Rising and Falling : Listening through Swaledale
- Lapwings and snipe on Grinton Moor 3'44''
- We lost about 12 bridges in an afternoon 2'51''
- More colourful and appreciated meadows 2'19''
- Insects in Muker Meadow 5'00''
- What is the right level of grazing by sheep? 2'38''
- 24 hours in the life of Dragonfly the Swaledale sheep pt 1 5'00''
- A level of grazing is necessary 2'38''
- Auction mart calling 5'30''
- Do less intensive farming, do more nature farming, and your profit goes up 10'17''
- Dawn chorus at Low Row 5'02''
- You’re not a local here unless you’ve got three generations in the graveyards 2'42''
- Anybody who says climate change isn’t happening is an idiot or is deliberately lying 4'23''
- More extreme weather events, more often 1'33''
- They don’t know what the ground feels like 2'24''
- 24 hours in the life of Dragonfly the Swaledale sheep pt 2 4'06''
- You can just stop doing one thing on a Friday, and start a whole new way of farming on a Monday 1'56''
- Old Gang Beck 3'28''
- It blew, and it blew, and it blew 3'18''
- Curlews are in a bad way, everywhere 7'56''
- Curlew and skylark 4'05''
- Cath Calvert, Hazel Brow Farm 3'43''
- Rookery at Gallows Top 5'52''
- There are 24 different species of bumble bee in the UK 1'16''
- Bigger, better, more and more joined up 5'52''
- Sheep and insects in the Swaledale valley 4'31''
- Have you ever been to an auction mart? You must go! 3'09''
- Middleton Cattle Mart 4'34''
- Annie Mason on milking 2'14''
- Drips from the Old Gang Smelting Mill 3'48''
- 1947 was a disaster really 1'23''
- Geese and oystercatchers 2'09''
‘Rising and Falling: Listening through Swaledale’ is a sound archive documenting Wild Museum’s 1-year artist residency in Swaledale 2024-25. It contains field recordings, interviews and excerpts from historical audio recordings.
This residency formed part of the Creatively Connected arts project, part of the Tees-Swale: Naturally Connected programme. The project aimed to develop creative conversations about farming, nature and the landscape.
John Coburn and Tim Shaw’s residency explored the sonic identities of the changing Swaledale landscape. It combined environmental recordings of moorland, rivers, and farms; interviews with farmers and ecologists; public sound walks through working and abandoned farmland, rural villages and meadows; and sounds broadcast through 24/7 audio streams of working farms. It also employed experimental methods, such as installing audio and image recording equipment onto a Swaledale sheep for 24 hours. Alongside this, it drew on historic archive recordings from farmers, connecting past voices to present experiences while inviting communities to imagine Swaledale’s future identities.
By working closely with landowners, farmers, and the wider public, the residency focused on the act of sound and listening to inspire dialogue around high-nature-value farming, conservation, and rural futures.
Margret Bradshaw at her house in Teesdale [Image: Tim Shaw, 2025]
Camera and Sound Recorder on Dragenfly the Sheep [Image: Tim Shaw, 2025]
About Creatively Connected:
Creatively Connected is an arts project which aims to develop creative conversations about farming, nature and the landscape. The project is led by artists Azadeh Fatehrad, Laura Harrington, John Coburn & Tim Shaw and Matt Denham and produced by Northern Heartlands.
The project invites farmers, land managers, volunteers and local residents interested in farming and nature recovery to take part in a programme of group conversations, site visits and creative activities over summer 2025 in Teesdale and Swaledale.
Creatively Connected is part of the Tees-Swale: Naturally Connected programme led by the North Pennines National Landscape team and the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority, which aims to put farming at the heart of nature and nature at the heart of land management.
Creatively Connected was made possible with funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, with thanks to National Lottery players, and supported by Arts Council England.