Maintaining healthy and productive livestock on Common Land can bring particular challenges: lower quality grazing, restrictions on supplementary feeding, high parasite burdens, and contact with other livestock.

This webinar will look at research and practical projects talking nutrition, pests, and communicable diseases in collective grazed sheep and cattle.

Speakers: David Atwell, Land Manager Advisor, Dartmoor Hill Farm Project

Nigel Kendal, Lecturer in Nutrition, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Nottingham

Karen Swindlehurst, Dale Head Vet Group

Ruth Dalton, The Farmer Network

The event will start at 19:30 on Wednesday 7th February

Click here to register your place: Zoom registration

Wild farming skills that have formed Dartmoor’s culture and history for over 4000 years will be on display at this unique event held on 21st October.

Hosted by the Dartmoor Hill Pony Association in partnership with Our Upland Commons, a National Lottery Heritage funded initiative, join us on Dartmoor to watch commoners demonstrate their skills rounding up the semi wild Dartmoor Hill Ponies for their annual health check. Once given a clean bill of health, the ponies will be sorted. Some will be sold at the annual Pony Drift Sale, which, as it has been for hundreds of years, is held on the second Thursday in October. While the rest will be returned to the commons as breeding stock, living semi wild and free on Dartmoor, where their natural characteristics can be preserved in future generations, safeguarding this rare population of semi wild pony and enhancing the biodiversity of Dartmoor.

The native, semi wild, Dartmoor Hill Pony herds are known to be genetically rare and important to the equine species worldwide. Their strength and ability to survive the harsh conditions of Dartmoor made them the right animal in the right place.

While at the gather, hear how it has become the first semi wild pony population to be added to the Rare Breed Survival Trust Watchlist after being recognised by the British Breed Survival Trust in 2021.  

The public event is by ticket only, but are free, and limited numbers so that we can ensure that those joining us get the possible vantage point for this spectacular event. Register using the email address below.

Our Upland Commons Project Officer Tamsin Thomas said “It’s really important that events like this share with the public how the landscape is managed. Many people don’t understand what a common is and how it’s used, so I’m looking forward to sharing a little of our common heritage.”

Our Upland Commons is part of a £3million National Lottery Heritage fund initiative, supported by 25 organisations including Dartmoor National Park Authority. Led by the Foundation for Common Land, ‘Our Common Cause: Our Upland Commons’, involves 3 commons on Dartmoor. Concluding next year, its aim is to help secure the future of all upland commons. It has also been made possible by grants from Esmée Fairbairn, Garfield Weston Foundations plus local funders.

How to book

The event will be held between 9am and 3pm on 21st October. The event is free but tickets are limited. To register your interest and please email association@dartmoorhillpony.com

Join us online with our latest free Webinar, ‘Telling the Story of Commons’. With commoning and commons under pressure as never before, and poorly understood by the public and policymakers alike, there has never been a more important time to reach out to a wider audience. Commoners, farmers, landowners, and artists will tell us how and why they have been using arts, education, and events, to tell the story of commons.

Speakers include:

The Dawsons, Bleak Bank Farm

Will Dracup, Shallowford Farm

Landowner John Howell and Chair of Harford and Ugborough Commoners David Sadler, in conversation with Artist Naomi Wright (Art and Energy)

Rob and Harriet Fraser, Somewhere Nowhere

The event will start at 19:30 on Wednesday 11th October.

Click here to register your place: Webinar Registration - Zoom

Sunday 10th September, Skipton Town Hall.

Join the community of Skipton for this fun-filled, family themed event including nature trail, treasure hunt, stalls and activities all with the planet in mind. FCL will be joined by Peat Partnership in the Town Hall where we will discuss peat, wildlife, carbon and sustainable farming.

This is an opportunity to get some background to the industrial history of Clee St Margaret and Clee Liberty Common and details about the work we will be doing over the summer. This will include a walk, a talk, opportunity to do some research and another community excavation to get involved in!!

Everybody is welcome, especially those who haven't been involved yet, so please tell anyone who might be interested.

You don't need to book places but if you are thinking of attending please drop Matt an email via info@fearnheritage.co.uk  - this is just so he can get an idea of numbers.

Download the poster here

Join Matt Williams from Fearn Heritage in the village hall where he will present all the findings from this year’s excavations and investigations. He will also set out what the plans are for next year when focus turns to the industrial heritage on the hill. This meeting starts at 7:30pm and will be held in Clee St Margaret Village Hall.

