Who is the partnership made up of? Expand A small working group set up to establish the partnership includes: Cumbria County Council, Cumbria Wildlife Trust, Friends of the Lake District, the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority, Natural England, The Woodland Trust, Cumbria Geoconservation, Eden Rivers Trust, Cumbria Farm Environment Partnership, the Farmer Network, and Lunesdale Archaeology Society. There will also be a wider partnership group made up of a broad range of interests that will help steer the project’s development.
Why is the partnership and project needed? Expand In 1947, the National Parks Committee chaired by Sir Arthur Hobhouse changed the way we view our landscapes forever. Out of their landmark report (the Hobhouse report) came the creation of Britain’s first national parks. Their purpose was to recognise and conserve, but also increase access to landscapes deemed to be ‘of national importance and quality’. However, the Westmorland Dales/Orton Fells were left out of the creation of Britain’s first national parks through a fluke of administration. Thus this nationally acclaimed landscape became hidden for the next 50 years, overshadowed by its neighbours The Lake District and Yorkshire Dales National Parks. In 2005 Friends of the Lake District published its ‘forgotten landscapes’ report. The purpose was to gain national park status for the Westmorland Dales (including the Orton Fells and N Howgills). Natural England assessed the case and following extensive public consultation agreed the special qualities and recreational assets of the area still warranted National Park status 50 years on. In 2012 a legal Order was issued, to include these Westmorland Dales in the Yorkshire Dales National Park, and a public inquiry held in 2013. In October 2015 we heard that the Orders have been confirmed and the area of the Westmorland Dales will become part of the Yorkshire Dales National Park on 1 Aug 2016.
What does the partnership aim to do? Expand Our vision is to reveal and protect the hidden heritage of the Westmorland Dales, enabling more people to connect with, enjoy and benefit from this inspirational landscape. Our project will reveal the hidden heritage of the Westmorland Dales; a remote and beautiful limestone landscape, historically much travelled, but rarely explored. We will unlock and reveal the rich heritage of the area, encouraging people to linger and connect with this inspirational landscape. We will ensure that the exceptional natural and cultural heritage of the area is recorded, interpreted, conserved and managed appropriately, providing an essential foundation for the “new” National Park. We will bring together communities, farmers and businesses, facilitating a holistic approach to land management and a stronger socio-economic base benefitting the future care and conservation of the area. We will share the distinctiveness of this special place with visitors, ensuring that our legacy is a place where people linger, learn and return. The legacy of the project will be maintaining this unique landscape, its quiet and unspoilt nature. It will provide skills and training for the local community so they can help bring their heritage into better condition. It will provide resources and encourage tourism businesses to make the most of their unique ‘sense of place’. Working through partnership this project will provide the building block for the next stage of the future of the area – as it is revealed through National Park status. Our project has three overarching aims built upon the three broad themes of our vision: 1: HIDDEN > REVEAL To unlock and reveal the rich, spectacular, but hidden heritage of the Westmorland Dales. 2: FORGOTTEN > PROTECT AND CHERISH To conserve and enhance the forgotten landscape and heritage of the Westmorland Dales ensuring that the landscape is protected and cherished; in so doing to provide a strong foundation for the “new” National Park. 3: JOURNEYING THROUGH > LINGER AND LEARN To provide opportunities for those journeying through the Westmorland Dales to linger in the landscape and learn about its rich cultural and natural heritage.
What projects will you run? Expand Our projects are grouped into three areas of work broadly relating to these themes although many projects will deliver against more than one. In addition we have a cross cutting aim that will be delivered across all three themes - To ensure the sustainability of our project and its long term legacy by bringing together communities, farmers and businesses, to build skills, capacity and understanding, thereby ensuring a strong and secure socio-economic base for the future care and conservation of the area. HIDDEN > REVEALED The projects proposed for this theme are: - Revealing the Foundations - will reveal and conserve important geological sites throughout the area, increasing people’s understanding of the link between geology and building materials and improving access, visibility and information. - Walls, Tofts and Strip Enclosures - will carry out historic and condition surveys, and where appropriate repairs, of walls enclosing the long narrow medieval strip enclosures – tofts - and other significant walls in the landscape such as the medieval deer park walls at Ravenstonedale. - Sense of Place - will involve local people in the identification, conservation and interpretation of small scale man-made landscape features, such as boundary markers, churn stands, pole gate stoops and sheep folds, and also of local traditions, place names and folklore which provide a tangible link to past generations and contribute to local distinctiveness. - Traditional Buildings - will involve local people in the survey and recording of traditional buildings throughout the project area. A database of plans and photographs will be collated and a summary document of significant local building styles and features collated. Important buildings in need of repair will be identified. - Local Archaeological Surveys - will involve the community in the identification and survey of the diverse range of historical and archaeological landscape features surviving on Orton, Asby and Birkett Commons. - Through the Keyhole at Little Asby - will train volunteers in excavation and recording techniques, and undertake keyhole excavation of sites on Little Asby Common to gain valuable evidence for dating and chronology of these often multi-phased sites. - Our Common Heritage - will focus on common land, commoners and commoning