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 : Making hay while the sun shines
Farmer Will Dawson takes us out into the fields to witness a day of making hay and silage: one of the annual tasks of a Yorkshire Dales commoner that’s a critical part of the farming year. Will it stay dry for long enough?
Living with the Mountain : Crina Bottom, Ingleborough
Not many people live so high in the Yorkshire fells, but, as Moira and Adam reveal, doing so is a real delight. Here they talk about their time at Crina Bottom, which sits below Ingleborough.
Video Diary: Bleak Bank Farm, Checking the Lambing Fields
Will Dawson from Bleak Bank Farm in the Yorkshire Dales walks out in the early morning to check the lambing fields: watch the video here.
Video Diary: Bleak Bank, a Calf is Born
A video from Will Dawson at Bleak Bank Farm: up close and personal for the birth of not one, but two calves. PLEASE NOTE this film contains detailed imagery of a cow giving birth, with assistance.
Will Dawson : Commoner, Yorkshire Dales
Will Dawson farms at Bleak Bank, on the flanks of Ingleborough in the Yorkshire Dales. Will works alongside his father, continuing a family tradition of grazing sheep on the common, and keeping a small herd of dairy cows. Find out more here …
