Yorkshire shepherdess Amanda Owen says screens have been her family’s ‘lifeline’

Amanda Owen says screens have been her family’s “lifeline” and that it would be “incredibly hypocritical” to ban them for her children.

Owen said life on remote Ravenseat Farm in Swaledale, North Yorkshire, is made easier by screens, so she does not set limits for her children.

Owen said the internet can only be accessed inside the farmhouse, giving her the “perfect split”, she told Press Association.

“It would be incredibly hypocritical to say, ‘Oh, no screen time, screens are death knell of society’, because that would be totally and utterly not what I believe,” she explained.

Our Farm Next Door: Amanda, Clive and Kids (More4/PA)4

Owen went on: “Screen is what has been our lifeline. It’s what has given us the ability to put ourselves out there and basically to prop the whole business of farming up, which, let’s be honest, is in dire straits.

“Our farm diversification is through the media and without a screen, that would not have been possible.”

Owen co-parents her nine children – Raven, 25, Reuben, 23, Miles, 20, Edith, 18, Violet, 16, Sidney, 15, Annas, 13, Clemmy, 11, and Nancy, 10 – with her ex-partner Clive Owen.

She said she feels “blessed” to have the space in the countryside to allow her children to do other things rather than sit watching their screens.

She said: “We don’t set limits on it, but there’s other things going on. There’s other things for them to do. So I’ve never really had to sort of push that one. The dynamics are always changing.

“To have this space to be in the countryside and have animals and open land and stuff to do for all the children, there’s plenty to keep everybody interested to do other things.”

Owen said her life changed when she read The Hill Shepherd – A Photographic Essay, by John and Eliza Forder, which documents the lives of fell and hill shepherds in north-west England.

She has since written a number of books including a new children’s volume, Cosy Bedtime Stories From The Farm. It follows last year’s Christmas Tales From The Farm.

She said: “I failed miserably at school. Wasn’t bad, wasn’t good. I was just in the middle. I was just, sort of, like, coasting. Wasn’t anything because nothing inspired me.

“And it was when I found a book that did inspire me that set me on the path, the trajectory to where I am today.

“Quite honestly, I never set out to write books. When someone says the word ‘author’ a little bit of me sort of dies inside because I don’t see myself as that at all.

“I am just the one who has found their place, found their thing, what they enjoy, what they like doing, what they’re good at, and then from that started to write about it.”

Owen will be on a promotional tour from October 24 to 28 with events in York, Leeds, Whitby, Beverley, Corbridge, Grassington and Howarth.

The new series of Our Farm Next Door: Amanda, Clive and Kids is available to watch and stream on More4.