Project captures the audio history of Ingleborough's farming community for future generations

The life experiences of farmers across the Dale have been collected and recorded by Ripon-based writer and audio historian, Anna Greenwood, as part of the trust’s five-year Stories in Stone campaign.

Miss Greenwood, who has completed a similar project in Nidderdale, said the audio project, Behind Stone Walls, brought the stories to life in a way photographs and the written word cannot.

“The idea was to record the farming community as it is now, to hear their words and dialect,” she said.

But having secured funding from the trust, the project, which already had a tight deadline, was hit by a new challenge when the country went into lockdown.

“There was a six-month timeline so it needed to be turned around quite quickly,” Miss Greenwood explained.

“I made some early contacts and the grant was approved in March but then lockdown happened and I couldn’t go out and meet people to make the recordings, which was a bit of a blow.

“I found a way to record phone calls but a lot of the farmers I wanted to talk to do not have internet access or mobile phone coverage was limited. And it is not the same as meeting someone face to face, especially when you are asking all sorts of questions about their lives.”

Miss Greenwood said she spoke to farmers and people in the farming community of a wide age range to capture a full picture of life in the Dale.

“At the beginning I didn’t know what the stories would be but I found diversification was a big issue. Being near the three peaks brings a lot of visitors with tourism and farming the main industries in the area.

“Some of the older farmers I talked to live and work at a different pace, many remembered working with horses and talked about things they see as recent changes such as quad bikes on the farms.

“But while the older farmers were unsure about the future, the younger farmer I spoke to was very enthusiastic about the opportunities. I got the impression that to farm successfully now,

you need more land and to diversify.”

Having been able to do some interviews over the phone, once lockdown eased Miss Greenwood was able to spend a week in Ingleton carrying out the rest of her

interviews while socially distanced.

She then edited the stories to create the Behind Stone Walls CD as well as adding the stories to the archive in Northallerton where they will be available for research in the future.

“I wanted to capture a way of life,” Miss Greenwood said. “I hope the stories portray this and that there are still people living out there at a slower pace of life and doing something they really love.

“One farmer described it as being play rather than work which was really nice to hear.”

Miss Greenwood said it was a lovely experience to visit a different Dale.

“The people and the land in each Dale are all a little bit different,” she said.

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