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
Considering carbon in upland commons
How can farmers calculate carbon storage when their farming system includes the commons? Farmers in Cumbria are beginning work to develop a new toolkit - we join them on Kinniside Common with Becky Willson from Farm Carbon Toolkit.
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.
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.