13 years ago on 25th April 2011, the world’s first live-streamed village cricket match took place in Wray, Lancashire and was broadcast globally via Twitter. The idea, shared between consultant John Popham and farmer-turned-DIY-internet-engineer Chris Conder, was made a reality thanks to Professor Nick Race and his researchers at Lancaster University, who provided the Wray community with high-speed internet access as part of their ongoing research.

The story begins back in 2003. At the time, Lancaster University’s Information System Services (ISS) were delivering internet connections to schools across Cumbria and Lancashire as part of CLEO (Cumbria and Lancashire Education Online). This included the provision of internet services to schools located in extremely remote parts of the region. But what about the local rural communities surrounding those schools? At that time, they only had access to slow, unreliable, dial-up internet services. Frustrated farmer Chris Conder, who was living and working out in Wray, approached Lancaster University to explore whether it could also help in providing internet access to the wider community. The e-mail from Chris landed in Professor Race’s inbox, and from there, the Wray Living Lab was born.

Chris, Professor Race, and a team of researchers at Lancaster spent the next years developing a wireless network across Wray. The network was transformational: suddenly a community had access to always-on internet at speeds unimaginable in rural areas. A key characteristic of the service was that it was “symmetrical” – which means that it offered both equal upload and download speeds. In 2011, after a Twitter exchange with Chris and a local keen on keeping up-to-date with his cricket team online, John Popham floated the idea of live-streaming the cricket match being held in Wray as a part of the annual Scarecrow Festival. The aim was to showcase to the world the possibility – and the necessity – of a good internet connection within a rural community.

“Whilst we might take it for granted today” remarked Professor Race, “the ability for users to be content creators, for example, by streaming live video to audiences right across the Internet, was hugely challenging for rural communities back in 2011. Slow internet access, coupled with an even slower “upload” rate, represented key barriers. Our research infrastructure across Wray, however, was not only significantly faster but also “symmetrical”, thus enabling us to deliver the world’s first live-streamed village cricket match”.

The stream was a massive hit with over 2000 live views, and captured the attention of the BBC, local and national radio stations, and even Stephen Fry! As Popham said after the event in his blog, “the point is that putting the cricket match up front made people turn their heads in my direction and I then had a platform from which to make some serious points about countryside connectivity.” Many farmers like Chris are hugely reliant upon the internet to perform vital tasks such as registering or purchasing livestock, so the Wray Living Lab served as a lifeline to those living in remote regions to help them get connected and maintain their businesses – as well as allowing other locals to reap the rewards brought by stable internet.

“The Living Lab” said Chris, “was proof that with the proper help and support, that people could help themselves. They learnt how to build networks, both digitally and with the community. A network of people grew, and they knew that the University couldn’t help them forever – and because they had access to like-minded people throughout the country via their internet connections, they worked out a plan”.

The research at Lancaster revealed the latent power and potential of rural communities to take ownership of their digital infrastructure and was the first step towards the creation and development of B4RN. B4RN, a community enterprise set up off the back of the Wray Living Lab, is a not-for-profit company which helps rural communities lay their own fibre cables for ultra-fast internet connections. Since 2013, the company has laid over 5 million metres of cable, connected 14K rural homes to the internet, and landed Chris and Barry Forde (CEO of B4RN) an MBE for their services to the community.

Chris notes that “none of this (B4RN’s success) would have been possible without Professor Race and his team whose research developed the underpinning ethos of community involvement that B4RN relies upon, as well as investigating possible technologies to use”.