ROCK Music , rolling hills and roaring motorcycles are all very much part of the Dunwell family ’ s life at Low Farm , Fylingthorpe just a mile from Yorkshire ’ s coast , where John now farms with his wife Lezah ‘ Lou ’, their two young boys Zane ( 11 ) and Seth ( 9 ), and his mum Glennis .

They moved in to the 150-acre tenanted farm with its grand Georgian farmhouse and courtyard four years ago , having lived in a static caravan on his mum ’ s 80-acre farmland at Buskey House in Ruswarp for many years .

It is like a dream come true for John who laughs when I say he must feel like the richest man in town right now .

‘ Oh yes , I feel like a squire !’ he says jokingly . ‘ But seriously , I could never have dreamed of us living here and working this farm . I am so grateful to Mrs White for giving us this opportunity of a lifetime as tenants . I was so much on edge when I knew it was coming up . I knew the previous tenant ‘ Lol ’ Laurence Hodgson was retiring . I ’ d done some work for him and hoped I stood a chance .’

‘ The sheer outlay we have had in all things is enough to bring me out in a real sweat , but this past four years has been fantastic even if not everything has gone to plan thanks to the weather , which has cost us our crop of barley in the past two years . Hopefully this harvest will be our best yet .’

John ’ s farming passion is cows . He is an AI man for Genus ABS and has worked for them for the past 14 years . It is his income from Genus and Lezah ‘ Lou ’ s income from working in a shop in Robin Hood ’ s Bay and from her Dotty Dough business that allows them to be able to farm . John recalls his days milking cows . ‘ We had dairy cows at Ruswarp . We

came out of them when I was in my 20s . We were milking 40 at the time when there were loads of dairy farmers in the area . We were part of the Eskdale group that sold our milk to the Coop ( ACC ) who had the dairy in Whitby .

‘ My start into cows came through our Ruswarp neighbour John Gribbon and John Morley . I would go around with them to shows from being 14 years old and learned so much from them both . I was cow mad .’

John went to Askham Bryan College ’ s out-centre in Guisborough , firstly as a YTS and then on day-release for five years where he studied for his NDA . He took up work as a relief milker on dairy farms and such was his interest in cows that he went to Canada for a month , attending the massive Winter Fair .

‘ I just went looking at cows ,’ says John who also had a proud record in stockmanship competitions with his club Whitby YFC and at county level .

‘ Lezah did well too , particularly in the metalwork classes . We both competed up to Northern Area . Our boys are just