Allerdale Heritage Strategy FINAL

A Heritage Strategy for Allerdale

October 2016 A Heritage Strategy for Allerdale October 2016 Contents

Execuve Summary page 4 1. Introducon page 5 2. Why Do We Want A Heritage Strategy? page 6 3. Our Vision For Heritage page 13 4. Understanding Our Story page 17 5. Caring for Our Heritage page 24 6. Sharing Our Heritage page 31 7. Engaging People page 33 8. Our Priories page 35

Report by:

Bowles Green Limited Vale House Oswaldkirk FOR York YO62 5YH

Contact: Judith Bowles or Steve Green

Tel: 01439 788980 Fax: 01439 788423 Mobile: 07919 373294 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.bowlesgreen.co.uk

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Acknowledgements

The consultants would like to thank staﬀ from Allerdale Borough Council, heritage organisaons in Allerdale and beyond and other stakeholders who have contributed their knowledge and ideas during the development of this plan. Document History

Name Circulaon/Purpose Wrien By Date

Dra Report(v2) Client steering group for discussion JB & SG 21st April 2016

Final Dra Report Client heritage group for ﬁnal comment JB & SG 4th May 2016 (v3)

Final Report Client for publicaon JB & SG 15th October 2016

Bowles Green Limited, Vale House, Oswaldkirk, North Yorkshire, YO62 5YH 3 Tel: 01439 788980 E-mail: [email protected] A Heritage Strategy for Allerdale October 2016 Execuve Summary

This document sets out a heritage strategy for Allerdale. Its purpose is to provide a strategic framework for heritage in the Borough that will enable Allerdale Borough Council to:

▪ Ensure that the natural and cultural heritage of the Borough is well cared for ▪ Opmise the economic, social and environmental beneﬁts of heritage for people who live, visit and work in Allerdale ▪ Ensure that the Council is meeng its statutory responsibilies ▪ Set priories for allocang resources to heritage

We need a heritage strategy for Allerdale because:

▪ Our natural and cultural heritage is internaonally important ▪ Some of our heritage is at risk from a range of internal and external factors ▪ Heritage can make a contribuon to health and well-being, economic development and other aspects of the lives of our residents and visitors to Allerdale

Our vision for heritage in Allerdale is that our important natural and cultural heritage are well cared for and in good condion. They are physically and intellectually accessible to residents and visitors and virtually for the beneﬁt of those who can’t visit. Heritage is valued by all; it helps generate a sense of identy and pride for our residents and it aracts visitors to come to Allerdale. Our heritage is seen by all as an important asset and it is the basis for a thriving visitor economy and for programmes of acvity that support health and well- being, learning and skills.

Our vision for heritage in Allerdale, set out above, will be delivered through four strategic priories - understanding, caring, sharing, and engaging as follows:

▪ Understanding our story - knowing what is most important about our heritage and ensuring that it is recorded ▪ Caring - ensuring our heritage is well-cared-for, that important heritage is protected through designaon, management and, where necessary, enforcement ▪ Sharing - making our heritage physically and intellectually accessible to all; animang our heritage ▪ Engaging - involving our community and partners in caring for and sharing our heritage

In order to implement our Heritage Strategy, we need to increase capacity for natural and cultural heritage management in the borough. This will mean:

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Introducon

Background

1.1 This document sets out a heritage strategy for Allerdale. Its purpose is to provide a strategic framework for heritage in the Borough that will enable Allerdale Borough Council to:

1.2 In addion, the Heritage Strategy provides a framework against which the Borough Council and other organisaons that manage and support heritage can judge the merits of emerging heritage projects.

1.3 Several years of cuts to local government funding (40% fall in central government funds between 2011 and 2015) have led the Council to focus on maintaining essenal services. To some extent this means that other areas, such as heritage, have had a lower priority, though the Council has connued to support both the natural and cultural heritage sectors. As a result, the Council is starng from a low base. This document is a starng point. It draws on consultaon conducted at the Coast of Allerdale in the winter of 2015/161 and on stakeholder consultaon conducted speciﬁcally to inform a heritage strategy for Allerdale. ‘A Heritage Strategy for Allerdale’ describes why Allerdale Borough Council needs a heritage strategy, summarises the natural and cultural heritage of the Borough, discusses the issues and opportunies around heritage and provides a framework for moving forwards.

1.4 This strategy is intended to demonstrate to residents, stakeholders, members and oﬃcers of the Council and potenal supporters that we have thought about our heritage and how it can contribute

1 Held to inform the development of Economic Plans for Maryport Area and Silloth-On-Solway Coastal Community Teams Bowles Green Limited, Vale House, Oswaldkirk, North Yorkshire, YO62 5YH 5 Tel: 01439 788980 E-mail: [email protected] A Heritage Strategy for Allerdale October 2016

to the Council’s aims, what is important about our heritage and what are the priories for acon. We recognise that we will need to develop and review the strategy as me moves on.

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Why Do We Want A Heritage Strategy?

A Remarkable Heritage

2.1 Few local authories in England can claim such a rich natural and cultural heritage as Allerdale. The Borough boasts a World Heritage Site, a Naonal Park and an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, as well as many natural and built heritage designaons including 21 conservaon areas, 1,000 naonally important buildings and a ‘Naonal Gem Town’. If the current bid to UNESCO, to designate the Lake District as a World Heritage Site, succeeds there will be two UNESCO WHSs in the Borough. Only 23 local authority areas in the world have two or more World Heritage Sites. In Europe, these are Brussels, London, Paris, Salzburg, Tivoli, the Vacan City, and Vienna!

2.2 The Allerdale Borough Council Plan 2015-19 recognises Allerdale’s diversity, rich history and stunning landscapes. The Allerdale Local Plan, adopted in 2014 contains 37 strategic policies and 17 development management policies, many of which are in place to safeguard and enhance the natural and cultural heritage of the Borough.

2.3 The Solway Firth, which has rich interdal, marsh, wetland and dune habitats is a key stopping place for migratory birds on the East Atlanc Flyway and a wintering ground for waders and wildfowl, including the enre Spitsbergen populaon of Barnacle Geese. It also has 10% of England’s remaining raised mires, an increasingly rare habitat and an important one in terms of biodiversity and carbon sequestraon.

2.4 Allerdale’s early cultural heritage is that of the froner, with Hadrian’s Wall, once part of the Kingdom of Scotland and the base for Edward I’s wars against the Scots. In the middle ages, the land was cleared, drained and improved by the Cistercian Monks of Holme Cultram Abbey. Later, the Senhouse and Curwen families exploited Allerdale’s natural resources on an industrial scale, developing the ports of Maryport and Workington, and Silloth developed as a port and Victorian holiday resort.

2.5 The Lake District was popularised by the Romanc Poets. It became a desnaon for tourists in Victorian mes and it now aracts visitors from all over the world. It is, arguably, the birthplace of the conservaon movement and Brandlehow, the Naonal Trust’s ﬁrst nature reserve, lies on the shore of Derwentwater.

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2.6 In modern mes, global economics have led to a local decline in the heavy industries - extracon, processing, ports, etc. - that employed large numbers of people in the towns of Workington and Maryport. These now have some of the most deprived communies in England, though they have also produced some notable arsts and there is a thriving local arsc culture.

Economic and Social Potenal

Economic and Social Context

2.7 Allerdale’s populaon of 96,000 people is concentrated in the south west, around Workington, Maryport and Cockermouth. Here, the populaon density is around 450 people per square kilometre. By contrast, the rural hinterland has a populaon density of just 50 people per square kilometre, with people living mainly in scaered hamlets and villages, and solitary farmsteads.

2.8 Allerdale’s populaon profile differs from the England average in two key respects. Firstly, there are higher proporons of people aged over 50 and correspondingly lower proporons of people aged under 30. Secondly the proporon of people from black and minority ethnic (BAME) communies is significantly lower than the naonal average. Just 0.6% of Allerdale residents class themselves as BAME compared to 8.7% for England.

2.9 The collapse of heavy industry and the recent economic downturn have aﬀected Allerdale adversely. The Borough is in the 30% most deprived local authority areas in England, according to the 2015 Index of Mulple Deprivaon. Levels of deprivaon vary widely. On the one hand, southern Cockermouth is in the least-deprived 10% of wards in England and Keswick, Seaton and Stainburn are in the top 20%. On the other hand, western parts of Workington (Moss Bay, Northside and Salterbeck) and Ewanrigg in Maryport are amongst the most deprived 10%. In general the most deprived areas are in the urban south-west of the Borough. Other measures, including home tenure and dwelling type, employment, health and educaon conﬁrm this paern.

2.10 The area of the Borough within and close to the Lake District Naonal Park has a high proporon of second homes. This has a signiﬁcant impact on house prices; homes in this area are the ‘least aﬀordable’ in the Borough. The economy here is dominated by the tourism industry with a high level of employment in accommodaon, food and drink and other tourism services.

2.11 The rural north has a scaered populaon. The key issue here is the lack of access to services. Here people look more towards Carlisle as their regional service centre than to Workington. In turn, economic acvity in Carlisle is driving up house prices in the north east of the Borough.

