"Capturing the Past in the Present": East Devon AONB: 2014 conference at the Norman Lockyer Observatory

Earlier last month saw the Norman Lockyer Observatory host the East Devon AONB 2014 conference - with all sorts of interesting cross-over themes:

Capturing the Past in the Present: Sidmouth, 12 April

The East Devon AONB Partnership announces its 2014 conference: Capturing the Past in the Present. Held at the Norman Lockyer Observatory on 12th April, it showcases the HEAP (Historic Environment Action Plan) project, featuring Woodbury and Branscombe; and the work on historic orchards by the East Devon Local History Societies Group. >

Capturing the Past in the Present
East Devon AONB - Historic Environment Conference
Saturday 12 April 2014
Norman Lockyer Observatory, Sidmouth

The 20;4 East Devon AONB Historic Environment Conference builds on six years of similar annual conferences generated by the East Devon AONB, the Parishscapes Project, and the recently completed Peter Orlando Hutchinson Project.

The theme of this year's conference, 'Capturing the Past in the Present' echoes the way in which English Heritage and other organisations tackle the past in our landscape, taking what is actually there today as their starting point. The presentations at the conference do in fact showcase two strands of current AONB involvement in the historic environment of East Devon: the HEAP project (Historic Environment Action Plan), featuring Woodbury and Branscombe (financed by English Heritage), and the work on historic orchards that the East Devon Local History Societies Group, meeting under the aegis of the AONB, have carried out in the last three years.

Programme
> Introduction to the day - Chris Woodruff (Manager - East Devon AONB Partnership)
> "Layers in time: exploring and managing the past in East Devon’s landscape" - Emma Rouse (Wyvern Consultants)
> "Cultural-ecological insights into landscape history" - Prof Patrick Dillon (University of Exeter)
> "The biodiversity of our cultural heritage: Ponds, Plats and Pits" - Sue Dymond (Landscape Historian)
> "Conserving and managing historic orchards" - Tom Nancarrow (Pip and Stone)
> "Assessing our historic orchards: the Devon History Society Orchards Project" - Phil Planel and Martin Smith (Devon History Society)
> "Woodbury – its changing face and landscape secrets" - Roger Stokes (Woodbury History Society)
> "Branscombe landscapes lost and found" - Barbara Farquharson and John Torrance (Branscombe Project)

This event is coordinated by the East Devon AONB Partnership, in conjunction with Wyvern Heritage and Landscape with support from English Heritage.

Click here for downloadable flyer and booking slip.

For further information please contact the AONB team:
T: 01404 46663
E-mail: info@eastdevonaonb.org.uk


Devon History Society: Capturing the Past in the Present: Sidmouth, 12 April
Areas of outstanding natural beauty (AONBs) - Landscapes for Life
East Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty - Welcome - East Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
Wyvern Heritage and Landscape Consultancy: News
www.eastdevon.gov.uk/eventsapriljune2014.pdf

There are currently two projects in East Devon - with approaches which could be adopted in other parishes:

Historic Environment Action Plan

 

The East Devon AONB Partnership is taking an innovative approach to explore how the traditional top down model of creating strategic landscape wide Historic Environment Action Plans can be effectively combined with a community led bottom up approach. Working closely with community contacts, the project will complement existing heritage action in the AONB as well as help guide future policy delivery in East Devon.

The project consists of two interrelated strands:

• A top down Historic Environment Action Plan will be created for the Areas within the existing Landscape Character Assessment,  building on and enhancing the Landscape Character Assessment Management Guidelines for the AONB

The first part of this top down approach was to identify the historic character present in each Landscape Character Area in the AONB. This included the development of a methodology for nesting the Devon Historic Landscape Character assessment within the preexisting Landscape Character Area. This methodology has been used to create draft historic character descriptions.Download Draft Historic Character Descriptions

• The bottom up approach will be developed for two parishes within the East Devon AONB encouraging the proactive and effective engagement of communities in the active management of historic and archaeological aspects of the AONB

The first parish we are working with is Branscombe. Under the lead of the Branscombe Project, this parish has a range of subjects of interest including hydraulics, springs and routeways. The Project runs a series of autumn and spring walks, talks and workshops which anyone is welcomed to join in on. See http://www.branscombeproject.org.uk/ for more details. Branscombe is trialing the creation of a local level Historic Landscape Characterisation.

The second parish is Woodbury, spearheaded by the Woodbury Historical Society. Subjects of interest here include hydraulics, the Military archaeology of Woodbury Common and disappeared houses.Most recently residents of Woodbury Salerton have expressed interest in a mapping workshop looking at local historic landscape data.

 

Progress with the community projects is documented in the last minutes of the HEAP steering group

- Downland Last Steering Group Meeting Minutes – Jan 2014

The next step in the project will be the identification of the significance of historic features in the landscape. 
See Discussion paper on Significance

Please get in touch if you would like more information or would like to be involved further in any of the parish work by contacting Emma Rouse, Wyvern Heritage and Landscape on 01725 517417 or at emma@wyvernheritage.co.uk

To view the press release of the project launch click here

East Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty - Historic Environment Action Plan
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