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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Listen in : Gathering on Kinniside Common
Listen to Sam Rawling describing the process of gathering sheep in from Kinniside Common, down to the River Calder, in July 2022. Commoners work together to bring in the sheep so they can be sheared. The recording is shared with a selection of images from the day, as the sheep are brought into the pens, and sorted.
Keswick Tup Fair
Keswick Tup Fair, or Keswick Spring Fair, is an annual event for the showing of Herdwick tups (rams). It’s the first gathering for Lakeland shepherd’s after the cold of winter.
Craig Fearon : Commoner, Lake District
An introduction to Craig Fearon of Nook Farm, Borrowdale. Craig is a National Trust tenant and Cumbrian Commoner with Herdwick Sheep grazing the Cumbrian fells.
Handing over a flock
Handing over the Landlord’s Flock at Nook Farm, Borrowdale. When a National Trust farm changes hands, and is passed on to a new tenant, that person also takes on the hefted flock. Today Craig Fearon takes on the flock that Stanley Jackson has looked after for decades.