2.12 According to the Council’s Plan, residents’ concerns relate speciﬁcally to their local living condions, so residents of the urban south west are concerned about job prospects and aspects of the urban environment, residents in the Lake District are concerned about aﬀordable housing and those in the rural north are concerned about access to services.

2.13 Allerdale Borough Council has set clear priories to address the issues faced by the Borough around the mission of ‘Making Allerdale a great place to live, work and visit’. The priories are:

▪ Tackling inequality – reducing poverty and supporng people who face ﬁnancial diﬃcules ▪ Strengthening our economy – creang a strong, sustainable and vibrant local economy and creang jobs

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▪ Enhancing our towns – creang thriving towns that are aracve and welcoming, and retain their disncve characters ▪ Improving health and wellbeing – helping people live healthy lives and reducing health inequalies

The Natural Environment

2.14 The importance and economic and social value of the natural environment is increasingly well- understood. Our most important landscapes, habitats and species are protected under European and United Kingdom legislaon as well as a ra of internaonal and local level designaons, policies and agreements. To date we have been slow to exploit the economic potenal of our landscapes, ﬂora and fauna. The Solway Wetlands Partnership is beginning to do so and this will be a key area for us in the future.

2.15 Aracve landscapes and nature are increasingly recognised as important drivers for economic development through tourism as people’s curiosity about the natural world is converted into demand to visit, see and understand our wild places. Five per cent of all domesc holidays in England include nature watching and many more trips depend on the backdrop of aracve landscapes and places - for example the 17% of trips that involved a long walk and the 27% of trips that involved a short walk2.

2.16 More recently we have become aware of the benefits to people - especially to their health and well-being - to be gained from contact with nature. Research by the RSPB3 and MIND4 clearly demonstrates the health benefits of human interacon with nature in tackling mental and physical health problems, including obesity. As Dr Richard Bird, consultant to the RSPB puts it….”Logic would suggest that aer 10,000 generaons having to survive in a natural environment, human evoluon would have programmed our genes to perform best in a favoured natural environment of water, shelter, food and safety. By the same logic, it would be surprising if the rapid disconnecon of humans from nature in just a few generaons did not cause some difficulty…”.

2.17 Perhaps more topical are the results of human impacts on the natural environment. Whether you believe that climate change is anthropogenic or not, it is the case that severe weather events combined with, man’s work to drain the uplands, reduce tree cover and straighten rivers has had disastrous consequences for our towns and villages, especially those in the lower reaches of our river systems. Tradional methods of managing flooding proved to be inadequate and their future applicaon is likely to be uneconomic. By contrast, natural methods of slowing down the rate of flow of water in river catchments, for example the scheme recently piloted at Pickering Beck in North Yorkshire, have shown that natural soluons (grip-blocking, afforestaon, encouraging riparian vegetaon, damming, etc.) are cheap and effecve, and they benefit nature. A number of river catchments lie almost enrely in Allerdale (Derwent, Ellen, Waver, Wampool) and these are an opportunity to link flood management with enhancing nature conservaon.

Cultural Heritage

2.18 Funding for museums and culture has been falling for some years across the UK. Most of the museums in Allerdale and the Carnegie Theatre in Workington are now run by voluntary organisaons set up for that purpose. Allerdale Borough Council helps by providing rent and rate

2 Domestic Tourism Overview, 2014, Visit England

3 Natural Thinking: Investigating the Links Between the Natural Environment, Biodiversity and Mental Health, 2007, RSPB

4 Ecotherapy: The Green Agenda for Mental Health, 2007, MIND Bowles Green Limited, Vale House, Oswaldkirk, North Yorkshire, YO62 5YH 9 Tel: 01439 788980 E-mail: [email protected] A Heritage Strategy for Allerdale October 2016

free premises and insurance, along with some ﬁnancial support, for example for one-oﬀ capital projects (£180,000 for improvements at Helena Thompson Museum) and management fees for Helena Thompson and Maryport Marime Museums to manage parts of the Allerdale Museums Collecon. The Council is also transferring the ownership of public parks to Town Councils.

2.19 Museums and cultural facilies are developing diﬀerent strategies to meet this challenge and those in Allerdale are no excepon. Keswick Museum has been successful in aracng tourist visitors to high proﬁle exhibions (notably ‘Wainwright’) and in Workington, Helena Thompson Museum generates income from weddings and funcons. In Maryport, Senhouse Roman Museum is independent and it is run at minimal cost by a group of volunteers.

2.20 It is increasingly recognised that museums and cultural facilies (libraries, theatres, etc.) can deliver a range of public policies and wider beneﬁts for people. The Associaon of Independent Museums has recently challenged the sector to be ambious about the role of museums in society through “Museum’s Change Lives: A Vision for the Impact of Museums”. In this document AIM challenges museums to:

▪ Enhance well-being ▪ Create beer places ▪ Inspire people and ideas

2.21 Museums throughout the country are generang ﬁnancial and other support by delivering aspects of public policy. Helena Thompson and Keswick Museums have already made some progress in this direcon, but there is further opportunity for our museums to deliver a wide range of social beneﬁts to our communies.

2.22 Community engagement with heritage varies across the Borough. In Maryport, the annual Blues Fesval aracts 20,000 visits, many from local people; Workington Music Fesval is one of the oldest in England; Silloth Green has become a place for regular events; Solfest is an established, family music fesval, and; there are civic sociees in Cockermouth, Wigton and Workington and a local curated airﬁeld heritage exhibion in Silloth, though Keswick Civic Society folded recently.

2.23 Elsewhere, museums are engaging with their communies to generate collecons of objects, memories and stories, for example the Doncaster 1914-18 project, where a website is being populated enrely by informaon provided by the public and volunteers.

Strategic Context for Heritage in Allerdale

2.24 Heritage is aﬀected by a wide range of environmental, social and economic factors, including naonal and local policy. In the following paragraphs we summarise some of those that have the greatest signiﬁcance or potenal for our heritage.

2.25 The effects of climate change are widespread, manifested in rising sea levels, warmer weer winters, hoer drier summers and an increase in extreme weather events. Allerdale has experienced the effects of these phenomena several mes in recent years, chiefly in the form of flooding with Cockermouth, Keswick and Workington parcularly badly affected. Climate change also has impacts on the landscape and on parcular habitats and species, as different crops become economically aracve and the viable ranges of species change. For example, raised mires could come under increasing threat of destrucon from drying with average temperatures predicted to rise in the coming years.

2.26 Beyond the Lake District Naonal Park, Hadrian’s Wall World Heritage Site (WHS)

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and to a lesser extent the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), Allerdale’s heritage is largely unknown to the world at large; certainly outside of people in Allerdale and those beyond who have a special interest in nature or history. Even within the Borough Council, experse in natural and cultural heritage is limited5. The Borough Council does not employ any staﬀ with experse in museums management.

2.27 Cut backs in funding from Central Government have led to a range of risks to our heritage including: Delivering Public Policy ▪ Reduced enforcement of inappropriate in Museums development of listed buildings (including piecemeal, inappropriate minor The Edge Project brings teenagers into museums to ‘improvements’) in Conservaon Areas, which curate temporary exhibions; many stay on as collecvely have a detrimental effect volunteers (Wessex Heritage Trust) ▪ Cumbria County Council no longer employs a County Archaeologist Young offenders learn mechanical engineering ▪ There are no resources for managing County skills by working on historic vehicles (The Tank Wildlife Sites Museum, Weymouth College & Dorset Community Service Unit) ▪ Most museums and cultural facilies in Allerdale have been put out to management The House of Memories uses museum collecons by the voluntary sector with reducing financial to provide acvies for demena sufferers support from the Council; these organisaons (Museum of Liverpool, Department of Health) now face serious financial challenges that could compromise their acvies as providers The Bedsit Garden collected objects that are important to homeless people and ran associated of culture and guardians of Allerdale Borough art projects (Colchester and Ipswich Museums) Council’s museum collecons

2.28 Tourism is seen by the Council as a signiﬁcant economic opportunity. For some 20 years the tourism authories working in partnership with the local authories in Cumbria have promoted a strategy of aract and disperse, using ‘Cumbria, The Lake District’ as the ‘aack brand’ and promong a number of ‘slipstream brands’, including ‘The Western Lake District’ and ‘The Other Side of the Fells’ to visitors who are aracted to the central Lake District.

