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Hadden Turner

@haddenturner.bsky.social
3K followers 261 following 152 posts

Agrarian and nature writer from UK. Writes at overthefield.substack.com Birdwatching, fell walking, church exploring.

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Hadden Turner @haddenturner.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
"The most fitting way to honour Mr. Berry’s life and legacy, is to make his costly words mean something in your life; to change — really change — the way you relate to your local place, your neighbours, and the wild creatures who also call your place home" overthefield.substack.com/p/wendell-be...
overthefield.substack.com
Wendell Berry 1934-2026
The day I knew was coming has arrived with all its solemn finality.
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Hadden Turner @haddenturner.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
The tiniest wildflower is very tenacious when it comes to colonising that great domain of mankind: the city. The general rule is this: if you leave it, nature will reclaim it. #naturewriting #nature #wildflower overthefield.substack.com/p/the-tenaci...
overthefield.substack.com
The Tenacity of Nature in the Domain of Man
Where there is a will, there is a way. Nature will always find a way to live in our urban environments - and we should let it.
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Hadden Turner @haddenturner.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
My latest essay is on a subject that is rapidly becoming one of my favourites: local apples (We are active members of the Community Orchard here in Sedbergh). overthefield.substack.com/p/the-pleasu...
overthefield.substack.com
The Pleasures of Eating Local Apples
Local heritage foods provide an extensive range of pleasures to those who eat them
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Hadden Turner @haddenturner.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
C.S. Lewis meets Wendell Berry in my latest agrarian essay. “To sacrifice the greater good for the less and then not to get the lesser good after all — that is surprising folly." - C.S. Lewis overthefield.substack.com/p/losing-eff...
overthefield.substack.com
Losing Efficiency by Pursuing Efficiency
The folly of pursuing lesser goods and the expense of greater ones
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Hadden Turner @haddenturner.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Sometimes, planting a tree is the last thing we should do for nature.
overthefield.substack.com
Doing Bad by Doing "Good"
One of the surest ways to do something bad, is to try and do something good without thinking
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Hadden Turner @haddenturner.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
Teaching little children to love nature is one of themes important things were can do. The future of habitats great and small may depend on it.
overthefield.substack.com
Creation In the Hands of Our Children
The greatest need for the creation is for our children to love it
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Hadden Turner @haddenturner.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
Sometimes, conservation can be delicious overthefield.substack.com/p/eating-pro...
overthefield.substack.com
Eating Proper Cheese to Save the Land
Supporting good farming through eating good food
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Hadden Turner @haddenturner.bsky.social · 23/05/2026
Boring lawns are the expected aesthetic norm for the modern garden — but a lawn is a terrible place for wildlife. The modern monstrosity which goes by the name of the artificial “lawn” is even worse. Nonconformist gardeners aim to garden in convivial ways: overthefield.substack.com/p/nonconform...
overthefield.substack.com
Nonconformist Gardening
Gardening for the good of creation is our noble privilege
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Hadden Turner @haddenturner.bsky.social · 09/05/2026
There is a cost to reading Wendell Berry - a potentially life-changing cost, and one I am still paying. overthefield.substack.com/p/the-cost-o...
overthefield.substack.com
The Cost Of Reading Wendell Berry
"Is it good?" is the question Wendell Berry constantly asks us. It's a question which demands a response.
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Reposted by Hadden Turner
Hadden Turner @haddenturner.bsky.social · 13/10/2025
An essay written with university students in mind who are away from home for the first time. Wherever you are, for however long, you can still be a blessing to your place. #rooted thedispatch.com/article/loca...
thedispatch.com
Practicing Rootedness in an Uprooted Age
How to tie yourself to a place—even if it’s temporary.
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Reposted by Hadden Turner
Plough Quarterly @plough.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
“If we learn to value the crafts again, viewing them not only as luxuries or hobbies but as an essential part of our societies, the future might be one where the crafts and craftsmen thrive.” @haddenturner.bsky.social
plough.com
Craftland
Many traditional crafts have been lost and more are threatened, but we can learn to value them again.
