Wildlife book acts as a fitting tribute to Barningham Moor landowner

POPULAR dale landowner’s conservation legacy has been captured in a book he began writing in the months before his death. 

Sir Anthony Milbank was renowned for the work he did to transform Barningham Estate into a sanctuary for wildlife and now his book A Wild Life showcases what he achieved.

Sir Anthony died on in July last year after a battle with cancer. His wife, Lady Belinda Milbank, said: “Anthony spent 30 years transforming Barningham Estate into a wildlife haven: he created lakes and ponds, planted woodland and hedges, restored wildflower meadows and managed the predators. This conservation work has created habitats suitable for many species of birds.

“As his final project at Barningham, Anthony commissioned and wrote the text for a photographic book to illustrate the wildlife he loved.” 

Barnard Castle photographer David Williams spent two years battling extreme weather conditions to capture a permanent record of the many animals that now populate the estate.

Mr Williams attracted the attention of Sir Anthony after he saw an image of a red grouse in flight during an exhibition of the photographer’s work.

Initially he wanted Mr Williams to produce a small 80-page book showing the diversity of the wildlife, especially the birds. Sir Anthony planned to publish only ten copies to give to his family. Sadly he died nine months into the project and never saw it completed.

However, his family not only forged ahead with the book but expanded it to 160 pages and increased the size of the pages to enhance the impact of the photographs.

Rather than purely documenting the wildlife, Sir Anthony’s family turned it into a commemoration of his passion for conservation.

Mr Williams said: “The body of the book follows the seasons and images are presented in relation to the season when the species was photographed.”

Each section of the book is marked with seasonal flowers drawn by Sir Anthony’s widow.

The book now contains 280 images including 93 species of birds and various insects, butterflies and mammals.

A number of flowers are also identified in the book.

To get capture the wildlife for posterity, Mr Williams would often travel to the estate as early 3am and sometimes worked late into the evening. He said: “Overall it was a fantastic challenge to be able to get out and record the wildlife – many early mornings, late nights and a full gamut of weather.”

He added that it was hard to select which images went together in the book.

Only 500 copies of the book have been produced and they are selling at £75.

The Milbank family said: “All profits from the sale of this book are to be donated to Marie Curie. We hope to raise several thousand pounds to support the charity that did so much to support dad at the end.”

To order a book email Lady Belinda Milbank at belindamilbank@icloud.com.