Wensleydale is the valley (dale) of the River Ure on the east side of the Pennines in North Yorkshire, England.

Wensleydale lies in the Yorkshire Dales National Park – one of only a few valleys in the Dales not currently named after its principal river, but the older name, "Yoredale", can still be seen on some maps and as the Yoredale Series of geological strata. The village name 'Wensley' is a derivative of Woden's ley, or meadow of the pagan god Woden, while the valley itself takes its name from the village which was formerly a market town. The valley is famous for its cheese, with the main commercial production at Hawes.

Wensleydale was the home of one of Yorkshire's most famous clans, the Metcalfes, after they emigrated from Dentdale. The Metcalfe Society hold records dating back to Metcalfes living in the area during the 14th century. They were one of the most prominent families in Yorkshire for over five centuries. Sir James Metcalfe (1389–1472), who was born and lived in Wensleydale, was a captain in the army which fought with King Henry V in the battle of Agincourt in 1415. Metcalfe is still one of the most common surnames in Yorkshire.

Ian Sampson (born 14 November 1968 in Wakefield) is an English former footballer and the current manager of Corby Town. He played as a defender for Goole Town, Sunderland, Northampton Town and Tottenham Hotspur. Following his retirement Sampson rejoined Northampton initially working in the youth setup before going to manage the club from 2009 until 2011.

In his playing days he was a central defender, beginning his professional career in 1990 when Sunderland signed him from non-league Goole Town. He only made 21 appearances in four years however, before joining Northampton in 1994 after a successful loan spell. He played for the Cobblers for 10 years, making 449 appearances, placing him second in the list of appearance makers behind Tommy Fowler. Sampson retired from the game at the end of the 2003–04 season. He had a brief loan spell at Tottenham in 1995, featuring in their makeshift squad for the Intertoto Cup. He even managed to score during Spurs' only victory in the campaign against NK Rudar Velenje.

Paul Hollywood (born 1966) is a baker and celebrity chef. He has worked as a baker since taking up the career at his father's bakery as a teenager and has gone on to become head baker at a number of hotels around Britain. After returning from working in Cyprus, he began appearing in guest spots on a number of British television shows on both BBC and ITV channels. Since 2010 he has appeared as a judge on BBC2's baking show The Great British Bake Off. He runs his own artisanal baking business, which supplies stores such as Harrods.

Hollywood was born in 1966 in Wallasey. He studied sculpture at the Wallasey School of Art and quit the course to start work as a baker, first in his father's bakery on the east coast of England and then in other bakeries on Merseyside. He went on to become head baker at a number of hotels, including the The Dorchester, Chester Grosvenor and Spa and the Cliveden Hotel. He then left the UK for Cyprus, where he worked at two resorts.

He has appeared in guest spots on a number of television shows, including BBC One's The Generation Game, The Heaven and Earth Show, and ITV's This Morning, and The Alan Titchmarsh Show. Since the show launched in 2010, Hollywood has been a judge on the BBC2 baking show The Great British Bake Off. In this capacity he has been described as the "antidote" to judges such as Len Goodman or Simon Cowell in other reality TV programmes, on account of his straightforward and honest manner and because his judging is restricted purely to the finished product. His partnership with Mary Berry has been described in The Guardian as being the "secret weapon" of the show, and potentially one of the best judging combinations to have appeared on a reality TV show. He runs his own artisanal bread baking company. The Gourmand World Cookbook Awards named his 2005 book, 100 Great Breads as the "Top Bread and Pastry Book" for that year.