WORDS BYLINE: Sarah Ingram Laura Windle doesn’t look like your average farmer. Or grandmother. She looks more like a model or influencer; but three years ago the former care and mother of three, ditched city life for the countryside and hasn't looked back. Laura, 38, from Derbyshire, explains: ‘ I’m a city girl through and through but I’ve always been drawn to the countryside. I would always dress in cheques and other country wear and growing up in Sheffield, the party, party and the cliques - it just wasn’t me. So when my three boys had grown up and flown the nest, I knew I wanted to do something else. I thought - I want a farm in the countryside.’ Googling ‘farms for rent’ three years ago, Laura realised it wasn’t as easy as that, but she soon found a field which was home to a dilapidated caravan on the Yorkshire moors and she moved in two and a half years ago. ‘The field was part of a farm that was one of the worst this country has ever had, in my opinion. It was a sh*thole. The owners had been to prison for having an illegal slaughterhouse’, she explains. But as she got to know the farmers and started to help out with the lambing, Laura was moved when she saw how sick lambs were left to die. So she started to take them home, bottle feeding them, keeping them warm and bringing them back to health. The lambs kept coming and Laura was soon inundated, setting up her own mini-heard in the field. She started posting about her experiences online and people started donating other animals; ducks, goats and donkeys. Laura, working on the moors with the farmer tending to the sheep, found out she had a talent for shepherding but realising she needed to make more cash to keep the animals, she rented out her newly-renovated caravan as an Air bnb and slept in metal container on the farm for three months so she could raise enough money to properly care for the animals. Then, a year and a half ago Laura moved to Derbyshire and set up My Pets Palace, her current farm, bringing all her animals with her. She now has seven acres, a cute little cottage and more than 100 animals. Taking advice from other farmers - and Google - Laura learnt on the job and is now living the dream. She posts regularly on Instagram and TikTok, where she has had more than a million likes posting as 'the Swearing Shepherdess’. ‘It’s a lot of work. I slog my guts off. But all the money that I raised goes into the paddocks and fencing, setting up Cluckingham Palace for the chickens, the Waddle Inn for the ducks.’ ‘When I started out, I thought “Can I do this?” I get looked at at the auction houses as it is. People stare at me. There is no-one there that looks like me. It is predominantly white. ‘But when I started watching the Black Farmer, he massively made me feel like I could do it. ‘If I was to be a farmer I would be a good one. I would make it work. But I’ve given all my animals names, so I won’t send them to the slaughterhouse. My animals now have a fanbase; I can’t send them to Marks & Spencers. As it stands now we have got a really good following and people like to watch as they see it as a reality TV show now.’ Trolls however are eager to take Laura down, sending her endless abusive messages online. ’I’ve received more racism in the past two years than I have in the rest of my life,’ she says. ‘I’ve been threatened to have my sheep stolen. I have had it face-to-face - the way people talk to me, treat me. But the majority of it is online. I get monkey emojis put in my chat. I got called an “fucking orangutang” by another TikToker. One told me when I was on live stream: “Speak English. You don’t talk properly.” And these are known people. I’ve had “You belong in the ghetto, not the countryside.” ‘It’s massively disheartening and I might have a cry behind closed doors. But I can manage it because I was conditioned to deal with it by my grandparents. They dealt with a lot of racism when they came to the UK from Jamaica. So I know how to deal with it. I’m able to switch a negative to a positive. And I know most of it is driven by jealousy. Especially when it comes from people who have had their lips done, and don’t realise they are replicating my look. ‘ I know I have a potty mouth, but I have a responsibility to show people that sometimes you get hate in life, whatever community you are part of, so I just show people that I will call it out, but I will deal with it well. I want to strengthen people, empower people and show them how to pick and choose their arguments. I show we can’t get angry; because that’s what they want.’ But overall, Laura’s experience in the countryside has been overwhelmingly positive. ‘I’m learning so much about life, and myself. I live in a cottage right next to all my animals and it’s perfect. But I have a love for the animals. ‘I wake up in the morning and say “thank you” every morning. I open my curtains and see the cows or donkeys in the fields and feel so grateful. Everyone tells me I’m living their dream. I know it. Growing up I never saw people of colour in the countryside. I loved animals. But for me it wasn’t “us”. So being here now is amazing.’ Featuring: Laura Windle Where: Derbyshire, United Kingdom When: 17 Sep 2024 Credit: Cover Images **EDITORIAL USE ONLY. MATERIALS ONLY TO BE USED IN CONJUNCTION WITH EDITORIAL STORY. THE USE OF THESE MATERIALS FOR ADVERTISING, MARKETING OR ANY OTHER COMMERCIAL PURPOSE IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED. MATERIAL COPYRIGHT REMAINS WITH STATED PHOTOGRAPHER AND/OR SUPPLIER.**