BY JAMIE FOSTER

Our hill farmers have shaped some of the most beautiful parts of Britain for generations, acting as custodians of precious environmental amenities while providing a crucial part of our livestock industry.

Our hills and uplands are elevated areas of less favoured agricultural land. These Less Favoured Areas (LFAs) are suitable for extensive livestock production because of their geography and their climate: they contain the highest, wettest and most windy areas in the whole of England and Wales.

Friend of the magazine, Gareth Wyn Jones has been doing a great job highlighting hill farming in North Wales for years and if you have not watched his channel it is well worth spending some time doing so on YouTube here along with his other 1.47M subscribers.

Hill farming is a way of life and, although the hill farmer has changed with the times, the traditions remain strong and the dramatic upland landscape is eternal.

In Hill Farming in the North of England , photographer John Bentley has had access to the world of the hill farmer up North. Hill farming is round-the-clock work, season to season, still predominantly done on family farms.

In this book farmers at work are shown through the seasons of the year, which dictate the farming calendar, from providing winter feed for the livestock – mostly sheep and cattle – to shearing, haymaking, lambing in the spring and ‘tupping’ in the autumn, and going to sales, shows and sheepdog trials.

The book is a visual portrait of a remarkable way of life and part of Britain’s farming heritage.

Look through these photographs and you will quickly see the unique challenges of hill farming in the stunning but often harsh landscape of the north of England.

Bentley’s book is a pictorial snapshot of what can be a harsh existence, led by no-nonsense Northerners who have come to relish their way of life with friendship, candour and humour.

Hill Farming in the North of England by John Bentley is available to buy here.