A farm near Pateley Bridge has won a national award as recognition for its environmental efforts over the last four years.

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) chose Humberstone Bank Farm as the rural and land winner for its social impact awards.

Jonathan Grayshon took on the tenancy of the farm from Yorkshire Water in 2016 and hoped to become a leading example of sustainable farming.

Since taking on the farm they have planted, with the help of volunteers, around 6,000 trees.

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It is a large farm with 904 hectares of protected moors, grazing land, traditional hay meadows, a wildlife and sediment pond as well as Belted Galloway cattle for conservation grazing.

The judges said of Humberstone Bank Farm’s work at the awards:

“At a time of huge change for the rural sector, we felt that Humberstone Bank Farm was a real exemplar as to what could be achieved on many levels.

“The collaboration between landlord and tenant in terms of land management to manage aspects such as flood risk in the environment, is an innovative approach.

“We believe Humberstone Bank thoroughly deserves to be a winner.”

Of the award win, Lisa Harrowsmith, lead surveyor at Yorkshire Water said:

“As one of the region’s largest landowners, our land strategy is to ‘deliver exceptional land for Yorkshire, forever’ and Beyond Nature plays a key role in that.

“The RICS award is a recognition that we are heading in the right direction to deliver on our ambition and make a lasting difference for future generations.”