The Project

For centuries, The Farmer’s Arms at Lowick Green / Spark Bridge saw people, goods and ideas come and go from its position at the mouth of the beautiful Crake Valley.

After over a year of neglect, in collaboration with the local community, Grizedale Arts will return this historic inn on the edge of the Lake District National Park to its place at the heart of the community, where it can once again inspire and nurture both locals and visitors.

Preserving the history of The Farmer’s Arms as a hybrid place, the traditional hospitality and respite of the inn will remain at its heart, but in every detail, creative thinking and opportunities for learning / participation will underpin how the experience is delivered.

A multi-generational programme will offer open access to the arts, facilitating new routes to collaborative thinking and exchange between the inn’s local and global communities.

Future Plans

As well as a place where food, drink and a bed for the night can be found, The Farmer’s Arms of the future will become a thriving rural community hub supporting all sorts of opportunity and creativity. A volunteer programme for both locals and visitors will offer skills, training and social benefits, supporting the running of the project and informing its direction.

Pop-up shops and creative business start-up spaces will encourage local entrepreneurship and a circular local economy.
Grizedale Arts network and staff team of acclaimed makers and educators will deliver training and recreational learning in wide-ranging skills from filmmaking to fermentation, digital design to pottery.
Public spaces in the buildings will be used as an informal micro-museum and exhibition spaces, sharing local private collections and documenting the culture of the Crake Valley.
Multi-generational programming will offer appealing, accessible participation for locals and visitors alike: outdoor film screenings, cookery, crafts & gardening classes, book exchanges, talks, festivals, tailgate picnics and more.
Connecting the rich resources held within rural spaces globally, a learning exchange programme will maintain and enhance the value of rural life, inviting other communities to collaborate with the assets of the Crake Valley - its farms, businesses, people and culture.
Small-scale experimental agricultural projects (tea, speciality vegetables and fruits, mushrooms, bee-keeping) will provide a testbed for products which can be adopted by the local community.
A commitment to environmental sustainability and embracing new green energy ideas will be central to its operations with the ambition of reaching net zero emissions by 2030.

By summer 2021 we expect the first phase of the project to be open, although work will continue across the site for many years to come and the ambitions of our community grows.

︎Visit our programme page for details of online courses and volunteer opportunities.

︎If you’d like to support the project’s development as a volunteer, get in touch and let us know what skills you’d like to share and / or what you’d like to learn.

︎For the latest project news and updates, visit our blog.

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