ONE of the Yorkshire Agricultural Society’s highest awards has been made to a priest who has spent most of his working life supporting the farming and rural community in the North of England.

The Society and Royal Agriculture Benevolent Institution (RABI) make an award each year to the individual who has made the most outstanding contribution to the Yorkshire rural community and this year’s winner is the Reverend Canon Leslie Morley, the society’s chaplain.

He was presented with the award at the Great Yorkshire Show by the president elect, Sarah York.

In a varied ministry, Leslie held a number of posts in Nottingham before returning the county of his birth, where his interest in the agricultural industry was translated into action.

For the last two decades he has been a driving force in the Yorkshire Rural Support Network established to combat concern about the rising numbers of suicides in the farming sector. The society was instrumental in the Network being established. Over the years he has served as a former chairman, vice-chairman and also as a steering group member.

In addition, he has been the society’s chaplain since 2008 and is a member of the church on show committee for the Great Yorkshire Show.

Echoing his work with the network, he was a founder member of the Yorkshire group of (FCN) Farm Crisis Network (now Farming Community Network) and is currently a national board member. The group was set up in 2000 and was almost overwhelmed with foot and mouth-related cases in the following year.

Leslie was part of a small team involved in dealing with more than 1,500 phone calls from farmers and businesses and was very active in the measured allocation of millions of pounds of emergency funding.

In due course he became the primary liaison link between FCN and the Rural Payments Agency stress team and many farmers, especially in those very difficult days of delayed payments, had reason to be grateful for his calm and measured advocacy skills.

Over the years he has served as an advisor to the churches on farming and rural life at a regional level. This includes his role as rural officer for the Diocese of Ripon and Leeds (1999-2010), where he worked in close co-operation with other dioceses and denominations in Yorkshire. This included chairing the Yorkshire Rural Churches Support Network. The work of RABI is close to his heart having been not only an active supporter and fund raiser, but also as a former member of its county committee.

Leslie, who now lives at Low Pittington, County Durham, is married to Georgina, a retired teacher of theology.