in the project area. Themed oral history research will be carried out by volunteers working with Commoners. Photographs of past heritage and activities will be collected. - Love your Landscape - will provide small grants for local communities and organisations to explore, unlock, share and care for aspects of their local landscape. FORGOTTEN > PROTECTED AND CHERISHED Projects proposed under this theme are: - Monuments at Risk - will focus on three Scheduled Monuments within the project area classed as at risk by Historic England; Smardale Limekiln, Crosby Barrow and Sheiling. Work will involve survey, conservation and enhanced management, and also improved public access and information. - Grasslands are Great - will focus on species rich grasslands, primarily calcareous grassland, upland hay meadows and roadside verges. It will include the creation of a roadside verge nature reserve, celebration events and handy i.d. booklets as well as conservation and improved management of grasslands. - Hiding the Lines – this project will work to underground 200 metres of visually intrusive overhead lines in and around communities in the Westmorland Dales. - Woods, Trees and Hedges - will look at woods, trees and hedges across the landscape with a view to restoring connectivity, age structure and diversity. It will assess the condition of ghyll woodlands and the potential impact of ash dieback and other plant diseases, as well as the scope for improving resilience. It will also highlight the role of trees as vertical habitats in and around other high value natural habitats. - Skills for the Future: Apprenticeships - will create an environmental and cultural heritage conservation apprenticeship scheme based in the landscape. This will offer apprenticeships to 13 individuals. - Rough Fell Country - will build the capacity of the farming community to help them to sustain the cultural heritage of the area. It will also support two young people from the area through a Skills Development Programme which will arrange work experience on host farms coupled with a training bursary. - Securing the Future - will provide additional training for volunteers and establish a framework for the coordination and promotion of volunteering opportunities in the area beyond the lifetime of the project. Many of the projects within the scheme will provide opportunities for volunteers to develop skills and work to conserve the landscape and its heritage. - Changing the Course, Slowing the Flow – will undertake channel realignment, restoration of natural processes and bankside vegetation, and measures to slow the upstream flow rate in the Lyvennet and Scandal Beck, both tributaries of the Eden. JOURNEY > LINGER AND CONNECT Projects proposed under this theme are: - Drove Roads: a Meeting of the Ways - will look to increase understanding of the history of journeying through this landscape and explore links between the historic drove roads and modern long distance routes. Spurs and circular routes will be identified, improved and promoted. - Discovering the Westmorland Dales - will promote “themed trails’ based on the special qualities and cultural heritage of the area. Walks from the Settle to Carlisle railway line will be identified and opportunities to develop cycling in the area, will be explored as will opportunities to create routes for the less able. The project will work with walking festivals at Kirkby Stephen and the Ride2Stride based along the Settle to Carlisle line. - Distinctly Westmorland Dales - will work with local businesses to promote and encourage enjoyment of the area’s unique character and hidden heritage. Marketing material will be developed including a copyright free image library and ‘insider guides.’ Familiarisation days will be held. - Interpret, Understand and Appreciate- an interpretive plan will be prepared for the Westmorland Dales area; this will include provision of a website, leaflets and some boards. - Celebrating and Engaging – we will develop an engagement plan run, promote and coordinate events that complement the LPS and individual projects within it, including a strand for art based events and engagement. Work with schools will focus on the John Muir and Arts Awards schemes.
How is the work being funded? Expand A £3.5m grant to unlock and reveal the hidden heritage and landscape of the Westmorland Dales has been given initial approval¹ by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) through its Landscape Partnership (LP) programme². Ros Kerslake, Chief Executive of the Heritage Lottery Fund said, Our historic landscapes are incredibly important to people’s wellbeing and need to be protected. Some of the landscapes we are funding today are in the most remote parts of the UK; others form an important backdrop to some of our largest cities. What they all have in common is the potential to make people’s lives better, which is why they are so richly deserving of National Lottery money. A development grant of £317,204 has been awarded by HLF to enable Friends of the Lake District and the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority to develop their plans and seek final approval for the grant amount of £3.2m for implementation at a later date. Additional notes: ¹ HLF’s Landscape Partnership (LP) programme operates a two-stage grant approval process. Today’s announcement means that money has been set aside by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) for the scheme. The applicant initially receives development funding, then progresses to the second round and submits a further, fully-developed application to secure the full award. This early level of strong financial commitment means that Landscape Partnership projects can move forward with the assurance that funding for their scheme is in place provided that their final proposals fully meet the programme's criteria. ² HLF’s Landscape Partnerships are helping bring together members of the community as well as local, regional, and national organisations to deliver schemes which benefit some of the UK’s most outstanding landscapes and rural communities. Grants range from £100,000 up to £3m. The next closing date for LP applications is May 2017.
More information Expand For further information, contact David Evans at Friends of the Lake District. 01539 720788 or david-evans@fld.org.uk FootnoteNatural and cultural heritage includes wildlife, geology, buildings, scheduled monuments, oral history, landscape character, place names and traditions, etc.