Holme Fell: A Sample of Landscapes

Holme Fell is one of Alfred Wainwright's two hundred plus Lake District fells, located a few miles north of Coniston, Cumbria. The lower slopes, cloaked in woodland, mask an industrial heritage: reservoirs rewilded, the yawning chasm of Hodge Close, an archaeology of slate quarrying. Ascending the fell, trees give way to open hillside topped by rocky outcrops, and a panoramic vista is revealed. The Langdale Pikes dominate a skyline which brims with Lakeland's finest peaks.

Holme Fell is a 'sample of landscapes' as the subtitle says, in two senses. Firstly, as a series of photographs of Holme Fell, with a focus on Hodge Close, the old slate quarry, at its centre. Secondly, as a sequence of poetry and prose that reacts to the photographs themselves, and through which are also woven some historical accounts of quarrying along with the narrative of a contemporary architect escaping her responsibilities but questioning the nature of things as she encounters them. 'Hodge Close' operates as an inner section of 'Holme Fell', landscape within a landscape.

The images and texts exist in a loose symbiosis, with parallel truths and connecting paths between them.

Trev Eales lives in south Cumbria, and location has long fed his passion for landscape photography. During autumn and winter, if the weather is interesting, he is often found wandering the fells hoping that the changing light and colours will present a photographic opportunity. He is also a music photographer (and reviewer) who has shot for various festivals and other events.

Robert Sheppard is a well-published poet with a long history of collaboration with visual artists. His most recent books are Elle - a verse novel (Broken Sleep 2025) and British Standards, satiric versions of Romantic-era sonnets (Shearsman 2024). Essays on his work may be found in The Robert Sheppard Companion (Shearsman 2019). He lives in Liverpool and is Emeritus Professor of Poetry and Poetics at Edge Hill University, Lancashire.