蜜芽传媒

Sisters Kath Birkinshaw and Andrea Jolley, run an upland sheep farm in one of the busiest tourist areas of the Peak District National Park, facing challenges from changing farm payments to nocturnal running clubs.

Their farm, on National Trust Land in the Upper Derwent Valley, covers around 650 hectares of open moorland - crucial habitat for the declining curlew population. To help manage their flock, the pair breed and work New Zealand heading dogs - intelligent and athletic border collie equivalents. Known locally as expert dry stone wallers and for their sheep gathering skills, Kath and Andrea have seen female farmers gradually become more accepted through their lifetimes.

In an archive clip from 1967, we hear that their grandfather believed the future of farming lay in consolidation of upland farms. Two generations later, his granddaughters have maintained both the biodiversity and traditional skills of this upland Derbyshire area.

Archive credit to ATV Today/MACE Archive, originally broadcast on 21.06.67.

Produced and presented by Nina Pullman