Thanks.

I've now got a difficult decision to make...

..but I will be revealing who my winner is very soon.

Today, we're in the County of the White Rose, Yorkshire,

finding out about the icons that have made this area great,

as voted for by the readers of The Dalesman magazine.

So we've drunk cups of tea, listened to brass bands,

we've marvelled at beautiful abbeys,

we've eaten Wensleydale cheese, hunted for Whitby Jet,

but we still don't know what is at the top of the list.

Well, I do, but you'll just have to wait and see.

A pint, you say? It would be rude not to!

Now, I think there's every chance

I'll find number 47 in here -

Black Sheep Bitter.

The landlord, Mark Thompson, has links to The Dalesman too,

as he was artist in residence for a good number of years.

I started when I was 14.

I sent off a pen and ink drawing to the editor,

-who was Bill Mitchell at the time.

-Right.

And it went on from there, and I did 25 years.

Sending various line drawings in to them,

getting five shillings, 25p, in postal orders back.

-How wonderful.

-And I'm very proud to be part of that.

Do you know, I was thinking it must be hard for you as an artist

-to pick the ultimate icon of Yorkshire.

-The spirit.

The spirit of Yorkshire.

The spirit of the light, the spirit of the people,

the spirit of truthfulness of Yorkshire.

-That's what I would say to you.

-Hang on a minute...

I recognise this lot. Let me finish up here.

-I've got to conduct them in the right manner.

-No problem.

-Conduct them in the right manner. Good to meet you.

-That was lovely.

-All the best to you.

-Thank you. See you later.

Right, come on, then. Come on through. How many more are there?

Are you the last one? No. Are you the last one? No!

Come on.

Good. Everyone. Is everyone

-where they should be?

-ALL: Yes.

Everybody in position? Good. Have a little warm-up. Can you remember it?

-ALL: Yes.

-You can. Very good.

Right. Listen, I'll be right back.

I've just got to get something out of the oven.

So now I'm off to meet the number one.

A couple of years ago, Ellie and I had a go at creating

the perfect one of these.

The thing is, it was a fix.

Yeah, whatever, Matt!

It was! It might have been a little bit burnt,

but I like crispy bits, and I've been using that recipe ever since.

But now, with a little bit of help, I'm going to nail the number one.

It's the classic Yorkshire pudding.

'I made mine very scientifically,

'while Ellie went along

'a more traditional route.

'It was very close, but Ellie won.

'I'm hoping that this time, champion Yorkshire pud maker

'Chris Blackburn can help me put things right.'

-Very hot indeed.

-Smoking hot.

And what we're going to do now

is fill each one of these up

about three quarters full...

'But these are Yorkshire puddings with a difference.

'Our secret ingredient - chocolate bars.

'Top Yorkshire pudding tip - a seriously hot oven.

'Even the gravy's chocolate! And 20 minutes later...'

-Oh, my word! Gosh!

-CHRIS CHUCKLES

-Look at those!

-They are absolutely fantastic.

-Are you happy?

Very, very happy with that indeed.

The gravy's ready, everyone. The gravy's ready.

Looks absolutely delicious.

-Oh, man! Hey!

-Is it good?

That is... That is absolutely superb. Oh!

Ellie, it's time for a rematch. You do not stand a chance!

That might be so, Matt, but I have ticked off

way more on the list of 75 than you have, including these -

Whitby's finest fish and chips.

I've got a flat cap. Number 28.

See this? Sheffield stainless deal.

Number 74.

Ellie, you will never beat this -

using a stick of number 71, rhubarb,

to conduct a brass band, number 17.

Well, on that note, it's goodbye from Yorkshire,

and brace yourselves for

the Leyburn Band, plus one.

THEY PLAY COUNTRYFILE THEME

Hang on, hang on! We'll have to start again. My rhubarb snapped!

-THEY LAUGH

-Hang on! Right.

Let's try this again. Hang on...

I tell you what, I'll use two this time. Right.

On that note, it's goodbye from Yorkshire.

Brace yourselves for the Leyburn Band, plus one.

THEY PLAY COUNTRYFILE THEME