Biography
Owen lives and farms on a remote farm, Ravenseat Farm, in Swaledale in the Yorkshire Dales with her husband Clive Owen and their nine children: Raven, Reuben, Miles, Edith, Violet, Sidney, Annas, Clementine and Nancy.[4] In 2022, Amanda separated from her husband Clive, and after harassment from the papers and bad comments on social media, Clive appeared on the television to defend Amanda, Clive admitted he had/has a drink problem and has been jealous of and treated Amanda badly, and so the split is entirely his fault. Clive said "I am ranting and raving and drinking and carrying on and there was jealousy, it was taking her away, but it wasn't really, she was committed to our family but it seemed to eat away at me and I behaved badly towards her".[5] Owen first gained attention through her Twitter feed as "The Yorkshire Shepherdess",[6] and has subsequently written five books:
- The Yorkshire Shepherdess[2]
- A Year in the Life of the Yorkshire Shepherdess [7]
- Adventures of the Yorkshire Shepherdess [8]
- Tales From the Farm[9]
- Celebrating The Seasons (28 October 2021, ISBN 978-1529056853)[10]
In August 2017 she appeared on BBC Radio 4's The Museum of Curiosity. Her hypothetical donation to this imaginary museum was a shepherd's whistle, used to communicate with her sheep dogs.[11] On 14 July 2019 she was the subject of Radio 4's On Your Farm.[12] On 21 October 2019, she appeared on the podcast Trees A Crowd with David Oakes.[13] On 10 July 2021 she appeared as the featured guest on Radio 4's The Poet Laureate Has Gone To His Shed with Simon Armitage.[14]
Television work
Owen and her family first appeared as regulars on Adrian Edmondson's 2011 ITV documentary series The Dales (repeated on Together TV in 2021),[15][16][17] alongside the Reverend Ann Chapman, the vicar of four small churches, and a number of other people living in the Yorkshire Dales. At that point, the Owen family consisted of Amanda, Clive and their five young children.
In November 2015, the family appeared in an episode of New Lives In The Wild UK with Ben Fogle, a Channel 5 programme which is made by Warner Brothers' Renegade Pictures.[18][19] Their appearance led to their own observational documentary series following life on the Owens' farm on Channel 5 called Our Yorkshire Farm, which has become one of the channel's most popular programmes with over three million viewers watching each episode.[20][21][22] On 16 February 2021, Channel 5 broadcast the first episode of series 14 of Ben Fogle: Return to the Wild, which saw Fogle back at Ravenseat Farm after six years, where he met their youngest child Nancy (who was born since his last visit) for the first time.[23]
In November 2021, Owen was one of the four walkers travelling with the BBC's 360 degree camera,[24] in series two of BBC Four's Winter Walks.[25] with Owen's episode featuring a walk through Wensleydale and Raydale.
Owen also filmed a couple of reports for Live: Winter on the Farm[26] broadcast on Channel 5 between 6–9 December 2021. Reuben Owen also filmed a feature for this series and appeared on the last episode of the series,[27] joining The Yorkshire Vet's Shona Searson[28] and Manchester chocolatier Sarah Gallacher[29][30][31] at Cannon Hall Farm with Rob and Dave Nicholson.[32]
In 2022, Leeds-based Wise Owl Films[33][34] hired Owen to present a new farming series which would join farm-based programmes like Matt Baker: Our Farm in the Dales[35][36] in More4's schedules. Unlike Baker's Dales series or her Channel 5 programme, she will visit other farms in Amanda Owen's Extraordinary Farming Lives, set to be a six-part series of 60 minute programmes.[37]
In November 2022, Channel 5 confirmed that Our Yorkshire Farm would not be returning to the channel in its original form with a three-part spin-off programme called Beyond The Yorkshire Farm: Reuben & Clive due to be launched on the channel on 6 December 2022. This spin-off series will show the father and son duo launching a digging business venture which sees them in the Cumbrian village of Langwathby digging out a series of ponds.[38][39]
