Digging deep into the knowledge and values of hill farmers in County Durham.

Hefted to Hill was a Northern Heartlands flagship project led by Ewan Allinson. Along with Wideyed’s Richard Glynn and Louise Taylor, it sought to reveal the depth of knowledge and expertise held by farmers that policy-makers ignore to the detriment of that policy-making, culminating in two site specific multi-media exhibition’s split across two churches; St James the Less, Forest-in-Teesdale and St Thomas, Stanhope in 2019.

The beauty and biodiversity of the upland landscapes depend upon the expertise and hard graft of local farmers. This expertise, often built up over generations, is not fully understood or appreciated, either by the public or the policy-makers. Hefted to Hill set out to address this failing by capturing and communicating the deeply held values that are at the heart of family farming in the uplands.

Through 2018/2019 sculptor/philosopher Ewan Allinson recorded conversations with the participating farmers, Louise Taylor documented key moments in the annual farming calendar and Richard Glynn made large format portraits of the farmers and their favourite landscape views.    

The farmers that contributed to Hefted to Hill are Joanne Bainbridge and Robin Peart, Greg Dalton, Michael Fletcher, Steven Hunter, Trevor and Susan Tarn, Andrew and Sally-Ann Teward, and Graham and Sandra Wilkinson.

=> Read Ewan’s article in the Teesdale Mercury, 9th April 2019