The winners of the 2010 Yorkshire Rural Awards have been announced, organised by Dalesman and backed by leading business people and community groups across the county.

A gala presentation evening at Harrogate Pavilions on Thursday May 13 honoured the Yorkshire men and women who have made their mark on the countryside over the last twelve months.

The event, hosted by TV presenter and proud Yorkshireman John Craven, saw the famous ladies of Rylstone Women's Institute – the Calendar Girls – take the Yorkshire man/woman of the Year award, sponsored by Skipton Building Society. This year, ten years after that first calendar, the ladies have produced a new calendar and taken the total of money raised for Leukaemia Research to almost £2.5m. The ladies were praised not only for their non-stop fund-raising efforts but for lifting the profile of the area and encouraging tourism.

The Lifetime Achievement Award, sponsored by Dalesman, was presented to W R (Bill) Mitchell MBE for his outstanding contribution to journalism. Bill has been recording Yorkshire history, heritage and wildlife for more than sixty years and besides editing Dalesman and Cumbria magazines has written more than 200 books.

Bill, who lives in Giggleswick, is president of the Yorkshire Dales Society, a former president of the North Craven Heritage Trust and last year he was voted the Yorkshire Dales National Park's Greatest Living Cultural icon. As a naturalist he is the country's leading expert on Bowland's sika deer and he has also been Methodist preacher in the Craven Dales for 40 years.

Winners of the Restoration Award, sponsored by Welcome to Yorkshire was won by How Hill Holiday Cottages of Studley Royal. The Settle Hydro Scheme won the Green Business Award, supported by Yorkshire Forward; The Hay Time Project, a joint effort between the Dales Millennium Trust and the National Park, won the Environmental Project Award sponsored by Northern Gas Networks.

In the Food & Drink category, supported by Yorkshire Forward, the main accolade went to Yummy Yorkshire Ice Cream of Denby Dale, while in the Entrepreneur section, sponsored by Clarion Solicitors, the winners were Wholecrop Marketing from Middleton on the Wolds. The Farm Business Award, sponsored by Business Link, was picked up by Harrison Spinks Beds of Bolton Percy.

The prestigious annual awards, now in their fourth year, is the only broad-ranging family of awards dedicated to the Yorkshire countryside.

Robert Flanagan, chairman of the judges, commented: "The awards have never been more important than now when the local economy is under such great pressure from global financial conditions. At the heart of all the categories in the awards scheme are people - individuals with flair and energy, drive and enthusiasm and, yes, sometimes just good old-fashioned bloody-mindedness; people who have spotted something that needed doing, got stuck in and just got on with it.

"Yorkshire is full of such people and their efforts should not be taken for granted or overlooked. The standard of entries was extremely high this year and it was a difficult job deciding on winners in every category."