Place

The six million acres that make up the United Kingdom encompass an extraordinary and beautiful collection of landscapes and settlements, replete with political and cultural meaning, both within and between the four nations. Place shapes identity, and identity has become increasingly significant in our political debates.

We wanted to reflect and illuminate these differences throughout our Commission, with locally led inquiries in Cumbria, Lincolnshire and Devon in England, and in Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland. Each were free to find their own ways of working and pursue those aspects of food, farming and the countryside that felt most pressing to them. The imprints are found throughout the Field Guide for the Future and our final report. In this chapter the inquiries in Northern Ireland, Cumbria and Devon explain their work.