Our Westmorland Dales Landscape Forum, originally planned for April 2020, finally took place online as our Westmorland Dales Landscape Conference on Saturday 27^th March 2021.

John Dunning, the chair of the partnership, set the scene before a wonderful cross-section of presentations from our partner organisations and project leads loosely focussed around our natural, cultural and connecting heritage themes. Given we couldn’t be in Great Asby, Keith Cooper gave us an excellent insight in the development of its medieval village-scape through the innovative use of satellite images. Other presentations covered upland farming, geology, natural flood management, wildflower meadows, archaeological and built heritage surveys, routes through the area and our apprentices project. We had time for two question and answer sessions and the conference was rounded off with our Picturing the Westmorland Dales film featuring the landscape artwork produced by the local primary schools. 

The conference and series of webinars have been a great success, broadening our reach and including people who might not have attended otherwise because they live too far away, don’t have their own transport or are of limited mobility. And we’ve found that even more people have enjoyed our recordings, so do watch this one and feel free to share the link with your friends.

We are of course keen to get outside for real again so watch this space for events, walks and other activities as lockdown restrictions ease. A huge thank you to everyone who contributed to the conference, not least to all within the Westmorland Dales team, and to the National Lottery Heritage Fund whose support has been crucial.

The agenda below may assist you in locating items of interest within the recording. Times will be approximate.

Times	Speaker	Subject
9:45
10:00	David Evans, John Dunning	Welcome and introduction
10:05	Veronica Waller The Farmer Network	Upland Farming and Sustainability
10:20	Sylvia Woodhead Cumbria GeoConservation	Geo-trails and local geological sites in the Westmorland Dales
10:35	Lev Dahl, Dave Greaves Eden Rivers Trust	Slowing the Flow along the Scandal Beck
10:50	Graham Jackson Pitt Cumbria Wildlife Trust	Upland Species-Rich Grassland
11:05		Break and Questions
11:15	Keith Cooper Great Asby	Great Asby – a Medieval Village-scape
11:30	Hannah Kingsbury Westmorland Dales team	Heritage Surveys: Great Asby Scar Archaeology, Barns and Walls
11:45	Karen Griffiths Yorkshire Dales National Park	A Way Through – from Roman Roads to the M6
12:00	Belinda Lloyd Yorkshire Dales National Park	Skills for the Future Apprentice Film Presentation (pre-recorded)
12:15	Westmorland Dales Team – a summary of the past year and plans for the future. Questions and feedback	Celebrating the Westmorland Dales
	Films to play at the end or refer people to.	Picturing the Westmorland Dales, Gamelands, Westmorland Dales under a blanket of winter snow, Apprentices