Project Links | Connecting Weardale

Other Project Links

Northern Heartlands

Northern Heartlands is one of sixteen Great Place Schemes in the UK funded by Heritage Lottery Fund and Arts Council England. Our Great Place is in County Durham and includes the catchment of two rivers – the Tees and the Wear – extending from their sources in the North Pennines to the lowland arc through which they flow. The area includes the market towns of Barnard Castle, Bishop Auckland, Shildon, Crook, Tow Law and Willington and the communities of part of the former Durham coalfield, together with the isolated hill farms and villages of the rural upper Dales

Connecting Weardale uses a ‘cultural landscape’ approach, recognising that landscape and places are shaped by what has happened in the past, what is happening now and what may happen in the future. Our landscapes tell an ever-changing story.

Related Projects

Here are a selection of other projects which link the communities involved in Connecting Weardale, and have informed our work.

Landscape, Nature, and the Sheep-Farming Year

Tow Law Community Association

March 2019–2020

A year-long project involving 4 local primary schools, artists, heritage and conservation workers, farmers and community. Participants learned about nature and aspects of sheep farming, while enjoying felt-making, printing, observational drawing, farm visits and holding a country fair.

The project was documented in an e-book, which you can read here.

Artists

Jenny Mountain, Sue Abel

Photographer

Louise Taylor

Filmmaker

Matt J Smith

The Wildflower Project

Tow Law Community

March 2018 - 2019

A year-long project involving 4 primary schools, artist conservationists and community. Participants planted wildflowers and learned about 3 post-industrial wild areas of moss across Sunniside and Stanley Crook, Tow Law Millennium Green, and Burnhill Nature Reserve.

The project was documented in an e-book, which you can see here, and a film.

Artist

Jenny Mountain