Plan to protect National Park’s heritage
A BLUEPRINT to protect the Yorkshire Dales National Park’s outstanding cultural heritage has been unveiled as the body charged with its conservation has warned of the scale of the task it faces to preserve the world-famous landscapes.
The Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority has approved its first cultural heritage strategy in a decade to step up the restoration of historic features synonymous with its landscapes, such stone barns, drystone walls, former lead mines and ridge and furrow ploughing patterns dating from the Middle Ages.
It is estimated there are more than 4,000 field barns within the National Park, although half of them have been assessed as being in a “poor or very bad” condition.
Gary Smith, the authority’s conservation director, said the strategy would enable a more coordinated approach to dealing with listed buildings at risk.
While he claimed some buildings are easier to conserve, other historic structures, such as the crumbling Victorian Yore Mill at Aysgarth Falls, required far more complex solutions.
He said: “What we can’t be trying to do is five or six Yore Mills all at the same time. We just haven’t got the capacity to do that.”
Mr Smith added: “The historical environment is more visible here than it is in almost any other part of the country.”
Key elements of the strategy include continuing to make use of the authority’s cultural heritage volunteers to carry out programmes of condition surveys and undertake maintenance works as well as focusing on geographically-targeted conservation projects.
During the transition period for Brexit, the strategy aims to support farmers and landowners to continue to deliver a range of public benefits through national agri-environment schemes and other similar initiatives, and monitor take-up.
By 2022, the strategy is aiming to have secured significant funding to repair, restore and, where appropriate, find new uses for traditional field barns, particularly in Swaledale, Arkengarthdale and Littondale.
Meanwhile, the North York Moors National Park Authority has set its largest ever financial budget, despite its government grant dwindling to less than the income of an average secondary school.
Members of the authority, which looks after 700 scheduled monuments, 3,000 listed buildings, the largest expanse of heather moorland in England and Wales and 26 miles of coastline, have agreed to use £12m of resources alongside an expected government grant of £4.5m.
The extra revenue has been raised largely through grants and cutting costs by employing an army of volunteers.
The budget marks the latest high in a sea change for the authority since the searing cuts began in 2010. In 2011/12, while the grant from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs was £5.1m, the authority’s total expenditure stood at £7.1m.