THE inspiring story of tenant hill farmer and wool fashion designer, Alison O’Neill, will be told in a special exhibition at the Dales Countryside Museum in Hawes.
‘Shepherdess – One Woman Farm’ exhibits the work of photographer Ian Lawson, who has spent eight years documenting the shepherdess’s ‘disappearing way of life’ alongside clothing designed by Ms O’Neill.
Mr Lawson said: “Alison is iconic to me. Her traditionalism and devotion to sheep was obvious from the start.
“When I arrived at Shacklabank eight years ago, it was like arriving on a set of All Creatures Great And Small. It was as if time had stood still.”
Ms O’Neill, who farms near Sedbergh, said: “The past 20-years at the farm have been the happiest and hardest of my life. I’ve needed the Daleswoman’s grit. I like to say wool is my bread.
“I turn a product worth nothing to most farmers into that which is sustaining the farm.”
The exhibition is open until September 8.
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