Prompted by the proposed large-scale development of the fields around the village of Murton, North Tyneside, This Was All Fields, seeks to record the ecology and landscape characteristics of this area and explore what will be lost when 2,700 new houses are built here. Working with environmental scientists over a period of ten years the project seeks to record, analyse and present a picture of the landscape of Murton pre, during and post housing development. What is lost will be recorded through scientific analysis and series of artistic projects. So far, this has included documentation through drawing, painting, film and photography, art workshops and walks with children from Langley First School (a school overlooking the fields), interviews with residents, a survey sent to 600 households, a sound piece with writer and composer Martin Heslop, bird surveys with naturalist and local resident Sam Fisher, pollen analysis with Dr Eline van Asperen, palaeoecologist and archaeological scientist and a botany walk with James Common, Senior Naturalist at Natural History Society of Northumbria. The initial part of this project is exhibited at the Farrell Centre, Newcastle University from September-December 2024.

A Guide to the Murton fields sits alongside the exhibition, which includes information about the history of the area, the ecology and the meaning they hold for local people. The digital version can be viewed here.