2.29 Markeng of the Western Lake District has been accompanied by product development, chieﬂy of visitor aracons and wider public realm or access projects, including the following in Allerdale:

▪ The Lake District Aquarium in Maryport ▪ The Wool Story in Cockermouth (now a hotel) ▪ The Solway Coast Discovery Centre in Silloth ▪ Improvements to Silloth Green ▪ A new Wetlands Visitor Centre at Campﬁeld Marsh ▪ Improved visitor facilies at Holm Cultram Abbey ▪ The West Cumbria Cycle Network ▪ Maryport to Allonby cycle route ▪ Access improvements to the raised mires ▪ Improvements to Maryport and Whitehaven (in Copeland) Harbours

5 The AONB Management Team, Open Spaces Officer, Workington Nature Partnership Officer and a Planning Officer have direct expertise in heritage management; there is awareness of the potential of heritage in the Economic Growth Team Bowles Green Limited, Vale House, Oswaldkirk, North Yorkshire, YO62 5YH 11 Tel: 01439 788980 E-mail: [email protected] A Heritage Strategy for Allerdale October 2016

▪ Investment in large scale events, including the Tall Ships visits, Whitehaven Marime Fesval, Maryport Blues Fesval, events at Silloth Green

2.30 For some me, including the results of valuaon of the impacts of the West Cumbria Tourism Iniave6 and focus groups conducted to inform markeng of the Solway Coast7, it has been clear that the aract and disperse strategy has failed. The volume and value of tourism in Allerdale fell from 2009 to 2012, in line with tourism in England, following the 2008 banking crisis. Since 2012, the volume and value of tourism to Allerdale have grown, with a 3.9% increase in tourism in Allerdale in 2015 on 2014. Whilst the volume and value of tourism in Allerdale has increased steadily, broadly in line with naonal changes, there has been no step-change increase in tourism visits to Allerdale as was originally hoped for under the ‘aract and disperse’ strategy. Consultaon in North Allerdale8 shows a strong preference for a change of strategy and establishing ‘England’s Solway Coast’ as a desnaon brand, at least from Allonby to the northern boundary of the Borough, and promong a strong natural and cultural heritage oﬀer.

Table 1: Volume and Value of Tourism

Revenue Tourist Days Tourist Numbers Employment (£m) (Millions) (Millions) (FTEs)

2009 £389.8 10.1 7.0 6,627

2010 £383.6 9.6 6.8 6,318

2011 £404.8 9.7 6.8 6,423

2012 £353.3 9.1 6.3 5,678

2013 £380.2 9.4 6.6 5,945

2014 £417.2 9.9 6.9 6,113

2015 £434 10.3 7.2 6,208

Source: STEAM, 2016

2.31 Economic policy in Cumbria has four priories, as follows:

▪ Advanced manufacturing growth ▪ Nuclear and energy excellence ▪ A vibrant rural and visitor economy ▪ Strategic connecvity of the M6 corridor

2.32 Economic policy is being driven by the Cumbria Local Enterprise Partnership, working with the local authories to:

▪ Provide support for businesses ▪ Develop skills through training ▪ Improve infrastructure (superfast broadband and new homes) ▪ Environmental sustainability

6 Perceptions of West Cumbria: Report on a Survey of Visitors to Keswick, 2000, Bowles Green Partnership

7 Solway Coast Marketing Strategy & Marketing Advice, 2005, Bowles Green Limited

8 In connection with evening the Solway Coast and Plain Signage Strategy (2007) and the Silloth-on-Solway Economic Plan Bowles Green Limited, Vale House, Oswaldkirk, North Yorkshire, YO62 5YH 12 Tel: 01439 788980 E-mail: [email protected] A Heritage Strategy for Allerdale October 2016

2.33 The energy sector is a key driver. Britain’s Energy Coast, which is jointly owned by Allerdale and Copeland Borough Councils, Cumbria County Council and the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority has an Economic Blueprint that aims to create 3,000 new jobs (which will bring new residents to Allerdale) by building on West Cumbria’s strengths, i.e.:

▪ World class research facilies ▪ Natural resources ▪ Manufacturing capability ▪ Internaonal reputaon in the energy sector

2.34 Rural development is also promoted through two LEADER programmes (2014-2020). The Solway, Border and Eden LEADER Project aims to support signiﬁcant and sustainable economic growth in a way that respects the local disncveness of the area, fully engages local people and builds stronger, more resilient rural communies. It does this through 3 objecves, with related programmes and priories, as follows:

▪ To encourage signiﬁcant and sustainable economic growth and increased employment, with the full engagement of local people ▪ To address rural issues within the Solway, Border and Eden area and build stronger, more resilient communies ▪ To promote tourism that enhances, conserves and celebrates the disncve nature of the environment, landscape, heritage and culture of the Solway, Border and Eden area

2.35 The Cumbria Fells and Dales LEADER Local Development Strategy covers the south eastern half of Allerdale. The strategy has three objecves, delivered through three programmes, as follows:

Objecves ▪ To invest in the small and micro-businesses of Cumbria to create jobs and opportunies for growth, while retaining natural and social capital ▪ To invest in parcularly important economic sectors for the Cumbria Fells and Dales, farming (especially in the hills), forestry (especially acve woodland management and wood-fuel) and tourism (to encourage new visitors and visitor experiences) ▪ To support the rural services that sustain the social, cultural fabric and heritage of this environmentally important area

Strategies ▪ Growing rural entrepreneurship - developing the best opportunies for employment and growth ▪ Growing speciﬁc rural sectors - to improve business performance, create job opportunies and incremental growth ▪ Growing rural resilience - to build on the local delivery of basic services including the cohesion that comes from collaborave ventures

2.34 Much of the public policy summarised above provides support and opportunity for heritage. As noted, it is increasingly clear that heritage can provide the basis for delivering a wide range of public policy and in turn, heritage can beneﬁt from the wider range and greater volume of resources this would aract.

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Why We Need A Heritage Strategy

2.34 We need a heritage strategy for Allerdale because:

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A Vision for Heritage

3.1 Heritage could be a ‘game-changer’ for Allerdale. Our natural and cultural heritage is internaonally significant and at present we are not making the most of our opportunies. Experience from elsewhere shows that heritage can generate considerable economic, social and environmental benefits and through ‘A Heritage Strategy for Allerdale’, we will derive such benefits for the borough.

3.2 An eﬀecve heritage strategy can help us to achieve the following:

▪ Conserve and enhance our heritage assets ▪ Generate economic acvity and employment by aracng day and staying visitors to Allerdale ▪ Create a posive identy and wide awareness of Allerdale, making it an aracve place to invest and locate ▪ Improve the health and wellbeing of Allerdale residents ▪ Provide learning, training and volunteering opportunies and resources ▪ Develop a sense of cizenship and social responsibility ▪ Counter-balance globalisaon by helping to deﬁne place ▪ Give people a sense of purpose and showing that there is more to life than shopping and material consumpon

3.3 In turn, the above help us to deliver the Allerdale Council Plan. How they do this is set out in Table 2.

3.4 To achieve this, we need to invest our own resources in the management and interpretaon of our natural and cultural heritage. Because our resources are limited, we also need to work with partners - local organisaons and those from outside of the Borough who are concerned with our heritage, ensuring that we share a common approach.

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Table 2: How Heritage Supports the Allerdale Council Plan Heritage Tackling Strengthening Enhancing our Improving Aims/Beneﬁts Inequality our Economy Towns Health and Wellbeing

Conserve and enhance our heritage ✔ assets

Generate economic acvity and ✔ ✔ employment

Create a posive identy for ✔ Allerdale

Improve people’s health and ✔ ✔ wellbeing

Provide learning, training and ✔ ✔ ✔ volunteering opportunies

Develop a sense of cizenship and ✔ ✔ social responsibility

Counterbalance globalisaon ✔ ✔

Give people a sense of purpose ✔ ✔

Heritage is Valued

3.5 Our heritage must be valued by members and officers of the Council and by the residents of Allerdale for its intrinsic relevance and for the benefits that it brings to us all. Visitors to the Borough will also value our heritage and will be aracted here to enjoy the stunning landscapes, rich nature, disncve towns and villages, historic sites, fascinang museums and cultural events. People will value our heritage sufficiently that they are movated to volunteer and give their support towards its safe keeping. Agencies and funders will also value our heritage and they will work with us to conserve and enhance it. We can achieve this by:

▪ Ensuring that our members and oﬃcers understand and recognise the potenal ▪ Pung heritage at the heart of our strategy ▪ Securing resources to manage our heritage

Heritage is in Good Condion and Well-Cared-For

3.6 To derive these significant benefits from heritage, we must ensure that our natural and cultural heritage is in good condion. There must be sufficient management - people, skills and financial resources - to bring those aspects of our heritage that are at risk into a beer condion and to ensure that all of our heritage - our landscapes, habitats and species, our historic environments, individual buildings and sites, our collecons, and our cultural and popular heritage are well- cared-for.

3.7 A key aspect of this will be ensuring that the heritage that we own as a Council, or that we are responsible for through management and other agreements, is in excellent condion. Another is to ensure that those who are caring for heritage in the Borough that is not owned

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by us have the skills and resources to succeed.

Heritage Is Accessible

3.8 Our heritage must also be widely accessible to people from all backgrounds and abilies - including the wealthy and people in our most deprived communies, the old and the young, male and female, local residents and visitors, and those who face any form of disadvantage.

3.9 At present, whilst our historic town and village centres are easily accessible to local people, much of our heritage is less accessible. Much of our natural heritage is remote from where people live and public transport is limited; some of our cultural heritage is stored in instuons outside of Allerdale (for example archaeological ﬁnds stored at Tullie House) or in private collecons (such as Percy Kelly painngs). Furthermore, intellectual barriers - things that prevent people from understanding our natural and cultural heritage, including limited interpretaon and low levels of educaon - prevent many from understanding and enjoying it.

3.10 In the future, we will ﬁnd ways to enable people to access our heritage more easily, both physically and intellectually. Our heritage will not be just for those that understand the detail or those that have the money and me to seek it out.

