Amanda Owen’s Farm Renovation Driven by Children’s Future

Celebrity farmer Amanda Owen has articulated her ambition to safeguard her children’s prospects through the restoration of a run-down farmhouse. Owen, also known as the Yorkshire Shepherdess, is undertaking the renovation of this property, situated on land adjacent to Ravenseat in Swaledale, the tenanted farm where she currently resides. Television crews are documenting her work for the Channel 4 program, Our Farm Next Door. In an interview with BBC Radio York, Owen, a mother of nine, stated: “I think this project is the very solid foundations for something for the children.” Owen gained public recognition from various television series that chronicled her existence at the secluded farm in the Yorkshire Dales, where she has resided for almost 30 years with her former husband, Clive. She indicated that she was uncertain which family members would relocate to the new farmhouse, named Anty John’s, and which would remain at Ravenseat. “Don’t ask me who’s going to move in, I’ve no idea,” she commented. She added: “But I have plenty of people who are vying to move in.” She further explained her motivation: “It’s all about looking to the future, the children and making it that they have the ability to stay around here and to be able to find work around here.” She noted that acquiring Anty John’s represented a significant shift after numerous years operating as tenant farmers. “When you live in a tenanted place, like Ravenseat, it is home and I love the place, but in the middle of the night when you’re having a bit of a stress and a worry of course you think to yourself ‘but actually, it’s not mine’. So it’s about security,” she elaborated. The renovation of a derelict farmhouse inherently presents difficulties, although Owen readily acknowledges that she and her family are recognized for falling “head first into ridiculous challenges.” “I have daily regrets,” she confessed. “I have regrets about taking it on, particularly on those bad days when I’m thinking it’s going to fall down and I’ve got paperwork to fill in and I’ve got people asking me questions that I don’t know the answer to.” Nevertheless, she expressed a desire to demonstrate to her children that “nothing is insurmountable, that you can turn your hand to anything and you can achieve things.” Regarding the construction work, Owen mentioned that the endeavor had been impeded by “horrible” weather, stating she had “never been so appreciative of a roof and windows.” She remarked: “We’re on an exposed hill end, which is why we have this wonderful view, but I do sometimes wonder if that is why, 100 years ago people said ‘let’s move out’ and here we are moving back in.” Despite the difficulties, she revealed that she found motivation to continue from a collection of diaries detailing life at the property two centuries prior. “The legacy that we’ve been reading about through the diaries is what inspire us,” she affirmed. “We’re trying to keep as much of the original features as possible and working with the materials we’ve already got,” she explained. She concluded: “We’re well behind schedule and it costs a fortune, but it’s worth everything.” Our Farm Next Door airs on More4 at 21:00 on Mondays. Listen to highlights from North Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North, or submit a story you believe warrants coverage here. Copyright 2024 BBC. All rights reserved. The BBC disclaims responsibility for the content of external sites. Information regarding our approach to external linking is available for review.