‘Just keep going’: the horse-riding 97-year-old botanist battling for England’s wildflowers

Margaret Bradshaw has spent decades studying Teesdale – and is fighting to preserve its unique mix of plants

Margaret Bradshaw crouches on all fours on Widdybank Fell in Teesdale, being drenched by sheets of horizontal rain. The 97-year-old botanist mumbles the names of arcane plants as she scours the damp ground.

This part of the uplands is a seemingly empty landscape, heavily grazed by sheep, but it hides botanical treasures that have been here for more than 10,000 years. Some of the plants can’t be found anywhere else in the UK and – until Bradshaw arrived on the scene – many were unaccounted for.

Margaret Bradshaw on Widdybank Fell