Heritage at the Heart of Our Strategy

3.11 We have demonstrated, in Table 1, that heritage can help to deliver the Allerdale Council Plan and generate a wide range of beneﬁts for the Borough and its residents. In the past, as a council and a populaon, we have not recognised this. Moving forwards, the Allerdale Heritage Strategy will be at the heart of the Council’s planning. It will be joined-up with all of the services we deliver and heritage will support the delivery of public policy in Allerdale.

3.12 To achieve this we will build relaonships with heritage organisaons within the Borough and beyond; with community groups, charies, children centres, schools, libraries, arts organisaons, social services, the NHS and with non-governmental organisaons (NGOs) operang in heritage conservaon, nature conservaon, community development, and in health and well-being.

3.13 Having shown why we want a heritage strategy, the remainder of this document sets out the ﬁrst Heritage Strategy for Allerdale. We will review our strategy and the acon we take to deliver it on a regular basis - once a year for the next three years (April 2017, 2018 and 2019) then on a ﬁve year cycle beyond 2019.

Our Vision

3.14 Our vision for heritage in Allerdale is that…. “Our important natural and cultural heritage are well -cared-for and in good condion. They are physically and intellectually accessible to residents and visitors and accessible virtually for the beneﬁt of those who can’t visit. Heritage is valued by all; it helps generate a sense of identy and pride for our residents and it aracts visitors to come to Allerdale. Our heritage is seen by all as an important asset and it is the basis for a thriving visitor economy and for programmes of acvity that support health and well-being, learning and skills”.

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Our Strategy

3.15 Our Heritage Strategy has four themes and a set of individual strategies and acons that will help us to achieve them. The vision and four themes are summarised below. They are are considered in more detail in the following four secons. Our vision for heritage in Allerdale, set out above, will be delivered through four strategic priories - understanding, caring, sharing, and engaging as follows:

3.16 In order to implement our Heritage Strategy, we need to increase capacity for natural and cultural heritage management in the borough. This will mean:

▪ Increasing the capacity of the Council to manage its own heritage assets, to perform its statutory dues and to co-ordinate delivery of this strategy ▪ Increasing the skills and resources of organisaons concerned with heritage in Allerdale and making them more resilient ▪ Working with heritage agencies and the major funders to secure ﬁnancial and other resources for the caring and sharing of heritage in Allerdale

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Understanding Our Story

4.1 This secon of the strategy sets out our understanding of what is important and disncve about our heritage. Understanding this will help us to map and understand issues and opportunies and to priorise our intervenons in the heritage sector.

4.2 Modern Allerdale - in the shape of the current local authority area - was created in the boundary reform of 1974. The name dates back to ancient mes and lives on in two wards of ‘Allerdale Above Derwent’ and ‘Allerdale Below Derwent’. Whatever our Borough will be called in the future and however its boundaries might change, our heritage will remain. This includes the natural heritage reﬂected in our landscapes, habitats and diverse ecology, and our cultural heritage which is focussed around seven main selements - Aspatria, Cockermouth, Keswick, Maryport, Silloth, Wigton and Workington. With the passing of me, whilst we are creang new culture and heritage, we are also becoming more distant from the past.

4.3 The Borough has a large number of natural and cultural heritage designaons, as follows:

Landscape Designaons ▪ 1 World Heritage Site ▪ 1 Naonal Park ▪ 1 Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty ▪ 6 Landscapes of County Importance (3,662 ha) Natural Environmental Designaons ▪ 17,782 ha of Sites of Special Scienﬁc Interest ▪ 7,338 ha of Special Protecon Area (also designated under the Ramsar Convenon) ▪ 11,093 ha of Special Area of Conservaon ▪ 4 Naonal Nature Reserves (741 ha) ▪ 1,141 County Wildlife Sites ▪ 603 ha of Ancient Woodland ▪ 121 ha of Regionally Important Geological Sites (RIGS)

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Historic Designaons ▪ 21 Conservaon Areas ▪ 142 Ancient Monuments ▪ 1 Listed Park and Garden ▪ c 1,500 Listed Buildings

4.4 Other sites are important but, for a variety of reasons, have not been listed. For example the ﬁrst covered bus staon in England (Workington), a Celc church site at How Michael buried under slag in WW2 and the clay dabbing buildings now incorporated into larger and more recent buildings on the Solway Coast and Plain.

4.5 A number of Cumbria Biodiversity Acon Plan (CBAP) species are present in the Borough. Some important CBAP species present here are:

▪ Naerjack Toad ▪ Curlew ▪ Great Crested Newt ▪ Red Grouse ▪ Several buerﬂies incl. Small Blue ▪ Various bats ▪ Red Squirrel ▪ Variable Damselﬂy ▪ Oer ▪ Lapwing ▪ Barn Owl ▪ Curlew

4.6 In addion, there are 63.25 ha of amenity green space - parks, gardens, etc., 108.56 ha of outdoor sports facilies (69 sites), 22.18 hectares of cemeteries and churchyards (28), 57 children’s play areas, many of which have heritage or cultural signiﬁcance.

4.7 We have idenﬁed 13 ‘Heritage Themes’ which, together tell the story of Allerdale; these are listed and described here:

▪ Mountains and coast ▪ Water and wetlands ▪ Prehistory ▪ A froner ▪ Monasc landscape ▪ Historic town centres ▪ Rural life ▪ Industry and transport ▪ Tourism ▪ Birth of the conservaon movement ▪ Aviaon ▪ Our memorable people ▪ Allerdale today

Mountains and Coast

4.8 The south east and south of the Borough are characterised by the fells and dales of the Lake District. Internaonally known for its landscape, overgrazing by sheep has reduced the ecological value, though the Atlanc broadleaf woodlands of Borrowdale are wonderfully rich and diverse, ancient habitats. Important species, such as the Vendace (a ﬁsh), remain or, like the Osprey, have recently returned.

4.9 The Lake District today is a mecca for walkers and climbers as well as those that just want to enjoy its ﬁne landscape from the safety of the valley ﬂoor. As important as the

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natural heritage, however, is the cultural heritage, including the way of life of the community that has relied on upland sheep farming for generaons, vernacular architecture, and the birth of the conservaon movement. This includes the ‘discovery’ of the beauty of the landscape by the Lakeland Poets and the ﬁrst polical movement to conserve it in the shape of Canon Rawnsley, Beatrix Poer and the Naonal Trust. The Trust’s ﬁrst reserve is at Brandlehow, on the west shore of Derwentwater and on the opposite shore, below Friar’s Crag, the Trust’s centenary is commemorated by the Centenary Stone - a modern sculpture by Peter Randall-Page that, like the revoluonary thinking of Rawnsley et al, was inially controversial but is now accepted as part of the local cultural heritage.

Water and Wetlands

4.10 In the south west of the Borough, the coast is developed and much of its biodiversity has been lost. However, the small blue buerﬂy survives on semi-improved dune grassland surrounding Workington, and at Siddick Ponds SSSI, which is managed as a Local Nature Reserve. North of Maryport to the boundary with Carlisle the coast is designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Here, internaonal designaons protect a number of habitats including the shallow estuary, the interdal zone, the shore, dunes, coastal marshes, wetlands, rivers and raised mires.

4.11 Whilst less visually dramac than the mountains of the Lake District, the coast has great beauty and a tranquility and peacefulness not oen found in the busier Naonal Park. Several lakes and river systems are protected by internaonal nature conservaon designaons. There are spectacular sunsets and ﬁne views across to the mountains of Dumfries and Galloway and inland to the Lakeland fells. The coastal and wetland habitats support important populaons of migratory and breeding birds - especially waders and wildfowl. Naerjack Toads and Marsh Frillary buerﬂies are also present.

Prehistory

4.12 The are many prehistoric remains - selements and other structures - on the relavely easily- worked, light soils of the Solway Plain. These show up chieﬂy as crop marks. Some sites have been excavated and have provided interesng objects linked to funerary processes of the me. Some of these sites are on sand, which is in demand from the extracve industry.

4.13 Castlerigg Stone Circle dates from the late neolithic period. The 38 stones we see today were put in place some 4,500 years ago. The seng is stunning and probably signiﬁcant, but the reason for its locaon and its other secrets are lost to us now.

A Froner

4.14 For many years, the Solway was the northern froner of the Roman Empire. The western end of Hadrian’s Wall is at Bowness-on-Solway and a fort here - Maia - was the second largest on the Wall. A network of mile-forts and fortlets formed a coastal defence system and the fort of Alauna, with its extensive ‘vicus', or civil selement, at Maryport appears to have been part of this. The Hadrian’s Wall World Heritage Site extends along the coast into Copeland to encompass a number of sites that were part of a coastal defence system. There are also other Roman remains, including forts at Bothel, Drumbrugh, the cavalry fort of ’Old Carlisle’, near Wigton and Papcastle, near Cockermouth. The froner and secondary forts are linked with typical, straight roads, the lines of which sll form the main transport arteries of the borough today.

