The Pennine Watershed landscape is filled with signs of our need; for power, water, transport, food, stone. The land which seems so wild and remote is actually made and marked by us . These stories look at the interaction between the landscape and the people who live within it. Relationships with the land can make fundamental changes to people’s lives, often in unexpected ways.
“Full of local colour and indigenous Pennine mystery.” Simon Armitage
Read Paper Rose, one of the stories
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The Watershed Landscape project began in 2010 and was a three year programme to enhance and conserve the South Pennine upland landscape and its heritage, whilst improving access for all. The project was funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and Leader (European rural development funding) and was managed by Pennine Prospects.
This special moorland landscape is the area of the South Pennines where east meets west; North Sea to Irish Sea; uniting Lancashire and Yorkshire along the way. More than seven million people live within an hours drive of these uplands yet they can still feel remote, wild and exhilarating and provide a space for inspiration and adventure. The history of the place runs deep and many clues to its past lie scattered across its surface; from the remains of Roman forts and Bronze-Age carved rocks to more recent relics of industrial and agricultural hard graft. The natural landscape is built on foundations of grit and peat; making it a rich home for special moorland flora and fauna.
The key aims of the project were to protect and enhance the unique biodiversity and historic features which make this landscape nationally and internationally significant, and to encourage greater understanding and enjoyment of the area so that it is further valued and protected. The project worked hard to improve understanding about the role that moorlands have played in providing resources for society in the past, and their current and future roles, in particular the pivotal role this landscape can play in rising to the modern challenge of climate change.
Inspired by Landscape was a vital strand of the wider Watershed Landscape Project through which a series of artists and writers in residence reached a huge and varied audience to spread the word about our precious landscape and to encourage and support people to explore their local places using the creative arts.
Anna Carter, Watershed Landscape Project, Interpretation Officer