Please book by emailing Matt via info@fearnheritage.co.uk

The walk is a walk around the edge of Clee Liberty common, looking at medieval and landscape features and boundaries under guidance from Matt Williams from Fearn Heritage and Archaeology, a nice way to round off the activities in this our second year. Please dress for the weather and bring your own refreshments. We expect to be out for about 2 to 2.5 hours. The terrain may be wet, slippery and uneven so wear suitable footwear. Meet at the Yeld car park at 10am.

Please book by emailing Matt via info@fearnheritage.co.uk

Please join us at Clee St Margaret Village Hall on Monday 28 November at 7.30pm where we will present ideas for habitat improvements on Clee Liberty Common as a result of work that has been carried out under the Our Upland Commons Project and to discuss how we move forward from this point.  This offers an opportunity for some exciting habitat developments to improve habitats for a number of species as well as other broader benefits.

Leo Smith, OUC bird project coordinator and Dr Jenny Joy with Mike Williams who have coordinated and delivered projects around butterflies and moths for the OUC project, have been working together this autumn, also with local residents, commoners/graziers, the Parish Council and also other specialists incl. Natural England, the National Trust and Shropshire Wildlife Trust and they will explain their combined ideas, how and why these may be beneficial and what particular species these are aimed at.

We then hope to spark a discussion about the merits, feasibility and resources needed for these interventions and gauge interest and priority levels and how we can map out plans how these can be taken forward by you, the combined local community, if that is what you want.

We hope for a full house at the meeting, and a good discussion and that this will ultimately lead to elements that can be incorporated into a new Management Plan for Clee Liberty in line with the vision that was drafted in the development phase of the OUC project.

Booking Essential - contact Renée Wallace (Renee@foundationforcommonland.org.uk) to reserve your place.

Join us for a free Session on Delivering SFI Moorland on Commons

Wednesday 9th November 19:30- 21:00 via Zoom

We will cover how you can meet the compulsory requirements of the SFI Moorland scheme on Commons:

• Bespoke Digital Tools for the moorland survey

• How to consult with the legal interests

• How to set up a binding internal agreement

The Foundation for Common Land is Road Testing SFI Moorland Introductory Standard with three upland commons to develop cost effective systems to collect necessary data and support future schemes. This is part of a Defra ELM test and trial.

In this webinar, working with The Land App we will demonstrate our mobile based tool for collecting all the data Defra require you to have including photos. No mobile signal is required to use this tool. Over the next 3 months this will be tested in the field by commoners.

Speakers:
Julia Aglionby: Executive Director Foundation for Common Land
Sam McAlister: Solicitor Minihan McAlister
Dan Geerah: Partnerships Lead, The Land App
PLUS: speakers from our test commons in Cumbria, Shropshire and Dartmoor

There will be an opportunity to ask questions

We will be sending a recording of the event to all who register, so please register to receive this even if you are unable to attend.

This is a free public event, so please feel free to share the details with anyone you feel may be interested.

Register for the FREE Zoom webinar: here

If you have any questions about the Zoom webinar, please contact Susie Hodgson (015394 30351, Monday, Tuesday and Thursday)

Speaker: Dr Trevor Rowley

Date: Tuesday 20th September

Time: 2:30pm

Place: Clee St Margaret Village Hall

Space is limited within the hall so please email info@fearnheritage.co.uk if you would like to attend.

Refreshments will be available.

Please see the poster below for all the details.

Booking is essential. Contact the Dartmoor Hill Farm Project for more details: hfp@dartmoor.gov.uk

People are invited to join a mission to discover the secrets of England’s highest Roman road, High Street on Bampton Common on the eastern Lake District fells.

The 2,000 year-old road linked to Roman forts at Penrith, to the north and Ambleside to the south, explans Eleanor Kingston from the Lake District national Park Authority who is leading the work.

It is part of a three-year, £3 million project, Our upland Commons, helping to secure the future of upland commons in England, led by the Foundation for Common Land. And made possible by grants from The National Lottery heritage Fund, Esmee Fairbairn and Garfield Weston Foundations and local funders.

“Roman roads were the arteries of the empire, connecting communities, cities, provinces and forts”, says Eleanor.