 The famous Cheshire Plain is at the very heart of an agricultural economy renowned for the quality of its high-yielding dairy herds accounting for more than seven per cent of the nation’s total. And our pastoral landscape is tourism’s biggest crowd puller.
But for many whose livelihoods traditionally depended upon the land, changing times - most recently the Foot and Mouth epidemic of 2001 - have forced a dramatic re-think in the way livings are earned.
But farming and the tourism it supports are working to overcome this major setback, which, forecasts have suggested, equate to a £95m reduction in gross output for Cheshire.
Today the farming industry accounts for just three per cent of Cheshire’s total workforce - with 70 per cent of local land devoted to agriculture - yet tourism and its dependent service industries represent the county’s fastest growing sector of employment.
 This has meant adopting new approaches and diversifying to meet the demands of a new market to exploit fresh potential - backed by local and national funding through a pro-active rescue plan for rural recovery.
This is a story with no neat conclusion - but is an example of the flexibility shown by people in Cheshire prepared to adapt to changing circumstances.
For a new partnership approach is creating a climate of hope.
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