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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Video Diary: Extensive grazing on Holne Common
Commoner Richard Gray talks about his Galloway cows, which roam across vast expanses of the upland commons. He discusses their wellbeing, the benefits of extensive grazing for cows and for nature, and the high quality of the meat. One cow wears a collar which allows Richard to track the movements of the herd and monitor their wellbeing.
Video Diary: Farming, nature and the middle ground, with Richard Gray
In this short film Richard Gray talks about farming and being a commoner in Dartmoor. He keeps cows and sheep, and wants to find the middle ground to keep the pressure off nature and maintain a viable farming business, a wish born from a strong sense of belonging and pride.
