Culture in the Park

Summer 2017: the Lake District National Park in NW England became Britain's most recent addition to the UNESCO World Heritage Site Register. Part of the UNESCO bid process centred upon the Park's cultural heritage, so this summer I set out to record some of these cultural events, all staged for the visitor and locals alike, with most gatherings date back over 100 years, yet those centred around the Herdwick sheep meets, likely were in existence in a time going back several thousands of years. A great many questions remain and will remain unanswered for some years to come I suspect, though for many there is a watching brief as to how becoming a UNESCO World Heritage site will affect the region as it already plays host to around 16 million visitors annually. How will these sports events, shepards' meets, country and sporting fayres change and evolve in the coming years? This then is a start point, a visual record of how life was on the eve of a change in circumstances in the summer of 2017, a series of images which may prove more significant or perhaps interesting the further we progress in to the century; time will no doubt tell?