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4.15 Scandinavian culture dominated much of the Irish Sea coast, western Scotland and northern England between 800 and 1100AD. This culture is remembered in hogback graves, early Chrisan crosses, Viking grave goods excavated at Beacon Hill, Aspatria, and place names (including selements, for example Allonby)

4.16 For several centuries aer the departure of the Romans, Allerdale was in Reged, then Northumbria, then Cumbria, then Scotland, before ﬁnally being recognised as English in 1237. Indeed the area had not been fully conquered by the Normans in 1086 when William I carried out his ‘great survey’ and so there are no records from the Borough in the Domesday Book. Holm Cultram Abbey was founded in 1150 by Cistercian monks from Melrose, its grant of land conﬁrmed by a Scosh Prince the Abbey held extensive lands in Dumfries and Galloway and was built of Scosh sandstone. Also during the middle ages, Allerdale was a Royal Hunng Forest.

4.17 Later, early in the 14th century, Kind Edward I used north Allerdale as a base for military acon in south west Scotland during the First Scosh War of Independence, assembling an invasion ﬂeet at Skinburness. He returned in 1307 but died before crossing the Solway. His death is commemorated by a monument at Burgh-by-Sands, just beyond the Borough boundary, in Carlisle.

Monasc Landscape

4.18 The landscape of North Allerdale as we see it today is much inﬂuenced by the acvies of the great Cistercian Abbey of Holm Cultram, at Abbeytown. The abbey acquired land throughout north Cumbria and improved it by clearing forests and draining wetlands. The abbey became very prosperous and at one me it owned the largest herd of sheep in northwest England (6,000). However, its wealth aracted the aenon of the Scots, who sacked it several mes in the 13th and 14th centuries, notably in 1313 when Robert the Bruce sacked the abbey, despite it being the ﬁnal resng place of his father.

4.19 The abbey established a market at Skinburness though this was devastated by storms and moved to Newton Arlosh, where the current, forﬁed church was built as a chapel of ease. The abbey was dissolved in 1538 by King Henry VIII and part of the abbey church became the parish church, with the former abbot as its ﬁrst rector.

Historic Town Centres

4.20 Our town centres retain many of their historic buildings and historic street paerns. Collecvely these create disncve historic townscapes that reflect our history. For example, the layout of streets in the centre of Cockermouth reflects the development of the town in mediaeval mes, adjacent to the Castle with housing developing close to the river and marketplace, which remains the principle street. In contrast, the centre of Silloth was planned in a grid paern in the same way as many, new seaside resorts of the period. The nature of the buildings also reflects the me and way in which they developed. As a result, our towns have their own stories and these are clearly reflected in street morphology, building character and the disncve ‘feel’ of each one.

4.21 High streets across the country are faced with a transion in the way people shop. On-line shopping and out of town shopping centres have reduced the aracveness of the High Street. Town Centres are having to ﬁnd uses other than shopping to remain relevant and vibrant. We need to learn from successes elsewhere and ﬁnd models that will work for our towns.

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Rural Life

4.22 The villages of Allerdale have a disncve vernacular style. In the Naonal Park, slate is the most used building material and rural selements of slate farm houses and coages cluster in the valley booms at the heart of systems of ﬁelds bounded by slate, drystone walls.

4.23 Between Maryport and Rockcliﬀe, there is no ready supply of stone. As a result clay emerged as the common building material. Clay dabbing buildings are now mostly incorporated into extended complexes of farm buildings.

4.24 The west Cumbrian dialect is disncve and there are many local variaons throughout the Borough in both rural and urban areas. There are strong Celc, Saxon, Viking and Norman inﬂuences. The languages of these former cultures are also remembered in our place names.

Industry and Ports

4.25 Mining of copper, graphite and other minerals took place around Keswick from the 16th century. However, it was in the relavely peaceful mes of the 18th century that mining for coal and iron and associated industries - coking, smelng, shipbuilding, etc. - developed on an industrial scale. Maryport and Workington became the main centres for acvity and large port complexes were developed. Harrington also developed as a port.

4.26 Further north, a railway and port developed at Silloth and a canal and then a railway linked Carlisle to Port Carlisle. In 1860, the Solway Juncon Railway constructed a 1.8km long viaduct across the Solway Firth between Bowness-on-Solway and Annan to carry iron ore from west Cumbria to Lanarkshire. It was badly damaged by ice in 1881 and eventually closed in 1921 as imported iron ore became available more cheaply than that mined in West Cumbria.

4.27 The Bessemer process for making steel was ﬁrst used in Workington and Moss Bay was the site of the world’s ﬁrst large scale steel works when Gilchrist and Thomas improved the process using phosphorous-free hemate from West Cumbria. Workington was a major producer of railway rails and, for a me, manufactured buses and trains. This industrial history has, perhaps, more than any other aspect, shaped the current culture and communies of West Cumbria.

Tourism

4.28 The ﬁrst visitor guide to the Lake District was wrien in 1778 by Father Thomas West. The area was made popular by the romanc poets (the Wordsworths, Southey, Coleridge-Taylor et al) in the 19th century and Wordsworth’s guide ‘A Guide Through the District of the Lakes in the North of England’ encouraged visitors. First the railway, which reached Windermere in 1847 and Keswick in 1865 then improved roads and widespread car ownership in the 1960s brought visitors in signiﬁcant numbers. In the meanme, Silloth developed as a seaside resort serving Carlisle.

4.29 More recently, tourism has been developed as a means of addressing high levels of unemployment and deprivaon following the closure of large industrial businesses in West Cumbria. A number of visitor aracons have been developed and the coast of Cumbria has been promoted as a day trip desnaon and a wet weather alternave for tourists staying in the Lake District.

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Birth of the Conservaon Movement

4.30 Appreciaon of the aesthec qualies of the landscape gave rise to modern thinking on access to the countryside and to internaonal thinking on conservaon. One of the earliest footpath associaons was founded in Keswick in 1856.

4.31 Canon Hardwicke Rawnsley, vicar of Crosthwaite Church (Keswick) from 1884 had a signiﬁcant impact on the early conservaon movement. His eﬀorts led to the founding of the Commons and Open Spaces Society in 1865, with among others Sir Robert Hunter and Octavia Hill, and the Lake District Defence Society (later to become the Friends of the Lake District) with Tennyson, Browning, Ruskin, the Duke of Westminster and others.

4.32 He then campaigned for the formaon of the Naonal Trust, again with Octavia Hill and Sir Robert Hunter. He helped raise the funds to buy Brandlehow Wood in 1902, 108 acres of oak woodland on the shore of Derwentwater, the Trust’s ﬁrst property. In 1900 he erected a memorial to his friend John Ruskin at Friar’s Crag on Derwentwater (the place of Ruskin’s ﬁrst memory) and there is now also a memorial to Rawnsley there.

4.33 Today the Naonal Trust manages over 10,000 hectares in Borrowdale and over a quarter of the Lake District, including almost all of the central fell area and most of the valley heads along with 6 of the large lakes. The Trust has 3 million members making it the second largest conservaon organisaon in the world and the model for similar organisaons which ‘care for places of historic interest or natural beauty’ in Australia, North America, the Caribbean and India.

Aviaon

4.34 There were three operaonal airfields in Allerdale, at Anthorn, Kirkbride and Silloth. Anthorn opened in 1918 as a Fleet Air Arm airfield and was abandoned at the end of the First World War. It was reopened during the Second World War and, along with Kirkbride, it operated as a Receipt and Despatch Unit - receiving aircra from manufacturers and delivering them to operaonal units. Silloth also opened during the Second World War and operated as a training and maintenance airfield. Kirkbride and Silloth closed as RAF airfields in 1960 and Anthorn was developed as communicaons centre.

4.35 Silloth Tourism Acon Group has researched the history of Silloth Airﬁeld and produced a small community exhibion, play and other acvies. Kirkbride is operated as a private airﬁeld. Many buildings from WW2 and later Cold War hangers survive at all three locaons.

Our Memorable People

4.36 A number of memorable and inﬂuenal people are associated with Allerdale, including:

▪ Fletcher Chrisan - born in Brigham ▪ The Curwen and Senhouse families - of Workington and Maryport - landowners and industrialists, associated with Workington Hall and the Netherhall Estate respecvely ▪ William Wordsworth - poet, born in Cockermouth ▪ John Peel - huntsman remembered in song - buried at Caldbeck ▪ Hardwick Rawnsley - Vicar of Crosthwaite Church, Keswick, conservaonist and founder of the Naonal Trust ▪ Thomas Henry Ismay - founder of the White Star Line (owners of the Titanic)

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from Maryport ▪ Kathleen Ferrier - famous contralto singer from Silloth commemorated in the cafe - Mrs Wilson’s ▪ Hugh Walpole - author who lived in Borowdale and wrote about the area in the Herries Chronicles ▪ Percy Kelly - arst, born in Workington lived and painted in Workington, Maryport and Allonby ▪ Sheila Fell - arst, born in Aspatria ▪ Melvin Bragg - author and broadcaster from Wigton

Allerdale Today

4.37 We are creang tomorrow’s history and heritage today. A range of art and cultural acvies take place in Allerdale, including:

▪ Programmes of events and fesvals in Aspatria, Cockermouth, Keswick, Maryport, Silloth, Wigton and Workington ▪ Maryport Blues Fesval ▪ Solfest ▪ Keswick Mountain Fesval ▪ Keswick Show ▪ Lively programmes at our theatres in Keswick, Wigton and Workington ▪ Temporary exhibions and events at our museums ▪ A wide range of smaller events in our towns and villages

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Caring For Our Heritage

Resources for Heritage

5.1 Natural and cultural heritage in Allerdale is managed by a number of diﬀerent organisaons. Much of the physical heritage - the land and buildings - is in private ownership but, in the case of designated sites, owners are obliged by legislaon to manage these assets in parcular ways. Naonal agencies have a responsibility for designang and in some cases managing designated landscapes, habitats, species, historic buildings and sites, but in many cases, aspects of management are delegated to local authories - for example in the case of Conservaon Areas and listed buildings. This role is carried out in diﬀerent ways, including:

▪ By directly intervening in management, through ownership (e.g. Workington Hall) or partnerships (e.g. the Solway Wetlands Partnership and the three museum trusts) ▪ Through planning policy (e.g the Allerdale Local Plan and designang Conservaon Areas) ▪ Through enforcement of planning policy (through development control and ‘policing’ inappropriate development)

5.2 Our designated landscape areas are already well-managed. The Lake District Naonal Park Authority has responsibility for planning and intervenes in other aspects of management, along with a number of other heritage managers, in the part of the Borough that lies inside of the Lake District Naonal Park. The Authority is funded directly from government. Allerdale Borough Council nominates one member of the Naonal Park Authority board of management.

