A FAMILY living in deepest Swaledale are set to star in a new television programme examining the allure of turning your back on urban life for something more rewarding.

Amanda and Clive Owen, along with their eight children, live in the remote Ravenseat in Upper Swaledale and have featured on television show The Dales presented by Adrian Edmondson.

They will now star in Ben Fogle’s New Lives in the Wild on Channel 5 on Thursday, November 26, after welcoming Ben into their home to get a taste of their lifestyle.

Mrs Owen, 40, who left behind life in Huddersfield to become a first-time shepherdess to more than 1,000 Swaledale sheep on a 2,000 acre hill farm - one of the most remote and exposed in the Yorkshire Dales.

On top of their flock, Mr and Mrs Owen have a large brood of their own, raising eight children aged from 14 years all the way to down newest addition Clemmie – just five weeks old at the time of filming.

Mrs Owen said: “We were contacted by the production company who I think had seen my book, The Yorkshire Shepherdess, which outlines my journey from city to hill farm.

“The whole experience was great fun, but it’s quite nerve-wracking because the first time we will see the programme is when it is aired on Thursday.

“Ben Fogle came to stay with us for three days and really got stuck in – we couldn’t fault him – we had him doing all kinds of jobs including clipping sheep, running my sheep dog, and sawing tups’ horns off.”

Mrs Owen said the show touched upon many subjects including some of her many nail-biting births which have seen her welcoming children into the world in lay-bys and at home.

She said: “My youngest Clemmie was born at home and I was alone – it was in the middle of the night so when I felt the baby coming I realised I could either call the hospital and wait for the chaos of paramedics, ambulances, and waking my husband and children, or I could just get on with in the living room.

“So I made a cup of tea, sat next to the fire and let it happen.”

Mrs Owen said her writing and television work was just a new of diversifying the farm business.

She added: “Some people open farm shops, but I write and take pictures. We want to make sure that we are sharing not spoiling our landscape.

“People can lose sight of where our food comes from so we are showing how the landscape is shaped here and how it all works - which is quite a nice feeling that we might have made a little bit of difference.”