Charles plays the wild Rover: Prince of Wales shows off his driving skills in 4x4 during farm visit
- The Prince was launching a new bursary to help rural communities
By Emily Allen
|
He's used to being chauffeur driven but Prince Charles has proved he's a dab hand behind the wheel as he test-drove a 4X4.
The
Prince of Wales was snapped in the driving seat of the green Land Rover Freelander on a
visit to Kitridding Farm, near Kirkby Lonsdale, Cumbria yesterday.
The car firm has teamed up with the Prince's Countryside Fund to offer five Freelander 2 vehicles for a year to individuals and groups who can prove they can put it to good use for the benefit of their community.
Scroll down for video
On the up: The Prince focuses hard as he steers the Freelander up the metal slope in Cumbria yesterday
Riding high: Prince Charles reaches the top of the slope and photographers capture the moment
They could be a young entrepreneur starting a rural enterprise, an apprentice hill farmer or an organisation offering free transport to rurally-isolated people.
Launching the scheme, the Prince showed off his driving skills as he drove one of the vehicles on a mini-Terrapod that uses a combination of steep slopes, low friction surfaces and other obstacles to emphasise the grip and traction abilities of the vehicle.
Dressed in a tweed coat and olive
green scarf and gloves, he smiled as he climbed behind the wheel -
without a chauffeur in sight.
Just minutes later he'd completed the tricky maneuver with aplomb.
The Prince said said: 'I want to use this opportunity to express my warmest possible gratitude to Land Rover for their really remarkable generosity in ensuring we now have this splendid scheme.
'This is a wonderful act of generosity. It is the sort of willingness to become involved on the part of different companies which can make such a fantastic difference, above all in ensuring we can maintain the priceless national asset which is our precious countryside. In particular, the upland areas which tends to be the ones that visitors want to go to - millions of them every year.
On the way down: The Prince maneuvers down the slope at Kitridding Farm, near Kirkby Lonsdale, Cumbria
Safely back: The Prince climbs out of the vehicle in his tweed coat and olive green gloves
VIDEO Prince Charles shows off his countryside 4x4 driving skills...
'The important thing to remember is if we do not look after it, of course it is the farmers who do much of that, then once that is lost you just cannot recreate it. It is not something you can start again so easily.
'So far as I am concerned, the Countryside Fund will do its utmost to help the future of all of these smaller family farms and the rural community.'
The fund's director Victoria Harris said: 'We are excited about the variety of people and businesses that we are expecting to apply. 4x4 vehicles are crucial in helping rural businesses get around the countryside for their daily business needs.'
Meeting: The Prince of Wales greets locals during the demonstration day at Kitridding Farm, Lupton, Cumbria
Laura Schwab, marketing director of Land Rover UK, said: 'Having reliable and dependable transport to work in the countryside is essential and we hope these bursaries will benefit entrepreneurial farmers.'
Charles set up the fund three years ago to support Britain's hard-pressed rural areas. So far it has given more than £2.1 million in grants distributed to 60 projects and directly benefiting nearly 40,000 people.
Earlier this week, the fund authorised £219,000 from its emergency relief fund to help farmers during the Easter period following the recent cold snap and late arrival of spring.
He said: 'I know at the moment that the farming community must be suffering the most awful difficulties and challenges, what with the weather and last year's awful difficulties again with the weather.
Flying visit: The Prince of Wales arrives by helicopter with his entourage for the cold and windy visit
'On top of that comes diseases of all kind and also rising prices, the beef costs, and also the difficulties so many farmers have been experiencing in not being able to drill their autumn crops and now with more difficulty in trying to drill the spring crops.
'And of course the snow now, the cold, lambing, people losing their lambs and sheeps...all of these things combining.
'What we find is that the farming charities are experiencing more and more calls to their offices, in despair many of them at the situation they are facing. So that stress levels are rising all the time.'
Crowds: Prince Charles visits Kirkby Lonsdale market, shaking hands with traders
Tasting: The Prince enjoyed a tipple of Jubilee stout courtesy of the Kirkby Lonsdale Brewery Company
Charles later enjoyed an hour-long tour of the historic market town of Kirkby Lonsdale which he last visited in 1993.
An enthusiastic crowd braved the chilly temperatures to greet him as he walked around the market square and met stallholders, shopkeepers and well-wishers who lined Main Street.
One member of the public gave him an early Easter present of a Maltesers Easter egg.
Charles then enjoyed a tipple of Jubilee stout, courtesy of the Kirkby Lonsdale Brewery Company.
- Outrage from animal lovers as man tattoos his own pet DOG
- Kidnapped, dumped in the jungle and raised by monkeys: The...
- I don't care that Vidal Sassoon cut me out of his will. He...
- 1,500 people evacuated from Eiffel Tower after anonymous...
- 'You gave me hope I will always treasure': First US face...
- Suspected armed raider suffers heart attack in jewellery...
- Police hunt for kidnappers as couple are snatched at...
- Bode Miller wants his ex-lover to move back to California...
- From a sweetheart's tears at Paddington to...
- 'The battle we didn't choose': Photographer documents his...
- 'Drunken' teen driver kills five family members and leaves...
- Dog eats boys finger, dad shoots dog and then retrieves...
Oooh, he drove up an incline and then back down. What skill! Wonder what he'll do next....back up?
- pootie , here there everywhere, 31/3/2013 02:13
Report abuse