Hepple on Screen
January has been an exciting month here on the estate. We have been lucky enough to be featured on BBC Programmes not once but twice!
On Sunday 11th we were featured as part of BBC Countryfile as they explored different stories in Northumberland. Our segment focused on the excellent work on our volunteers, led by Ecologist Richard. On the day they were busy dismantling one of our old fence-lines, allowing livestock to more over larger areas at will. As explained by Richard on the programme, this means that the cows, ponies and pigs on the estate can more easily choose where they want to graze and means that they do not focus grazing on any one area too much. They are also excellent seed vectors and a free-roam allows a much wider spread of seed through their dung. What this results in is a much more variable and biodiverse sward across our fields - a better result for nature.
Our longhorn cows in the spotlight © The Hepple Estate
The BBC Countryfile team also captured our two current Wild Stewards, Lyze and Lekshmi, who were on site collecting juniper seeds as part of their wider juniper propagation project. While we have a healthy population of junipers on the site, we really want to protect and expand it, and make sure there are still lots of young plants coming through to be the next generations of juniper on site. Lyze and Lekshmi are here to try and perfect our methods, look after our tree nursery and be all round juniper ambassadors.
Wild Stewards Lekshmi (back L) and Lyze (back R), Youngwilders Rewilding Project Officer Elen Griffith (front L) and Hepple ecologist Richard on filming day © Hepple Estate
If you saw the episode you may have also seen a segment on red squirrels, including Matt Baker out with local red squirrel champion Ian Glendinning. Thanks in part to the great efforts of Ian we have a decent population of red squirrels here at Hepple and we were happy to host Ian and Matt as they talked about how new technology is helping in the fight to protect them from local grey incursions.
As if all of that wasn’t enough, we were also really pleased to be featured on the most recent season of Robson Green’s Weekend Escapes. While it aired on the 23rd of January, Robson and his uncle Matheson visited us last summer and enjoyed a whole day on the estate. In the morning he was with a local artist doing some painting in our beautiful garden followed by a tour of the estate in the afternoon with Richard and a tracking workshop. This workshop, very similar to some of the days that we offer here at Hepple involved some feather detective work and the sniffing of various animal dungs! Some of the reactions from Robson Green’s sniffing were priceless. The tracking workshop has been designed to get people of all ages in touch with all of the various tracks and signs left by animals in nature. Noticing more of these bits of natural history adds a huge amount to any walk out in nature. Robson and Matheson departed with some really kind praise and a new appreciation for their sense of smell.
Robson Green (L), Matheson Green and Richard (R) on site at Hepple
If you missed them, both the Countryfile episode (A Fresh Start to the Year in Northumberland, Hepple from around 24:05) and the Robson Green episode (Series 4 Episode 15 ‘Matheson Green’, from around 03:10) are available on iPlayer now.
Behind the scenes on the Robson Green Day