Celebrate National Countryside Week by Getting Out There

Today marks the start of National Countryside week which is The Prince’s Countryside Fund’s annual awareness week.

It goes on until Sunday 6th August and every year the campaign aims to raise awareness and celebrate the values of the countryside.

In previous years activity has included Walk a Country Mile and encouraging members of the public to pack a picnic in support of the countryside.

The campaign objectives are to:

Celebrate the countryside and the people who live and work there.
• Highlight the importance of family farms and our rural communities.
• Encourage people to get out and about and enjoy the countryside with a particular focus this year on supporting the family farm.
• Promote the work of the Fund and the impact it has had on the lives of people who have benefited from its grant programme, emergency fund and projects.

This year the Fund continues its focus on the importance of the family farm. A specially commissioned report will be published based on findings of a public opinion poll and survey of farm businesses.

Our farm has been in my husband’s family for generations. I keep meaning to visit the library to investigate the history of the actual farm house but every day I clean the house, I think of the people who must have walked the same path as me.

For most farmers and their families, they are following in the footsteps of someone else.

Even for fist generation farmers, the actual land they farm on will probably have been trodden by animals and farmers and their families for hundreds of years.

This fact makes me feel both humble and in awe at the sheer responsibility we have in continuing British farming for the next generation.

Why not use this week as am excuse to get out there, get some fresh air and explore the countryside around you.

Don’t forget to use the #NationalCountrysideWeek hashtag and tag the PCF on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

To find out more about National Countryside Week, visit the Prince’s Countryside Fund website.