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Culture 2000

European Union

 

The People's Voice

The Bowland forest in northeast Lancashire stretches over 800 km² and has been described as one of the best-preserved and most remote English moorlands. In contrast, the Lune valley boasts a wide and flat valley floor, which is nowadays divided into many equal-sized pastures. Moorlands and Valley complement one another in providing the necessary basis for maintaining human settlement. The traces of human settlement are manifold and span the time from prehistoric settlements over roman roads up to medieval castles. Besides this there are numerous remains from early industrial times like quarries, lime burning ovens or charcoal piles. Despite this, the area has scarcely been studied in the past.

Since 1994, English Heritage - the national organisation for protecting and promoting historical heritage - is leading an England-wide program to help understand the historic and archaeological dimension of the present landscape. It incorporates and serves numerous aspects including education, research, landscape management, appropriate and sustainable agricultural development, spatial planning and environment impact assessment.

Incorporating the local communities and organisations is an especially important feature of the project. Public awareness for the immediate surrounds, local perception and emotional binding to the area, even mythological association with the landscape are of paramount importance for understanding a cultural landscape. For this reason, many platforms are created where general and community-specific assemblies, schools and local groups can discuss and learn about matters concerning cultural landscape.

One example for the active dialogue with "users" of the cultural landscape of the Bowland area and the Lune Valley is a survey, which was conducted in Beacon Fell Country Park in June 2002. The aim was to lead discussions directly with park visitors, to discover and examine visitor expectations and desires for cultural landscape experiences. As so often it was difficult for visitors to distinguish between nature and culture. Most consider cultural landscape to be an area, where aspects of both exist and make up a unit. It is an area of peace and solitude, a place to go walking and picnicking. Another example showing how the term "cultural landscape" is mediated was the excursion to the ramparts of Bleasdale, where local scholars surveyed and subsequently "reconstructed" the structure in sketches or drawings. Additional questionnaires and hands-on practical work with local schools will help to further complete the picture of the "users" of cultural landscapes, who they are and what their needs and wishes are.


 

Perceptions
The Bleasdale project

 

  
design: Kai M. Wurm
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