The Leaving It Better project brought together environmental campaigners from across the North East with a group of farmers from Upper Teesdale in the North Pennines. Over the course of a year the group met on farms in Teesdale to have conversations about the work and campaigns they’re involved in, and consider the impacts of their actions in the landscapes and communities that they live in.

The aim of the project was to create a space for dialogue between two groups of people who are not often in conversation with each other, both of whom sometimes feel misrepresented in the media. It offered a place for farmers and campaigners to come together and explore each other’s areas of work and interest. 

Leaving It Better reflects the common ground the group found through listening to each other and the positive actions they are taking to care for the world around them.

FILM by Christo Wallers

The 50 minute film will be made available for community screenings in June 2025, in the meantime explore the podcast and zine below.

PODCAST by Jenny Dinwoodie

A podcast was produced alongside the Leaving It Better documentary.. The podcast offers insights, personal reflections, and creative responses inspired by the conversations and connections formed during the project’s duration. Listen below.

ZINE by Sophie Buxton

The Leaving It Better zine traces the processes that brought these people together from Sophie’s perspective as a participant and as an artist. They present an emerging montage of landscapes that is shaped through these encounters – with both the people and the North Pennines landscape – and where their ideas and work overlap, layer up, and meet.

THANK YOU to all the farmers and environmental campaigners for taking part in the project – Jemma Clark, Karen Scott, Kate Bramfitt, Malcolm Green, Paul Foster, Paul and Jen Johnson; Rakesh Prashara at Tipping Point for having the initial idea and making the project happen; Chloe Hedley, Will Bowman, Molly Jones, Ruth Starr-Keddle, Patrick Oulton, Scarlet Hall and Reuben Horsley at the North Pennines National Landscape team for supporting the project and the activities in the landscape, Dave Barrett for facilitating conversations, Christo Wallers, Jenny Dinwoodie and Sophie Buxton for being part of the creative process.