A FARMER’S memories of helping create agricultural land in North Yorkshire and the North-East have been turned into a book.

William Alderson, from Girsby, near Darlington has published a book based on his experiences in the 1960s and early 1970s of working in the family contracting firm.

Post War Land Drainage details how they turned undrained land into sites suitable for planting crops and grazing.

The book contains dozens of historical agricultural photographs from the era, of machinery and farmland on the North York Moors and Cleveland Hills, from the Vale of York to South Durham.

Mr Alderson said: “It was hard work in the early years largely because clay pipes were used; you would have a truck with 16 tonnes of clay pipes on, all to be handed over by hand. It was hard work, but enjoyable because you were turning what had been unproductive land into good arable land.”

Mr Alderson, from Girsby, near Darlington grew up on a farm without electricity or water supply in the 1940s.

The book forms a sequel to his first publication, Threshing Days; A Story of Farming in the North Riding, which gave an account of how he helped his father as a thresher, helping farmers in the region with harvesting before the advent of combine harvesters.

The book is on sale at Waterstones book stores in the region and on Amazon, as well as Claridges Book Shop in Helmsley, Hoppers in Malton and Castle Hill Book Shop in Richmond.