THE results of a six-month collaboration between three Dales schools, an historian a farming family and a photographer go on show this weekend.

The Dales Countryside Museum, in Hawes, hosts the A Way of Life exhibition, which includes both photographic and audio displays recording elements of the cultural heritage of Swaledale.

Rod Smith has used his camera to capture the daily working life of the Porter family, of Riddings Farm, near Reeth.

Meanwhile, recordings have been made by oral history worker Lynne Fox, who interviewed different generations of the same family.

Their work will be accompanied by photographs and recordings taken by pupils from the primary schools in Reeth, Gunnerside and Arkengarthdale after Mr Smith and Ms Fox ran workshops at each.

Museum manager Fiona Rosher said: "The exhibition is much more than that, it is the culmination of a project that has encouraged an interest in the recording of Swaledale's cultural heritage.

"By running the project and, ultimately, hosting this exhibition, we want to celebrate the fact that cultural heritage is important and that it is vital it is preserved."

Funding for the project came from the Friends of the Dales Countryside Museum, after a successful application for £5,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund's Awards for All scheme.

The project will be used to encourage other communities to record the cultural heritage of their areas and will feed into a larger oral history and visual arts project already planned for the future.

The exhibition opens on Sunday and will run until Wednesday, June 12. Entry to all the exhibitions is free and the museum is open daily between 10am and 5pm.