outside, it is beautiful. An introduction...a provocation...
outside it is beautiful is a community audio stories project connecting train passengers, communities, landscapes and wildlife. It is set on Bentham Train Line, which runs between Leeds skirting the edges of the Yorkshire Dales and the Forest of Bowland, ending in Morecambe.
With this project, communities around the Bentham Line, on it and in it, are coming together to create words, stories, and sounds about the places they live in, and the natural landscapes and wildlife around them. The huge tapestry of sound they will create will be pinged onto passengers' phones for them to listen to as they travel along The Bentham train Line- making it rich with sight, sound, history and wildlife - a landscape come alive in the ears and eyes of train passengers and local communities alike.
How?
Participating in free creative workshops building on skills and developing new ones led by local artists, communities along the Bentham train line between Leeds and Morecambe will perform and record stories they have written which are about the landscape and heritage that can be seen out the window. The stories will be curated for an audio work which will ping into passengers' ears via their mobile phones using GPS technology. We aim it to be a living, moving and live immersive audio artwork, a great tapestry of poetry, rap, music and prose.
It's not about journey's end, but the journey itself.
Our story...
In October 2024 we completed an exploratory R&D project with groups living along the line. It was supported by Arts Council England and Northern Rail's Community Fund and in kind by Northern Rail, Culturapedia/Spot On, the Leeds Morecambe Community Rail Partnership and Settle Stories.
In 2025, with more funding from Norther Rail's Community Fund, we brought more partners and participatory groups from the north west region to join us such as Adullam, Friends of the Dales, Forward Dementia and Ribblesdale Schools Federation.
In 2026 we raised a further 10k from Northern Rail's Community Fund, and in kind support from the Forest of Bowland National Landscape, Wild Ingleborough, Nick Awde, and Gerald Townson, Chairman of the Leeds Morecambe Community Rail Partnership. This will enable us to explore workshops with new groups, run a live two hour poetry and creative writing workshop on the train, a poetry podcast and a book of local stories.
We are currently awaiting for more funding to help us complete art panels in stations along the line, support local composers to provide us with music for the podcast and a SFX mix down at King Sound Studios in Carnforth.
for more information, please use the form below.
Thank you!