art / science / restoration / community
We set up Moss of Many Layers in 2022 through the PLACE Collective, bringing artists into a multi-disciplinary mix of people in an ongoing process that is helping to shift relationships with this vast area of peatland. We were extremely chuffed to partner with Cumbria University, Natural England and Barker & Bland peatland restoration specialists, and to receive funding through NERC (National Environment Research Council).
Bolton Fell Moss in north Cumbria was an industrial site for several decades, extracting peat for horticultural industries. The site is now being restored: sphagnum mosses can spread, wading birds can return to breed, dragonflies will flourish and, slowly, peat can begin to form again.
Artists from the PLACE Collective joined reserve managers from Natural England (the organisation that has owned the site since extraction stopped in 2013); scientists from the University of Cumbria investigating carbon sequestration and storage; peat restoration specialists Barker and Bland; and members of the local community, including people who once worked as diggers and cutters on the bog.
History may refer to bogs as wastelands, but we see the place as a wonderland. There is so much life here, and as the area is restored in a process that’s being underpinned and guided by rigorous research, this life is thriving more and more.
We spent many days wandering on the bog, and learning from specialists about the process of restoration and how this particular site relates to the land and communities around it. Creative outputs include:
- A film by Juliet Klottrup (which has been added to the COP26 Peat Pavillion);
- A map by Helen Cann;
- Anne Waggot-Knott’s artwork and the work of the children she worked with;
- Portrait images of people connected to the bog, by Rob Fraser;
- A poetry installation by Harriet.
In September 2022 the Wide Open Day attracted more than a hundred people who visited the moss in the company of scientists, conservationists and artists, and came to the village hall for an exhibition that included an 8.5-metre long peat core, revealing peat that was formed more than eight thousand years ago.
Bolton Fell Moss is now a National Nature Reserve, with an accessible 3km boardwalk around part of the site. In the next year, a research station and a visitor’s shelter will be built; we’ll be weaving creative work into the new interpretation signs, and continuing to be part of an ongoing conversation about the bog’s wellbeing, the results of ongoing research into carbon storage and biodiversity indicators. We’ll share news about events.
To find out more about this work visit The Moss of Many Layers page on the PLACE Collective website, and navigate from there to read blogs about the many elements of the work.
Image above: the map created by Helen Cann
