Preserving fruit... and the past

AMAZING what you can do with lots of pots of jam...

Lelsey Kettlewell and her family are conserving the countryside, treasuring the past and welcoming visitors to one of Yorkshire's most intriguing small dales.

Raydale is a small dale off Wensleydale, home to the magic and mysterious lake Semerwater. You are barely a couple of miles away from the busy main road up the dales, yet it's a different world.

So far the Kettlewells have rebuilt thousands of metres of dry stone wall, restored a monastic sheepwash, opened up footpaths to a Roman road, waterfalls and an Iron Age settlement, and launched a small, but fascinating heritage centre.

And all because one of Lesley's sons was allergic to additives.

The conservation work is paid for by the profits from Raydale Preserves - a flourishing business making award-winning jams and chutneys. Lesley, who with husband Derek lives on a 385-acre hill farm, started making her own preserves when one of her three sons couldn't tolerate the shop-bought versions.

Using the best ingredients, she made her own jams and then sold the surplus in her father's shop - the famous Elijah Allen's in Hawes - where she still works part-time.

Their popularity grew. She started selling more. They won awards. The chutneys include such delights as Hellish Relish, Aunt Lena's Piccalilli, Aubergine and Garlic, and Hellfire Plum, guaranteed to appeal to traditionalists and adventurous eaters alike.

They soon outgrew the farmhouse kitchen. The Kettlewells converted an old barn into a professionally equipped jammaking kitchen. They have since added a tasting room, a tea room in the old village schoolroom next door and a heritage centre, featuring a wealth of old photographs, showing what life was like in the dale.

"It's very peaceful here now, but throughout history it's been right in the centre of all sorts of events - including the last battle in the Civil War," says Lesley.

"And it's always been a community. I wanted to show that."

THE family is firmly rooted in the dale. Derek's parents moved to the farm in 1940 and both families have lived in or near the area since way back when.

"Over the years it's been very hard for farmers, hard enough to make a living, anything else has been a luxury. Farmers just can't afford all the maintenance and restoration work and the longer it goes on, the more difficult it gets," says Lesley.

"Back in the 1800s it was different.

You wouldn't have seen any gaps in the wall. We wanted to put it back like that, the way it was.

(Derek, incidentally, has been known to watch a Jane Austen adaptation and point out that the walls wouldn't have been in such a state in those days...) "You either restore things or lose them, and we didn't want to lose them, so when we started making a bit of money from the jam, it seemed a good use for it," says Lesley.

And the whole family was in agreement.

Eldest son Richard now runs the farm, while Derek does more in the ever expanding jam-making. And at least one of Richard's brothers is likely to come back to the dale after university and travelling.

The sense of belonging and of responsibility is strong.

The family started with the dry stone walls, thousands of metres of it. They've practically had a gang employed full-time and now beautifully made walls stretch out all over the daleside.

"We had a narrow road that was lined with walls. But back in the war the road was used for tank practice. We've finally got the walls rebuilt," says Lesley.

"But we have all sorts of interesting history in the dale. We've got a bit of Roman road, for instance. We know there was a camp at Bainbridge. Most of the road has been covered over and lost, but we have a nice bit that just seems to pop up out of nowhere. We have some lovely waterfalls and the remains of an Iron Age farming settlement - you can see the remains of the pens where they kept their animals.

"All these were here and the locals knew them and how to get to them, but there was no proper path, so no one else could see them. And we wanted to share it all with people. So over the last few years we've put in paths, so other people can see them too."

There are five permissive footpaths and in the schoolroom there are laminated maps for you to borrow (and return) to do the walks.

Also in the tasting room is a wonderful display of old photos - people in the dale hay making, clipping sheep - "We don't bother now. By the time we've paid the shearers, we're out of pocket," says Lesley - dipping sheep or at market day in Hawes.

"There were lots of photos like this all over the dale. Then people move and they have a clear-out. They'll often just keep the wedding photos and a few more and throw all these. But we love them. They're such a record."

Many of the visitors now are the descendants of people in those photographs, the children and grandchildren of those who had to leave the dale to look for work when times were hard. The heritage centre has files of information to help those researching family history.

Photos on the old school room wall feature rows of young pupils at the school, which closed in 1936. Now there are probably no more than half a dozen children in the dale.

THERE'S a description of women's work too - endless baking, cooking cleaning, from dawn to dusk. Lesley, who herself works all the hours God sent, has clearly inherited their work ethic as well as the love of the place.

And it's a love she tries to instil into other people. The farm regularly has visits of school children from the inner cities of Manchester, Teesside and Tyneside.

"They come to stay at low Mill in Askrigg or at the youth hostel in Hawes and come here for the day. Usually they have no idea of the countryside at all. Not only do they not know where milk or wool come from, but they've never seen the animals, rolled down a hill or gone fishing for minnows."

Lesley keeps a collection of fishing nets in the schoolroom.

"I practically force them to go fishing.

They have a wonderful time. There are lots of crayfish they can catch. I can remember catching crayfish with my grandfather and he would cook them there and then on the bank," she says.

"Children need free rein. They need to be part of the countryside, to understand it, enjoy it."

This year, she says, is a breathing space, while they take stock and plan what to do next. They'd like to restore the coffin way, the path that led down to the old church, now just ruins on the edge of Semerwater. And they're working with English Nature on restoring ancient woodland and wild flower meadows.

Then there's still more development in Raydale Preserves. "We use the cooker tops to make the jam, and we have all these ovens not doing anything, so we've started making cakes, traditional recipes like Yorkshire parkin and fruit cakes and building up the baking side."

For many of us, living in such a beautiful and secret place, the instinct would be to keep it to ourselves, keep it as quiet and private as possible. Lesley looks baffled at such an idea.

"It's a beautiful place and we want to share it with people. It makes our work worthwhile. Otherwise the dale will die and that would be a tragedy."

* Raydale Preserves and Raydale Rambles Stalling Busk is exactly three miles from Bainbridge. Open until the end of October, daily 10am-4pm