A Dartmoor Summer Great Gather
PRESS RELEASE:
On a stunning summers evening in July, the first of the Dartmoor Great Gathers took place as part of Our Upland Commons. Dartmoor is one of the focus areas in this three-year, £3 million project, helping to secure the future of upland commons in England, led by the Foundation for Common Land and made possible by grants from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, Esmée Fairbairn, Garfield Weston Foundations plus local funders.
Organised and delivered by the Dartmoor Hill Farm Project and open to anyone, the event drew people from local and neighbouring communities, as well as visitors, to experience first hand the gathering of livestock from the high moor. In this instance it was a sheep gather in readiness for shearing; one example of the seasonal calendar for hill farmers and the connectivity between home farms and their common grazing rights. A group of around 45 people took part in the gather based at Greenwell Farm near Yelverton on the southwestern edge of Dartmoor, leading a walk up to the adjoining Wigford Down to view the gather in action. The high point enabled an uninterrupted almost 360° view sweeping across the moor to Sheepstor, Princetown and across Plymouth Sound, and crucially the chance to watch the progress of the farmers on horseback or quadbike rounding up approximately 250 sheep and lambs, slowly walking them back towards the home farm.
The group were invited to ask questions and included in discussions along the way, which provided an insight into the benefits for the farm that common grazing brings as additional ground to support animals, how the flock reinforce their ‘learing’ through generations which is partly bred into hill breeds and partly learnt behaviour meaning they will remain in their own lear areas whilst open grazing without barriers. This helps the farmer by ensuring his animals remain where they should and less likely to get mixed in with others, while allowing grazing levels to be managed overall. The need for shearing was also discussed and how it helps the animals keep cooler in summer heat, the low current value of wool as a commodity but the fact that it once underpinned a huge wool industry historically which is reflected in local heritage features such as pounds (for holding stock on the hills) or mills which processed the wool. With a greater focus on sustainability, innovators are starting to include wool once again into a range of products for its fantastic thermal qualities, which can also support Net Zero ambitions due to its high (50%!) Carbon content and ability to completely biodegrade organically or be readily recycled.
Whilst exploring the common, the group also learnt about the wider environmental benefits of commoning; the biodiversity on the moor from herbs and wildflowers supporting butterflies and birds, peatland and bogs which support a variety of insects and invertebrates while also absorbing and filtering rainfall that ultimately makes its way into our water supplies, along with quietly capturing Carbon under our feet. The commons may look less managed compared to more intensive field sytems, but the value to the farming communities and to wider society are there to be revealed and celebrated, as part of local heritage and culture as well as producing excellent quality local food - all work that continues the legacy of commoning.
Thanks to the Cole family for hosting this Great Gather working with the Dartmoor Hill Farm Project; further events are being planned on Dartmoor in the coming months to reflect a breadth of interests.
More information about the Our Common Cause: Our Upland Commons Project in Dartmoor can be found here