The Forum occasionally organises a meeting where the speaker is a well-known personality and the members invite guests to join them to enjoy the entertainment.

On the 28th of February the speaker was Amanda Owen the Yorkshire Shepherdess.

99 members and guests filled the Church Centre and were not disappointed by Amanda’s superb presentation. Her talk was illustrated by pictures of her farm at Ravenseat in Swaledale taken by herself or one of her children.

Amanda described how her life progressed from living in Huddersfield to marrying Clive, a sheep farmer in Swaledale and producing a family of nine children. Her ambition in life had always been work in the countryside after reading James Heriot’s book If Only They Could Talk and she was working in the Lake District on any farm work she could obtain when Clive asked her to help with a problem with one of his sheep.

Ravenseat Farm is high up in the hills and is half-way along the coast-to-coast walk. Catering for the passing walkers produces a useful supplementary income because an estimated 16,000 walkers pass each year.

Amanda appears regularly on television and has written a number of books about life on a sheep farm, all of which have featured in the Sunday Times Best-Sellers list.

Amanda invited questions from the audience which resulted in an interesting discussion about the effects of global warming and mistakes made in draining the moorland.

Forum Chairman Mike Earle proposed a vote of thanks and Amanda signed copies of her books for the audience.