Synopsis
It is a hard life on the hill-farms of Northumbria, as Tony Hopkins learned as he collected this unique portfolio of stunning, black-and-white photographs through all the seasons. Acknowledged as one of the finest recorders of the Northumbrian scene, Hopkins has made a painstaking study of the changing way of life in these isolated, self-sufficient communities. As farming suffers yet another disastrous decline following the ravages of foot and mouth disease, and mechanisation and absentee landlords slowly take over these farms, which in many cases had been in the same family for generations, he records the way that traditional tasks are being lost. These age-old tasks often involve the livelihood of breeds of hardy hill sheep like the Cheviots and Border Leicesters, many of which are now becoming very rare.