Turn Left from Dove Cottage .sx Percy Jacobs visits How Top Farm .sx OF the many thousands of visitors who make their obligatory pilgrimage to Dove Cottage in Grasmere , only a few will turn left when they leave the Wordsworth shrine , and walk further up the narrow lane .sx Those who do will find , just at the top beyond the duckpond , a charmingly situated , typical Lakeland farmstead .sx This is How Top Farm , where David Thompson and his wife Judy have lived and worked for the past 25 years , after some years of working for other farmers in the neighbourhood .sx A quick check in the Cumbria telephone directory showed Thompson as the third most frequent entry - only Wilsons and Smiths having a greater number .sx " Aye , there's plenty of us about , " David agreed and told me that his grandfather had farmed at Town Head , at the other end of Grasmere , for many years .sx However , it seems unlikely that the family tradition of farming will be passed on - Philip , their son , is now a Senior Process Engineer with British Sugar plc , whilst their daughter Alison has trained in hotel catering .sx David is a true Grasmerian , having been born at Winterseeds Cottage in the village .sx How Top Farm , built of large 'beck cobbles' dates from at least as far back as the start of the Parish Register in 1612 ; like many Lakeland farmhouses , it has walls three feet thick , low ceilings , and a diversity of oak beams and partitions and old oak cupboards .sx Across the yard from the house is an equally old 'bank barn' - so called because the lower floor serving as a shippon ( cow byre ) and stable have been built into the sloping bank of the fellside .sx Later , the construction of the 'Wishing Gate' road has concealed this pattern of building from the eye of the casual passer-by ; however the barn is still in use much as it was over three hundred years ago .sx Currently , David stores hay for winter feed on the upper floor , whilst eight of his herd of 19 cows are housed below .sx A 'hay hole' in the floor allows food to be dropped through to directly feed the animals .sx It seems that farmers in the old days were quite prepared to develop labour-saving methods .sx Threshing also took place within the barn , when small doors would be opened to allow a through draught to carry the dust and chaff outside .sx The small out - building on the left of the barn frontage is the original pig sty .sx The duck-pond opposite was originally the 'watering-place' for the cattle , who would have to be let out to drink twice a day ; a time-consuming job and today they would be at risk from the traffic .sx Traffic and labour costs are two of the reasons why the farm has changed from keeping dairy cows to beef cattle the daily movement of cattle along the roads for milking would be too hazardous .sx David has grazing rights on Grasmere Common as far as the skyline , and the farm lands include 200 acres of fields and intake land for his flock of around 500 sheep both pure-bred Herdwicks and Herdwick-Swaledale crosses .sx He has three working sheepdogs which are becoming increasingly difficult to find .sx " A good dog mustn't be afraid to bark at the sheep if necessary .sx You hear about a dog 'having a good eye' but the old sheep have learned all about that and tend to ignore the dog unless he ( or more usually she ) makes a bit of noise .sx So you first have to find a pup with the likely potential and then spend a lot of time training her .sx " .sx I was talking to David having tracked him down on a lonely piece of fellside .sx He was repairing a collapsed dry-stone wall - " Totally unproductive work - all it's doing is keeping the sheep in this field from going into that one , and vice-versa but it has to be done .sx " .sx I asked if they had much trouble with visitors causing damage or disturbance ?sx " Not a lot - there's the odd crowd from the cities - usually old enough to know better - who'll climb a wall and pull the top loose , but it could be a lot worse .sx And of course being near Dove Cottage we do sometimes get cars parked where they shouldn't be .sx " I remarked that as he was catching up on wall repairs it must be a brief pause between the essential round of farming jobs .sx " That's right - from January to March we try to complete all the repairs and maintenance work that's built up - then in April the season really begins when we fetch the sheep down from the high fells , ready for lambing - which should begin about April 18th .sx " In May we're dipping against flies and ticks and marking the new lambs on the ears and with our red 'smit' mark before they're returned to the fell .sx July is , of course , haymaking for winter feed ; and the clipping ( shearing , to the uninitiated ) which is the only time we have some help .sx " .sx I'd been wondering how on earth two people , no matter how experienced , could manage to run a farm such as this on their own .sx " You get used to it - plenty of fell farms are run just by the farmer and his wife , with one or two extra hands at clipping and at haytime .sx " I wasn't surprised to learn that David and Judy haven't time to take in visitors for 'B&B' as is the case on some farms .sx I asked David what changes , if any , had there been in the pattern of fell farming since he began to run his own farm .sx " Not a lot , " he admitted .sx " Of course , we didn't use helicopters in the old days , and the dipping and dosing treatments have improved .sx Also we have the opportunity to produce big bale silage , if the weather's too bad for haymaking - and , overall , there are more sheep on the fells these days .sx There are too many changes in the village , " he added .sx " Everywhere you look there are new buildings , or extensions to old ones .sx The shops are all directed towards the visitors - many of whom have only an hour or so before their