Table 3: Allerdale Borough Council Resources for Heritage Resource Roles

Planning Department Staﬀ Formulang planning policy Development control Designang and enforcement in conservaon areas

Leisure and Culture Department Managing parks, 2 Local Nature Reserves and green spaces Staﬀ Managing Workington Hall and Parklands Beach management

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5.3 The Solway Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is part-funded by Allerdale Borough Council and the AONB Management Unit is a Council funcon. It has similar responsibilies to the Naonal Park Authority, but operates on a much smaller scale and does not have responsibility for planning (which remains with the Council). The Solway Coast AONB is amongst the most successful in England & Wales at levering in funding for heritage projects. Both organisaons have teams of volunteers.

5.4 Outside of the designated areas natural and cultural heritage are less well-cared for, including our county wildlife sites, public green spaces, conservaon areas, many of our protected buildings and our museums.

5.6 The Council carries out some of this work in partnership with other organisaons and groups, for example the Workington Nature Partnership, through which volunteers manage green spaces and the access network in the Workington area.

5.7 A number of other organisaons are engaged in managing diﬀerent aspects of heritage in the Borough; they are summarised in Table 4. At the present me, there is lile formal coordinaon of acon and limited contact between the various groups, except in projects - for example the Solway Wetlands Project, Maryport Area and Silloth Coastal Community Teams, in the Naonal Park and the AONB, where there are established systems for communicaon and joint working.

Table 4: Other Resources for Heritage in Allerdale Resource Roles

Naonal Park Authority Strategic planning for natural and cultural heritage in the Naonal Park Manages natural and cultural heritage in the Naonal Park Planning authority in the naonal park

AONB Unit Strategic planning for natural and cultural heritage in the AONB Manages natural and cultural heritage in the AONB

Town Councils Manage development projects that include heritage from me to me (e.g. Silloth Green restoraon) Increasingly Town Councils are managing public parks and other green spaces Cockermouth TC maintains a local heritage display in the Town Hall

Parish Councils Parish Plans idenfy locally important heritage

Naonal Trust Owns land and buildings in Keswick, Cockermouth and

Civic Sociees Civic Sociees in Cockermouth and Wigton are working to conserve and enhance various aspects of local heritage

Museum Trusts (Keswick, Managing museums and their collecons Maryport, Senhouse) and Workington Heritage Partnership

Agencies Forestry Commission manages a number of woodlands for nature conservaon and recreaon Natural England manages Naonal Nature Reserves

Nature conservaon NGOs Managing natural sites, including some county wildlife sites, notably Cumbria Wildlife Trust and RSPB

Other NGOs Silloth Tourism Acon Group ran an aviaon heritage project

North of England Civic Trust Managing the Camp Farm Roman Maryport site

Private individuals Various restoraon projects (for example the Reading Rooms at Allonby) Managing a private heritage collecon in Fletchertown Managing a local food and heritage project in Blennerhasset

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5.5 In addion to part funding the AONB Management Unit and supporng three museums and the theatre, Allerdale also has staﬀ who manage other aspects of heritage in the Borough. This is summarised in Table 3.

5.8 A number of sites that have heritage potenal are owned by private organisaons. For example Maryport Harbour, no longer a commercial port (though it has a retail fishmonger, a fishing fleet and a marine engineering business), is a major heritage asset owned by the Harbour Authority; river corridors and some wetlands (for example Salta Moss) are owned by a variety of private owners, Cockermouth Castle is owned by the Egremont family.

5.9 Others, including the Roman Fort of Alauna at Maryport, the Roman collecon at Senhouse Museum, Wordsworth’s House Museum in Cockermouth and a number of natural sites (including Campﬁeld Marsh, Drumbrugh Moss and Glasson Moss) are managed by non-governmental organisaons - in these cases the North of England Civic Trust, Senhouse Museums Trust, the RSPB and the Cumbria Wildlife Trust). Wedholme Flow is owned and managed by Natural England, which is engaged in a major restoraon project.

Our Own Heritage Assets

5.10 We must ensure that the heritage assets we own and manage are in good condion, well cared- for and accessible to the public. We will also use the assets we own or manage to demonstrate good pracce and ways that heritage assets can achieve economic, social and environmental beneﬁts for residents and visitors. Our own heritage assets include the following:

▪ Workington Hall (a controlled ruin), Park and parklands ▪ Helena Thompson, Keswick and Maryport Marime museum buildings ▪ Carnegie Theatre in Workington ▪ The three museum collecons ▪ Various public, listed buildings across the Borough ▪ Various green spaces, especially around Workington , including Harrington and Siddick Pond Local Nature Reserves, Maryport Promenade and the Seabrows at Maryport ▪ Common land and designated SSSI within the Solway Coast AONB

5.11 The Council’s museum collecon is split into three, located in the three museums. They are currently managed by independent museum trusts. Current collecons management policies are a legacy from the last round of museum accreditaon, when the Council had a more hands on role in managing its collecon. The three museum trusts are diﬀerent in nature and their level of skills and capacity vary considerably. Keswick Museum (which has always been independent) is managed by a museum professional, but museum skills are lower at Helena Thompson and Maryport Marime museums. All three museums are currently reviewing their collecons management policies and procedures as part of the current round of museum accreditaon. The council does not have an oﬃcer with museums experse and is stretched to provide strategic guidance. In addion, Council policy on technical aspects of managing the collecon, for example insurance of newly accessioned objects, is unclear.

5.12 We recognise that experse in the management of heritage collecons and buildings is limited within the Council and that this area needs to be resourced to enable us to care for our heritage assets as we should. The Council is beer resourced in relaon to natural heritage, with experse in the Leisure and Culture Services and the AONB Management Unit.

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Conservaon Areas

5.13 There are twenty one conservaon areas in the Borough outside of the Lake District Naonal Park, designated for their architectural or historic interest, as follows, with year of designaon:

▪ Allonby (1975) ▪ Papcastle (1983) ▪ Blennerhasset (1981) ▪ Port Carlisle (1981) ▪ Bowness-on-Solway (1981) ▪ St. Michaels, Workington (2002) ▪ Caldbeck (1984) ▪ Silloth (1978) ▪ Cockermouth (1975) ▪ Torpenhow (1981) ▪ Gamelsby (1981) ▪ Westnewton (1981) ▪ Greysouthen (1983) ▪ West Curthwaite (1981) ▪ Hayton (1981) ▪ Wigton (1977) ▪ Kirkbampton (1981) ▪ Portland Square, ▪ Maryport (1981) Workington (1974) ▪ Mawbray (1981) ▪ Brow Top, Workington (1974)

5.14 A further three conservaon areas inside the Naonal Park (Caldbeck, Hesket Newmarket and Keswick) are managed by the Lake District Naonal Park Authority, which has responsibility for all planning maers within the Naonal Park boundary.

5.15 Conservaon area appraisals, or character assessments have been carried out for Cockermouth (in 2006), Maryport (in 2005) and Westnewton (in 2008). More recently, the Borough Council has conducted work in partnership with the North of England Civic Trust and local communies to idenfy buildings of local signiﬁcance and their condion in Cockermouth, Maryport and Workington. Wigton Civic Trust has carried out similar survey work in Wigton Conservaon Area.

Heritage At Risk

5.16 The condion of designated natural heritage sites in Allerdale varies, but it is generally good or improving. Habitats and species that are considered to be at risk are idenﬁed in the Cumbria Biodiversity Acon Plan. Our most important natural heritage is well cared for by the Lake District Natural Park Authority, the Solway Coast AONB Management Unit and several nature conservaon NGOs. All of the important sites are designated and systems for monitoring them are in place and supported by naonal and internaonal legislaon. Many of the most sensive sites (for example the raised mires) are in the ownership of nature conservaon NGOs. In addion, the landscape is at risk of further degradaon through the erecon of large, modern agricultural buildings and further development of wind farms. A number of wind farms have been developed outside of the AONB with the result that views of the landscape from the AONB are compromised.