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Reposted by Hadden Turner
Hadden Turner @haddenturner.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
Topics: Agrarianism, creation stewardship, localism, and ecology. Influences: Wendell Berry, Paul Kingsnorth, James Rebanks, Roger Scruton, James C. Scott, 20th C. English Agrarians. My writing at 'Over the Field'. overthefield.substack.com
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Hadden Turner @haddenturner.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
Topics: Agrarianism, creation stewardship, localism, and ecology. Influences: Wendell Berry, Paul Kingsnorth, James Rebanks, Roger Scruton, James C. Scott, 20th C. English Agrarians. My writing at 'Over the Field'. overthefield.substack.com
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Hadden Turner @haddenturner.bsky.social · 13/10/2025
An essay written with university students in mind who are away from home for the first time. Wherever you are, for however long, you can still be a blessing to your place. #rooted thedispatch.com/article/loca...
thedispatch.com
Practicing Rootedness in an Uprooted Age
How to tie yourself to a place—even if it’s temporary.
061
Hadden Turner @haddenturner.bsky.social · 27/08/2025
The tragedy of what happened at Sycamore Gap has never been far from my mind. And finally, I have managed to write something which I think touches on the gravity of what happened - and why it should concern us all. overthefield.substack.com/p/all-that-w...
overthefield.substack.com
All That We've Lost
On the tragedy of 'absolute loss' in the countryside
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Hadden Turner @haddenturner.bsky.social · 27/08/2025
Latest essay on Over the Field explores the theme of loss in the British countryside, especially those losses that we will never get back. overthefield.substack.com/p/all-that-w...
overthefield.substack.com
All That We've Lost
On the tragedy of 'absolute loss' in the countryside
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Hadden Turner @haddenturner.bsky.social · 21/08/2025
I enjoyed looking round some spectacular half-timbered churches recently in the Staffordshire-Cheshire borderlands. However, one little church among the three I visited, was engaged in a quite extraordinary form of deception… thevillagegreen.substack.com/p/the-little...
thevillagegreen.substack.com
The Little Church That Was Not All That It Seemed...
Half-timbered delights in the Staffordshire-Cheshire borders
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Hadden Turner @haddenturner.bsky.social · 21/08/2025
On the Cultivate Course I am doing at Crosslands Seminary, we are going to read this little book over the next few months. It is densely packed with life-giving wisdom for the writer and the intellectual. This thread will be an ongoing repository of the wisdom I mine from its pages.
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Hadden Turner @haddenturner.bsky.social · 20/08/2025
What are the best books on agrarianism, techno-scepticism, creation care, and rurality? I give my opinions here: overthefield.substack.com/p/books-from...
overthefield.substack.com
Books From My Shelves
A Curated Agrarian Reading List
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Hadden Turner @haddenturner.bsky.social · 16/08/2025
Latest essay is on the broken economics of our food system, based on a quote from H.J. Massingham overthefield.substack.com/p/where-do-f...
overthefield.substack.com
Where Do Farmers Get Their Food From?
The answer is logical, rational, and ludicrous
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Hadden Turner @haddenturner.bsky.social · 05/08/2025
The top 11 books that define my writing at Over the Field The best (in my opinion) books on agrarianism, creation care, and rural philosophy. overthefield.substack.com
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Hadden Turner @haddenturner.bsky.social · 13/06/2025
Intergenerational transfer of precious knowledge is vitally important. And with each passing day, and each passing death of a 'living library', we are running out of time. overthefield.substack.com/p/the-living...
overthefield.substack.com
The Living Library Apocalypse
What will we do when all of the old folk are gone? What precious things will die out with them?
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Hadden Turner @haddenturner.bsky.social · 31/05/2025
In a world of sometimes overwhelming scale, agrarianism offers a refuge for humanity, where our limits can be embraced and affections realised. This is what I argued in a recent reflection with some help from Wendell Berry overthefield.substack.com/p/unfathomab...
overthefield.substack.com
Unfathomable Numbers
Wisdom From the Agrarians: Humanity struggles to cope with big numbers
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Hadden Turner @haddenturner.bsky.social · 24/05/2025
Spent a few hours yesterday sitting in the presence of a pair of Pied Wagtails. Their ability to catch flying insects mid air (including when they already have a mouthful) is quite extraordinary.