coach takes them away again .sx Just time to look at the Wordsworth graves , go in one of the numerous 'jumper' shops , drink a cup of coffee and go .sx That's no way to appreciate a place like Grasmere .sx " .sx What was the outlook for the fell farmer in the future ?sx David thought for a moment " You see all those tall trees on the hillside there ?sx " He pointed to the heavily wooded slopes above the duckpond .sx " When I came here you could sit on the seats up there and see right over the lake .sx Now some of those trees are thirty feet high and the views are gone .sx That's what the whole of the Lake District would become in a few years if the fell farming ceased and there weren't any sheep to keep the undergrowth and young trees under control .sx " We're necessary for more than just keeping up the supply of tender young lamb for your dinner - the Lake District would be a sorry place without the fell farmers .sx " .sx Photographer on the Skyline .sx W.R. Mitchell .sx I meet Derry Brabb , who provided the colour photographs for a series of books written by Wainwright .sx He tells me that he took up mountain photography almost by accident .sx He is " not too good " on heights , " which is bad news for someone who is supposed to hang off the edges of cliffs by his finger-tips .sx " .sx DERRY BRABB'S introduction to the Lake District was 'courtesy of A.W.'. These , of course , are the initials of Alfred Wainwright , guide-book writer extraordinary , whose death in January was widely mourned .sx Derry , detecting a look of disbelief on my face at the brevity of his own mountaineering career , added :sx " Really and truly , until I got teamed up with A.W. I had not done any serious walking .sx So it is entirely due to him that I have been punished this way .sx .. " .sx I had first met Derry in Leeds at the launch of James Herriot's Yorkshire , over 10 years before .sx Derry , a Yorkshireman ( born in Sheffield , 1947 ) had provided the many stunning colour photographs of fell and moor , dale and sea cliff for a best-selling book .sx His collaboration with A.W. began with Fellwalking with Wainwright , published in 1984 .sx Derry illustrated 18 of the author's favourite walks in Lakeland .sx I asked him about the A.W. Connection .sx After Herriot came illustrative work for two companion books , relating to Wales ( Wynford Vaughan Thomas ) and the West Country ( Angela Rippon) .sx There was also a book on the Thames .sx " I then wrote to Michael Joseph , the publisher , saying that no one had done a decent book on the Pennine Way , and that as it was coming up to the 20th anniversary of the official opening of this long distance footpath crossing some of the most glorious scenery in England , it seemed a shame that no work illustrated in colour existed .sx " .sx Derry added the only books available were little pocket guides , such as the one devised by Wainwright .sx Approach to Wainwright .sx Victor Morrison , managing director of Michael Joseph , was a keen walker .sx He knew of Wainwright's work and recommended to his senior editor , Jennie Dereham , that he should be invited to write a book .sx And A.W. agreed .sx " We met for afternoon tea at the Buxton hotel which he was using as a holiday base , " Derry recalls .sx After Fellwalking came Pennine Way and Coast to Coast Walk , both photographed in good conditions , though " I made the traditional error on Kinder Scout , getting lost among the peat bogs .sx I think everyone has done that .sx The most exciting part of the Pennine Way was the traverse of the Cheviots , most of which are not easily accessible by car .sx " Of Coast to Coast Walk , Derry remarked :sx " It epitomises all the English scenery in the North Country .sx " .sx As a child , Derry often had a box Brownie camera in his hand .sx His entry into landscape photography came after studying photography for three years at Leicester Art College ; he then did commercial work , including advertising , in London .sx He moved back to Yorkshire in 1973 .sx The commission to provide the illustrations for the Herriot book kept him busy for over a year .sx As Herriot wrote the manuscript , Derry went out and illustrated it .sx He got on well with Herriot .sx The same might also be said of his association with Wainwright .sx " Once he knew that I could do what I was supposed to do , and I was doing what he wanted , then the relationship bonded .sx " .sx A.W. was in the habit of doing his own page layouts , typing out the manuscripts and leaving spaces for photographs .sx " It has made life very easy .sx " The difficult bit has been securing photographs of sufficiently high quality in a region where the mountains do not always have sunlight upon them .sx " Light is the be all and end all .sx Look at any stone wall or rock that has a piece of sunlight on it , and then look at one that has no sunlight on it , and you will see that one piece of rock is alive and the other is dead .sx " It is the same with the mountains .sx If you photograph in sunshine , it means that the rocks give out their true colours and textures , and all the cracks and crevices are well defined .sx If you are photographing without sunshine on a relatively dull day , then all those details are lost .sx " .sx Success also relates to being in the right place at the right time - " knowing , for instance , that if you want to photograph Bowfell Buttress it has got to be done in the morning because that is the only time it will have strong light on it .sx " This is not easy for Derry ; he lives at the village of Nidd , near Harrogate , some 75 miles from the heart of Lakeland .sx The Smaller Format .sx All Derry's photography is done on 35mm film .sx He is sparing in the use of colour filters but does like to fit a graduated grey filter to his camera to bring the sky into parity with the foreground .sx