THE NORTH RIDING PROJECT

The vagaries of the weather, the bleakness of the moorland, the tardy charity of the soil and the isolation of many hill farms breed a combination of stern human qualities rarely found outside the covers of serious fiction.  Typical of these sturdy dales farmers is the tenant of the solitary farmhouse in Sleddale, Fred Proud. A magnificent figure of a man, almost 17 stone of hard bone and muscle, Fred is a war scarred veteran of the years 1914-1918.  His big frame has been riddled with shrapnel, but his dogged Yorkshire determination to face life boldly remains unaffected.

Anon/Green, 1949