Blue to green

Hexham is an important market town, situated on the banks of the River Tyne. Apart from its Roman traditions, it also suffered from constant border raids during medieval times. Braveheart William Wallace is even reputed to have burned the settlement in 1297. Nowadays there is a more peaceful atmosphere, and Hexham was recently named ‘England’s favourite market town’.

Reg Wilkinson was brought up in the local area and has been involved with tractors and machinery all of his life. “Back in the 1950s my father kept a farm at Warks Burn, up in the high country by the North Tyne,” he explained. “We were farming mainly sheep, and I left school at 15 to become a shepherd. Unfortunately, we had two horrendous summers when it never seemed to stop raining, and my father ended up selling the farm