I step out of the cottage just as the sun disappears behind Dodd Fell. I ascend quickly on footpaths through the sheep pastures, chasing the leading edge of Dodd Fell’s vast shadow up the flanks of its neighbour, Wether Fell, in an attempt to enjoy a few more moments of sun on what has been … Continue reading November, Wether Fell →

The Upper Calder Valley Farm Map is a work-in-progress document which aims to establish both the extent and the narrative trajectory of the loss of small farms in the upper reaches of West Yorkshire's Calder Valley. At present, it is in the form of a snapshot view of the present; for each of the 594 … Continue reading The Upper Calder Valley Farm Map →

My house sits a few hundred yards above the River Calder on the northern side of the Callder Valley, at the base of where the valley side starts its steep ascent to the hamlet of Lower Rawtenstall. From my back door the garden immediately ascends in rising stone terraces to a lawn. Above the lawn, … Continue reading October, Knott Wood →

When I first read J.A. Baker’s The Peregrine and was captivated by the raptor-eyed vision of the natural world wrought by its astonishing prose, I was unaware of just how familiar to me was the landscape in which it takes place. We can deduce from the text that the county that Baker’s birds soared above … Continue reading The Anonymous Landscape in J.A. Baker’s The Peregrine →