A MOORLAND farmer's diversification from pig farming to worm farming has won him an honour from The Queen's Duchy of Lancaster.

Maurice Medd and his family had to abandon pig-rearing when the bottom fell out of the market several years ago.

Faced with a complex of redundant buildings, he decided to exploit a potential new market by breeding worms and cashing in on the ever-popular hobbies of fishing and gardening.

He nurtures the worms at his 125-acre East Hambleton Farm at Newton-upon-Rawcliffe, in the North York Moors National Park, which he rents from The Duchy - and has been named as the runner-up in its Rural Enterprise Award scheme.

Mr Medd's family have farmed on the Duchy estate for more than half a century and demand for the worms and compost has grown considerably.

Among the anglwers, one of his best customers is in Ireland.

"I would have gone bankrupt had I stayed in pig farming," said Mr Medd, who, as a longstanding tenant of The Duchy, has met the Queen, Prince Philip and Prince of Wales.

Mr Medd uses horse manure to breed the worms, heating and purifying it over a period of four days under special sheeting.

Anglers use the dendrobena worms because they are ideal as bait for salmon, eels and barbel, and are also utilised by an increasing number of gardeners, as is the compost he produces from pure earthworm castings.