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Hadden Turner @haddenturner.bsky.social · 22/05/2025
An essay on what I believe Wendell Berry would say about the whole Martian Manifest Destiny nonsense that was doing the rounds earlier in the year. #mars #soilhealth overthefield.substack.com/p/our-manife...
overthefield.substack.com
Our 'Manifest Destiny' is the Soil on Which We Stand
We should protect the planet we already have rather than try to colonise Mars
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Hadden Turner @haddenturner.bsky.social · 13/05/2025
In his essay, The Total Economy, Wendell Berry notes that though the awareness and publicity of problems is a good and necessary thing, as problems rise in the public consciousness and become ‘popular problems’, this can lead to a new problem - that of oversimplification...
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Hadden Turner @haddenturner.bsky.social · 12/05/2025
“Power deals efficiently with numbers that affection cannot recognise” - Wendell Berry However, as this piece shows, power can also deal 'destructively' with numbers affection cannot recognise - as happened when 18,000 cows exploded on a factory farm. overthefield.substack.com/p/a-grim-par...
overthefield.substack.com
A Grim Parable of the Modern Food System
18,000 cows went up in smoke but will we learn our lesson?
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Hadden Turner @haddenturner.bsky.social · 01/05/2025
"The deciders should have to live with the results of their decisions." Wendell Berry arguing in 'The Whole Horse' that local decision making should be made by those invested in and rooted to their local places.
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Hadden Turner @haddenturner.bsky.social · 30/04/2025
Beautiful understory in Oxenber wood, North Yorkshire. So many primroses in amongst the bluebells.
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Hadden Turner @haddenturner.bsky.social · 30/04/2025
Friends of Friendless Churches featured an article on Church Kneelers in their journal. Ever since, I have been hooked on documenting these important pieces of localist art. This post documents some of my findings and advocates for their preservation thevillagegreen.substack.com/p/preserving...
thevillagegreen.substack.com
Preserving the Art of the Faithful
Bringing to light localist art: church kneelers.
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Hadden Turner @haddenturner.bsky.social · 28/04/2025
Seems like a good time to repost this in light of the chaos in Spain and Portugal. The importance of redundancy and analog back-ups in a world of digital vulnerability. overthefield.substack.com/p/when-every...
overthefield.substack.com
When Everything Stops
The Blue Screen Of Death and the importance of redundancy
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Hadden Turner @haddenturner.bsky.social · 26/04/2025
What does a diet that benefits our local place look like? What does a diet that loves our neighbour look like? These are the questions I unpack here: overthefield.substack.com/p/consuming-...
overthefield.substack.com
Consuming Like a Localist
Our local places can provide almost all of our needs, but not all of our wants.
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Hadden Turner @haddenturner.bsky.social · 25/04/2025
What does a diet that benefits our local place look like? That is the question I try and unpack here: overthefield.substack.com/p/consuming-...
overthefield.substack.com
Consuming Like a Localist
Our local places can provide almost all of our needs, but not all of our wants.
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Hadden Turner @haddenturner.bsky.social · 25/04/2025
"Our local places may be able to satisfy almost all of our needs, but it won’t be able to satisfy all of our wants." "We need to consume in a manner which demonstrates that we really do love our neighbour and the land we live on." overthefield.substack.com/p/consuming-...
overthefield.substack.com
Consuming Like a Localist
Our local places can provide almost all of our needs, but not all of our wants.
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Hadden Turner @haddenturner.bsky.social · 18/04/2025
John Stewart Collis deserves to be better known than he is. He was an insightful, humble, and charming nature/agrarian writer.
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Hadden Turner @haddenturner.bsky.social · 14/04/2025
As Lent draws to a close, here is a essay on how this goose was at the centre of a Lenten controversy, a controversy so severe that it reputedly required a papal injunction to declare that the barnacle goose is a bird - not a fish. overthefield.substack.com/p/the-curiou...