5.17 The Council conducts surveys of the conservaon areas each year to idenfy those that are at risk. Historic England uses these to designate those that are are risk. Three conservaon areas are currently considered to be at risk - Maryport, Wigton and Workington St Michael’s. the others are in a healthy condion. Twelve buildings are also on the at risk register. Anecdotal evidence collected during the preparaon of this strategy suggests that some important buildings in many of the conservaon areas are either in a poor state of repair or have suﬀered inappropriate development.

5.18 Management of the conservaon areas is a major concern for us. The conservaon areas were designated to protect the most important parts - the historic townscapes - of our seven key selements and other, disncve rural selements which contribute considerably

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to Allerdale’s sense of place. However, resources for managing these areas are inadequate.

5.19 Some work has been done. In addion to three surveys (completed for Cockermouth, Maryport and West Newton), a paral survey of the condion of grade 2 listed buildings has been carried out (in Cockermouth, Maryport, Wigton and Workington, plus tradional farm buildings) by the North of England Civic Trust and local volunteers, who were trained in building survey techniques. This work has idenﬁed the buildings at most risk and where they are in the three locaons. There are an esmated 1,100 addional grade 2 listed buildings in the Borough (outside of the Naonal Park) that have not yet been surveyed.

5.20 Historic England maintains a register of scheduled ancient monuments at risk. Those in Allerdale that are on the register are shown in Table 5.

Table 5: Entries in the At Risk Register for Allerdale Site/Area Condion Notes

Hadrian’s Wall Poor Secon of the wall between Bowness-on-Solway and Port Carlisle used as a ﬁeld boundary needs tree and scrub control and fencing

Cockermouth Castle Very bad The 13thC bell tower is badly leaning and the 14thC kitchen tower is suﬀering from water ingress

Workington Hall Poor Consolidated ruin

All Hallows, Fletchertown Poor Water damage

St Mungo, Dearham Poor Water damage and subject to movement

St Mary, Sebergham Poor Damaged stonework, shaered windows

St Hilda, Westward Poor Water penetraon and damage

St John, Workington Poor Deteriorang grooves, water ingress

Brownrigg North Tower Unsasfactory Vulnerable to arable ploughing

Beckfoot Roman Fort Unsasfactory Vulnerable to coastal erosion

Roman Fortlet 40 Extensive problems Vulnerable to coastal erosion

Wolsey South Tower Localised problems Vulnerable to arable ploughing

Maryport Poor Conservaon Area deteriorang

St Michaels, Workington Very Bad Conservaon Area deteriorang

Wigton Poor Conservaon Area deteriorang

5.21 As noted above the eﬀects of climate change are having an impact on our natural heritage:

▪ Sea level rise threatens our so coasts, though these are in themselves a natural sea defence ▪ Flooding threatens our low-lying areas and ‘bolenecks’ in the drainage system, where rivers converge ▪ The behaviour of individual species is affected; for example oers which are being displaced from rivers by winter flooding and relocang to sll waters. Where these sll waters are managed fisheries, this causes conflicts with anglers ▪ The range of species is changing as the atmosphere warms, making it too hot for some and too cold for others that are at the limit of their respecve ranges in Northern England

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5.22 As noted above, the eﬀects of ﬂooding have had negave impacts on our cultural heritage, with both Fitz Park in Keswick and Harris Park in Cockermouth damaged, most recently in 2016.

5.23 Cultural heritage is at risk from a range of cultural factors. For example:

▪ People’s memories of the thriving industrial era of West Cumbria is being lost as people who worked in the mines, factories and ports age and die ▪ Much of the heritage of Allerdale is located elsewhere and not available to the public - for example archaeology stored at Tullie House and painngs by Percy Kelly and Sheila Fell that are mostly in private ownership

5.24 Heritage is also at risk from economic factors and here lies probably the greatest impact on landscape and natural heritage. The changing economics of beef and milk producon are leading farmers in the lowlands of Allerdale to change from a tradional pastoral system of raising cale to growing and cung of silage. The impacts are manifold, including:

▪ Loss of biodiversity as meadows are replaced by a single species, grass monoculture ▪ Loss of feeding for wintering geese and swans ▪ Nests of ground-nesng birds are destroyed through regular (4 mes per year) silage cung before the birds are able to complete rearing ▪ Increase in steel farm buildings as slurry pits and clamps are constructed ▪ Increase in large steel cale sheds on farms

5.25 Declining resources from the public sector for heritage have led us to seek alternave ways of managing our heritage, mostly by transferring heritage assets to the voluntary sector, to town and parish councils. However, this presupposes that the voluntary sector has the capacity and competence to manage the assets, which is not always the case. We must ensure that the organisaons we have asked to care for our heritage are suﬃciently well-resourced to do so.

5.26 The decline in resources for heritage also has weakened monitoring and enforcement across the borough. We must raise the profile of heritage at all levels within the Council and we must ensure that the level of resource available to officers is sufficient to deliver this strategy and to generate economic, social and environmental benefits to our borough and to our communies.

Joining Up Our Thinking on Heritage

5.27 In addion to increasing our capacity in terms of resources and skills, we need to ensure that heritage management in Allerdale is more joined-up. We have recently appointed a member of staff in our Economic Growth Team to lead on taking this strategy forwards. The Allerdale Heritage Manager will be supported by members and officers responsible for economic growth, environment and communies. Priority for this officer is ensuring the heritage in Allerdale is managed in a more joined-up way. We will achieve this by:

▪ Working with all council departments to idenfy ways in which heritage can help deliver their priories and drawing up a list of acons to bring this about ▪ Bringing together our own staﬀ with external heritage managers and managing organisaons in the Borough to create links, networks and partnerships for delivery ▪ Creang networks and partnerships with other organisaons - the community, agencies, external bodies working in economic development, tourism, health and well being - to develop and deliver heritage projects

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5.28 This will include the seng up of a Heritage Forum for Allerdale. This will bring together all organisaons managing heritage in Allerdale in order to coordinate the delivery of the Heritage Strategy for Allerdale.

5.29 In addion to this work at a strategic or managing level, we will build on the wider consultaon already carried out in Maryport and Silloth and on the community project to review listed buildings, and we will implement a programme of stakeholder and public consultaon to inform subsequent versions of this strategy, and to help bring forward projects that will deliver the strategy at a local level. Where possible, this will be done in partnership with locally acve organisaons - the Town and Parish Councils, the Civic Sociees, our museums and others that might come forwards.

5.30 We will also look beyond our Borough boundaries and we will form partnerships with other organisaons to further management of our heritage; these might include:

▪ Tullie House - where many of the archaeological objects recovered in Allerdale are held ▪ Organisaons acve in the Lake District Naonal Park, for example the Friends of the Lake District ▪ Organisaons with an interest in heritage management on the Solway Estuary - in parcular our colleagues in Carlisle City Council and in Dumfries and Galloway ▪ The naonal agencies concerned with heritage - Historic England, Natural England and the Arts Council England

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Sharing Our Heritage

6.1 To achieve our aims for economic development, through tourism, and for social beneﬁts within our communies, we need to share our heritage. We will do this by improving the physical and intellectual access to our natural and physical heritage for all. This will include physical access improvements and interpretaon of our heritage through a variety of means.

Physical Access

6.2 Physical access to our natural heritage has improved in recent years. This has been achieved through several projects, including:

▪ The Solway Wetlands Landscape Partnership, which has delivered new access to wetlands in the north of the Borough ▪ England’s Coast Path, which provides unbroken access along the coast ▪ The Maryport to Allonby cycle path, which provides oﬀ-road cycling along the coast and past Milefortlet 21 and links to the West Cumbria Cycle Network

6.3 Our selements have accessible pavements and disabled parking. We will connue to work to ensure that they are easily accessible to people with all kinds of physical disabilies. Similarly, our museums are DDA-compliant and Helena Thompson Museum has aspiraons to install a li to make the ﬁrst ﬂoor of the museum accessible to all.

6.4 Many heritage sites and buildings are, by their very nature, diﬃcult to access physically. We will work with disability organisaons to connue to improve physical access to our heritage and to ensure that all heritage projects in the Borough take account of access for people with mobility and sensory disabilies.

Interpretaon

6.5 Intellectual access to our heritage is equally important. There are exisng interpretaon strategies and frameworks for the Lake District Naonal Park, the Solway Coast AONB and Hadrian’s Wall World Heritage Site. We will build on these and we will formulate an interpretaon framework for the Borough’s heritage. This will cover natural and Bowles Green Limited, Vale House, Oswaldkirk, North Yorkshire, YO62 5YH 33 Tel: 01439 788980 E-mail: [email protected] A Heritage Strategy for Allerdale October 2016

cultural heritage and will provide guidance so that stories told by individual projects contribute to our aims and deliver our story.

Acvies, Events & Fesvals

6.6 To make our heritage aracve to residents and visitors we will animate it through acvies, events and fesvals. Aspatria, Cockermouth, Keswick, Maryport, Silloth, Wigton and Workington already have lively events programmes and the Maryport Area and Silloth Coastal Community Teams have both idenﬁed events as priories to support economic development.

