Commons Stories
Commons Stories is a collection of stories from four upland common regions across England: Dartmoor, the Yorkshire Dales, the Lake District and the Shropshire Hills.
You’ll find written and photographic portraits of people, short videos, audio clips, and reflections on events through the year, as well as reflections on some of the challenges of building sustainable futures for people and landscape in these special places.
The collection is put together by somewhere nowhere duo, writer Harriet Fraser and photographer Rob Fraser, with contributions from commoners using GoPro cameras to capture snippets of their day-to-day lives on the farm and in the hills.
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Farmer-led Nature Recovery: West Lakeland CiC
Across the commons on the west coast of Cumbria, farmers are joining together to develop landscape-scale learning and collaboration in support of sustainable upland farming. Helen Race, who is one of four facilitators, talks about the journey so far.
Listen in : Gathering on Kinniside Common
Listen to Sam Rawling describing the process of gathering sheep in from Kinniside Common, down to the River Calder, in July 2022. Commoners work together to bring in the sheep so they can be sheared. The recording is shared with a selection of images from the day, as the sheep are brought into the pens, and sorted.
Marking up the lambs
Each year on Cumbria’s upland farms, lambs must be marked so that they can be distinguished from other flocks once they are back out on the common, where several flocks graze. Sam Rawling and Lizzie Weir add smit marks and lug marks to their herdwick flock.
Sam Rawling & Lizzie Weir : Commoners, Lake District
An introduction to Sam Rawling and Lizzie Weir, commoners who have a hill farm in Ennerdale, Cumbria, and use Kinniside Common for grazing
Exploring Kinniside Common
Kinniside Common is in the far west of Cumbria, on the edge of the English Lake District. A walk from the valley to the common, and back again, reveals layers of history, wildlife and weather.
