Making a living in Dentdale has never been easy. Situated in one of the most remote and beautiful areas of west Yorkshire where the rolling limestone Dales meet the most rugged gritstone fells of eastern Cumbria, life on the little farmsteads followed a relentless seasonal pattern.

Lambing in early spring was succeeded by harvesting the lush meadow grass in summer for animal fodder, followed by the laying-down in autumn of home-cured meat and other provisions for human survival in winter as the great diurnal cycle of the year rolled on. Births, marriages and deaths, good times, bad times and all the continuing daily tasks, both large and small, are recalled at the Centre in a variety of displays, scale models and reconstructions, all illustrating vividly how the hardy Dalesfolk coped in those far-off times with nothing more than the simplest of tools hand-crafted from the natural materials of wood, iron ore and other elements to be found locally.