In 2020, award-winning photographer and sheep farmer Amy Bateman set out to document the stories of forty farms in Cumbria. From Lake District hill farms, to the Solway marshes. 

Amy's photographs present a captivating picture (literally!) of Cumbrian farming in a period of profound societal and technological change. We've been fortunate enough to display them in our 2025 exhibition, Forty Farms, based on Amy's gorgeous book of the same name.

In this episode, Joe and Ollie chat with Amy about her work and perspective as a farmer and photographer. What motivated Amy to create Forty Farms? What did she learn from the project? And as myriad challenges continue to impact English farmers, where are those forty farms five years later?

Links:

• Forty Farms: https://amybatemanphotography.com/forty-farms/
• A Landscape for All: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXMrTTifpw8
• The Wanderlust Women: https://www.thewanderlustwomen.co.uk/

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Absolute Units is the official podcast of The Museum of English Rural Life. This series is made possible through the generous support of Arts Council England and Museums Partnership Reading, a partnership of The MERL with Reading Museum. Themetune by Tai Dawson.

Co-hosts: Ollie Douglas and Joe Vaughan
Producer: Joe Vaughan

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