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Spring was definitely in the air at Bentley Fields Farm in Alkmonton, near Ashbourne, in March 1988 with the celebrated birth of “lamb quintuplets”, seen here peering over the gate of a barn.

The sight of new young lambs frisking about in the fields has long been a symbol of the imminent arrival of spring and the promise of warmer times ahead. Even in this era of global warming, most people still welcome the sight of lambs, together with cheerful yellow daffodils and colourful crocuses, heralding the end of the cold weather and the dawn of a new year.

But probably no-one looks forward to it more than Britain’s farm workers. This stoical bunch need to be out in the Derbyshire hills in all weathers, winter and summer, tending their land and animals.

In centuries past, a far greater proportion of the working population would have been employed on the land than is required today. Mechanisation has left its mark on farming as it has on many other occupations, bringing about vast changes in working practices.

The arrival of new life, however, is one of the processes which has never changed and remains just as magical.

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County:  Derbyshire

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