Acvies

6.7 Helena Thompson and Keswick Museums are both working hard to engage with a wide range of audiences within their respecve communies by providing acvies. Helena Thompson Museum has become a meeng place for the community and Keswick Museum has aracted groups with special needs and it has engaged the community in general in an interacve exhibion about the River Greta, obtaining the views of visitors on future management opons

6.8 The Heritage Loery Fund’s guidance on acvity planning provides the tools to develop engaging programmes of acvies for the heritage we manage. The Solway Wetlands Landscape Partnership has shown that we can, through partnerships, deliver programmes of acvies on a landscape scale. We will build on this experience and bring our heritage to life for residents and visitors by:

▪ Preparing an Acvity Plan for the AONB, rolling out the experience of the Landscape Partnership ▪ Ensuring that all of our heritage development projects incorporate eﬀecve acvity plans

Events & Fesvals

6.9 Events and fesvals are acvies on a larger scale. Other places have shown that events and fesvals can engage large numbers of people with heritage and can have signiﬁcant economic and social impacts. Events and fesvals are also a way to animate our seven key selements. Doing this will drive fooall, helping economic development and it will bring our communies together. In all cases there must be evidence of serious, local commitment.

6.10 To maximise the economic and social impacts of events and fesvals, we will formulate an events and fesvals plan for the Borough. This will be wider than heritage, but heritage will play a key role in providing content and stories on which to base events and fesvals. Our Events and fesvals plan will:

▪ Idenfy target event and fesval markets for the Borough and target markets for speciﬁc events and fesvals ▪ Provide a framework for supporng and developing new events and fesvals, with heritage as a key component ▪ Build on exisng events strategies and on events and fesvals that already take place ▪ Idenfy ‘anchor’ events and fesvals at key mes (bank holidays, school holidays, naonal celebraon days, etc.) ▪ Idenfy opportunies and possible delivery partners for new home grown events and fesvals ▪ Idenfy peripatec events and fesvals that could be aracted to Allerdale ▪ Recommend a programme of support for exisng and new events and fesvals

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Engaging People

7.1 As a Council, we cannot achieve this strategy alone. It will be important to engage our community and partners to help us. In this secon, we set out how we will do this.

7.2 As a Council, we already have close links with our community. Many of our officers are closely engaged with and have developed effecve networks in the communies they serve - for example our Town Centre Managers. Our senior staff have each engaged with a town or parish in the Borough and act as champions for these locaons. These links and the formal communicaons networks with our Town and Parish Councils will enable us to engage.

Consultaon

7.3 This ﬁrst edion of the Allerdale Heritage Strategy has been prepared quickly to give us a way forwards for managing heritage in the Borough. As noted, is has been prepared with the beneﬁt of stakeholder consultaon from across the Borough, though in more depth at the coast.

7.4 Whilst our stakeholders have a good understanding of Borough-wide and local heritage issues and are able to gauge the temperature within their local communies, we recognise the need to consult more widely amongst our community. We plan to do this by taking the strategy to our seven main communies and asking residents to bring forward projects to help deliver it. We will do this in the shape of a small touring exhibion and consultaon programme.

Engaging Our Communies

7.5 We will invite Town and Parish Councils and community organisaons to join the Allerdale Heritage Forum to ensure that local community views are incorporated on an on-going basis. Parcipaon in the forum will be a two-way process with ideas and informaon ﬂowing both ways.

7.6 In addion, we will seek volunteers from the community to help us deliver the strategy by:

▪ Forming and joining local heritage organisaons (Civic Trusts, Heritage

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Partnerships) to propose and to help develop and deliver projects locally ▪ Volunteering to complete the grade 2 listed building survey of the Borough ▪ Join in other monitoring, surveying and delivery acvity on a project by project basis in the local communies

Engaging Our Partners

7.7 As noted above, we will consult with all the naonal agencies, with potenal funders and with colleagues in neighbouring authories to ensure that all are aware of our work and that we will partner in development and delivery were possible.

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Priories for Acon

8.1 We are realisc about what we can achieve. We are a small authority and overall, the resources and capacity for heritage management in the Borough are limited in relaon to the task in hand. In short, we are starng from a low base. Whilst we cannot ﬁx everything for everyone, we have set ourselves ambious aims. To achieve these, we will need to draw in resources from outside and enlist the support of our communies and local delivery partners.

8.2 We have devised a framework for engagement in heritage in Allerdale. This shows the organisaons involved in heritage. We have divided them into ﬁve levels and set out ways in which we propose to engage with them, work with and support them. The framework for engagement is summarised in Table 6.

Table 6: Framework for Engagement in Heritage in Allerdale

Level Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5

Who? Naonal Park Allerdale Borough Town and parish NGOs Campaigners AONB Council councils Museums Pressure groups Specialist Diocese management teams

How? Statutory dues Statutory dues Support public realm Seed fund and Communicate and Support where and community support develop needed projects partnerships

What? Protected areas Parks and green Conservaon areas Museums Issues Buildings and spaces Parish plans Collecons Campaigns monuments Wild places Townscapes Religious buildings Owned buildings and Villagescapes monuments

8.3 The Heritage Loery Fund is likely to be an important source of funding for the delivery of our heritage strategy and so we have set out how the heritage of Allerdale ﬁts with the HLF’s key themes. This will help our communies and partners to bring forwards applicaons for funding in a strategic fashion; in ways that support the strategy, rather than in a piecemeal way, as has been the case in the past. This is shown in Table 7.

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Table 7: Allerdale Heritage Fit with the Heritage Loery Themes

HLF Theme Built and Cultural Heritage Natural Heritage Community Heritage

Townscape heritage Conservaon areas Mediaeval Cockermouth Georgian Workington Victorian Silloth

Buildings and Stone circles and neolithic ﬁnds monuments Roman Wall and coastal defences Scandinavian carvings Workington Hall Conservaon areas Farm buildings

Community Parks Coastal access Dialect heritage Theatres Access network Romanc poets Arsts Conservaon movement Agriculture Sport

Cultures and Seaside resort and spa Music Industry and trades memories Place names Monasc period The froner

Industrial, marime Ports Industry and communies (as and transport Coal, iron and steel manifested in TUC banners) Shipbuilding Railways and canal Aviaon

Museums, libraries Museums and archives Collecons

Land and natural Field boundaries Farmed land Greenspaces heritage farmsteads and selements The coast Rivers The Fells and lakes

Natural and semi- Naonal Park natural landscapes AONB

Wildlife and BAP species Haaf neng habitats Migratory birds Wild fowling Wetlands and mires Hunng Dunes and marshes Woodland and hedgerows

8.4 Finally, we have drawn up an acon plan for delivering the Allerdale Heritage Strategy and this is summarised in Table 8, with proposed responsibilies for delivery and esmated costs.

8.5 We will monitor our progress. To do this we need to establish a baseline and a system for monitoring our progress. The following are proposed:

▪ Expanding the heritage elements of the exisng ‘State of the AONB’ review to cover the rest of the Borough ▪ Conducng an impacts assessment to quanfy and qualify the current level of economic, social and environmental impacts of heritage in Allerdale ▪ Agreeing a process for connual measurement (for example repeang the impacts assessment on a ﬁve-year cycle)

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Table 8: Allerdale Heritage Strategy Acon Plan

Task Who? When? How Much?

Work with all Council departments to idenfy how Heritage Oﬃcer Priority 1 Time heritage can help deliver policy/services

Establish a heritage forum for Allerdale Heritage Oﬃcer Priority 1 Time

Conduct appraisals for all un-appraised ABC, volunteers and Priority 2 £180,000 conservaon areas consultants

Complete the Grade 2 buildings survey ABC, NECT and volunteers Priority 2 £45,000

Provide resources to enable management and ABC, possible external support Priority 3 £20,000 pa enforcement in conservaon areas

Review collecons management policy for the Museums with external Priority 1 Time borough and provide support for the museums support

Explore opportunity for river catchment projects Heritage Oﬃcer and Rivers Priority 3 Time linking heritage with ﬂood management Trust

Formulate an interpretaon plan or framework Consultants Priority 2 £10,000 for Allerdale incorporang exisng

Formulate an events and fesvals plan or Consultants Priority 2 £10,000 framework

Conduct a programme of community consultaon Town Centre Team, Parish Priority 1 Time on heritage champions

Support communies and delivery partners in Heritage Oﬃcer Priority 3 TBA making funding applicaons Economic Growth Team Consultants

Conduct an impacts assessment for heritage in Consultants Priority 1 £20,000 Allerdale including baseline

Support

8.6 Given the varied capacity of heritage organisaons in Allerdale, it will be necessary for the Council to support them in bringing forwards, subming, developing and delivering major projects. Support from the Council will include:

▪ Assistance in wring funding applicaons ▪ Assistance in project managing development and delivery phase work ▪ Bank-rolling projects (as money needs to be spent before funds can be drawn down from funders)

8.7 Addionally, given the importance of our town centres to both our heritage and quality of life, we will work with Town Councils and businesses to develop strategies to help our town centres to transion from a retail focus to alternave, viable futures.

Projects

8.8 Key stakeholders have advised us that we should not include a ‘shopping list’ of projects we would like to deliver in this strategy. This is because they want to be able to use the Heritage Strategy to work out for themselves how individual projects put forwards for funding meet the local policy context. We ancipate a programme of acvies that ﬁt with this strategy to be brought forwards by the heritage sector in the Borough.

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