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Hadden Turner @haddenturner.bsky.social · 10/04/2025
Phenomenal book
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Hadden Turner @haddenturner.bsky.social · 04/04/2025
Is this a goose or is this a fish? It is almost unfathomable, but this really was a pressing issue in the medieval period. My latest piece is on this controversial bird and one of the most surreal moments in natural history overthefield.substack.com/p/the-curiou...
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Hadden Turner @haddenturner.bsky.social · 02/04/2025
Are weeds agricultural sinners or ecological saints? Calling a plant "a weed" or "a wildflower" is a significant act that determines how we perceive the plant in front of us. #naturewriting overthefield.substack.com/p/weeds-as-s...
overthefield.substack.com
Weeds as Sinners, Weeds as Saints
The names we give nature matter
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Hadden Turner @haddenturner.bsky.social · 06/03/2025
Lambing time is imminent up here in the Yorkshire Dales and in this reflection I chart its joys and laments overthefield.substack.com/p/the-joys-a...
overthefield.substack.com
The Joys and Laments of Lambing
The life of the shepherd is bound up with his sheep
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Hadden Turner @haddenturner.bsky.social · 06/03/2025
Lambing time is imminent up here in the Yorkshire Dales and in this reflection I chart its joys and laments overthefield.substack.com/p/the-joys-a...
overthefield.substack.com
The Joys and Laments of Lambing
The life of the shepherd is bound up with his sheep
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Hadden Turner @haddenturner.bsky.social · 04/03/2025
Delighted to have my first book review published in the Plough on a wonderfully delicious book: 'The Apple' by Sally Coulthard. An incredibly well researched history of this humble but delicious fruit. www.plough.com/en/topics/cu...
plough.com
A Delicious History of a Humble Fruit
Hadden Turner reviews Sally Coulthard's book The Apple: A Delicious History.
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Hadden Turner @haddenturner.bsky.social · 03/03/2025
A selection of some extraordinary churches visited recently in the North York Moors area. If you want to see more like this then visit my publication concerning all things Rural Britain: thevillagegreen.substack.com
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Hadden Turner @haddenturner.bsky.social · 19/02/2025
Why money (or a lot of it) can be a curse to a community - and how to deal with it. "Waste" it. overthefield.substack.com/p/the-curse-...
overthefield.substack.com
The Curse of Excess Money
On the perils of the Mammon Parasite
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Reposted by Hadden Turner
Ewan Allinson @ewanallinson.bsky.social · 10/02/2025
I'm going to start posting about my work on the philosophical horizons of local knowledge. My UK case studies include hill farmers and crofters. #Heidegger and #Dewey are the key philosophers for grounding this work. I hope you'll enjoy. #LocalKnowledge #FieldPhilosophy #GrassrootsOntology
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Hadden Turner @haddenturner.bsky.social · 10/02/2025
David Fleming, author of Lean Logic, is quickly becoming one of my chief philosophical influences. Much of this essay is based on Fleming’s concept of Intentional Waste - a concept greatly needed in our world built on never-ending growth and consumption. overthefield.substack.com/p/the-curse-...
overthefield.substack.com
The Curse of Excess Money
On the perils of the Mammon Parasite
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Hadden Turner @haddenturner.bsky.social · 07/02/2025
When the chancellor is preaching grow, grow, grow, perhaps what we need to do instead is waste money (per David Fleming) overthefield.substack.com/p/the-curse-...
overthefield.substack.com
The Curse of Excess Money
On the perils of the Mammon Parasite
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Hadden Turner @haddenturner.bsky.social · 03/02/2025
From Wendell Berry. Relevant for the times we are living in. Essay: Money Versus Goods.
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Hadden Turner @haddenturner.bsky.social · 27/01/2025
"You are limited and that is a very good thing" and "Limits are there for our flourishing - embrace them" These two statements represent the core philosophy that underpins my writing and my essays on this theme can be found here: overthefield.substack.com/p/goodness-o...
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Hadden Turner @haddenturner.bsky.social · 21/01/2025
Did you know that this harmless creature once slew a king? overthefield.substack.com/p/seldom-see...
overthefield.substack.com
Seldom Seen, But Much Noticed
A reflection on the Mole
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