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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Exhibition: Dales Countryside Museum, Hawes, Yorkshire
April 19 - September 8th, 2024
Listen In: Echoes in Langstrath Valley
Lake District Commoner Craig Fearon joins two other commoners to gather their herdwick sheep down from the upland commons into Langstrath Valley. A short post with an opportunity to listen in to the calls of farmers echoing around the valley.
Video : Being a commoner in the Lake District
In a break from shearing his herdwick sheep on his farm in Grasmere, Will Benson shares his thoughts about farming in the Lake District and the heritage of the upland commons. A 6-minute watch.
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.