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Over the 50 years of her literary career, Helen Harris has captured a wealth of knowledge on local history, industrial heritage, agriculture and transport, recording intrinsic details about people's way-of-life over the last century. She has lived in Tavistock for more than half of her 89 years, although she grew up in Tiverton and attended boarding school in Exeter during the blitz when her boarding house was burnt down. A keen interest in science and the countryside led her to study agriculture and dairying, and after eight months' experience on a large dairy farm she studied at Studley College in Warwickshire where a typical day started at 6am with milking, butter-making or cheese-making, followed by academic lectures and rounded off with more practical work and private study.
After gaining her National Diploma in Dairying in 1947 Helen joined the government's National Agricultural Advisory Service and was posted to north and west Devon where she advised farmers on matters of milk production. There was a real need to increase food production in the post war period but it was also a time of great change with people leaving the forces and looking for employment; attractive land and property prices also encouraged people to move to the country and start farming. Helen's role as an adviser was part of the national campaign to bridge the gap between scientific research and practical farming, helping people to make a livelihood and increase quality output. She loved the work, especially meeting the farmers and eventually it also brought her in contact with her future husband, the district agricultural adviser at Holsworthy. After their marriage they were fortunate to be moved as a couple to Tavistock enabling Helen to continue working for another four years until she left to start a family. Once the children were at school though, Helen started to think of ways to use her time and started writing about her family walks on the moor and the history of objects they discovered. Soon her articles were being accepted by Western Morning News, and Tavistock Times.
Then in 1966 her husband was offered a promotion and they relocated to Derbyshire. At first Helen felt at a loss without her local media contacts, until one day a neighbour passed on a letter for her, forwarded to the wrong address. It was from David & Charles Publishers inquiring if she would be interested in writing a book on 'The Industrial Archaeology of Dartmoor'. Initially she thought the geographical difficulties rendered the project impossible, but encouraged by her husband, she completed the task in just over a year with return research visits and the aid of good friends to locate contacts and check site details. The book was published in 1968 and ran to four editions. Fascinated by the prospects in her new location, Helen suggested a book on the Peak District, which was published in 1969, swiftly followed by books on the Bude Canal and the Grand Western. Helen's independent spirit spurred her on to rekindle journalism and her breakthrough article, 'Bakewell tarts are better with Devonshire cream' was published in Farmers Guardian. She realised she was going to need a more sophisticated camera before approaching magazines like Country Life and enrolled at evening classes to learn how to develop her own photos, subsequently blacking out her kitchen as a darkroom when her family was out. She had several articles published by Country Life and became a regular contributor for The Field on farming and countryside matters, bringing her in contact with the owners of a number of large estates, such as the Duchess of Devonshire, the Duke of Buccleuch, and Lord Home.
After returning to Devon Helen continued to write on many subjects including 'Devon's Railways' in 2001 and 'A handbook of Devon Parishes' in 2004, for which she visited all 422 parishes over 18 months. She was vice-chairman of the Devonshire Association 2009-12 and chairman of its Tavistock branch for fourteen years. At 89 Helen still seems to have an incredible zest for life and has only very reluctantly 'cut back' in recent years; she gave up outdoor swimming and body-boarding at 83 and never succumbed to a wetsuit!
Photos: Helen Harris, selection of Helen Harris's books