Developing a Management Plan for the Ironbridge Gorge World Heritage Site
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Archaeology and the National Park Idea: Challenges for Management and Interpretation Marion Blockley Developing a Management Plan for the Ironbridge Gorge World Heritage Site y the end of the eighteenth century, Coalbrookdale in Shropshire was famous. It had one of the largest ironworks in England—an en- terprise symbolized by the renowned Iron Bridge, the first such Bstructure ever built on a large scale (Figure 1). Abraham Darby’s Coalbrookdale Company pioneered the mass production of iron following the breakthrough in coke smelting in 1709. The ironmasters of the East Shrop- shire Coalfield went on to make the first iron wheels, rails, boat, aqueduct, and steam locomotive, as well as early steam cylinders. The great Iron Bridge was a key step in the use of iron in construction, and has become a universal symbol of the Industrial Revolution. Other industries, based on locally sour- ced materials, an industrialised working population, an advantageous trans- port network, and local entrepreneurs, also prospered. Coalport China (Fig- ure 2) and decorative tile ware in particular gained an international reputa- tion. Figure 1. The Ironbridge reflected in the River Severn. The bridge is currently swathed in scaffolding for a repaint. The Institute is using the opportunity for a detailed survey and record of the structure. Volume 16 • Number 4 1999 107 Archaeology and the National Park Idea: Challenges for Management and Interpretation Figure 2. Bottle kilns at the former Coalport China Works, now a museum. Part of the site has been converted into a youth hostel for visiting school groups. This site illustrates the difficulties of physical access to historic buildings. The circular footings of the middle kiln raise the debate over restoration and reconstruction of historic monuments. But this prosperity gradually the Ironbridge Gorge Museum ebbed away, and so did the popula- Trust. Other buildings and areas tion. As people moved away to find were protected under the powers of new jobs, buildings fell into disre- the planning acts. pair. By the time the New Town In 1986, the international impor- (later to be named Telford) was cre- tance of the area was recognised by ated in 1963, the Ironbridge Gorge UNESCO through its designation as had become an industrial backwater, a cultural World Heritage Site. This but many monuments to early in- followed a nomination by the U.K. dustry survived. From the late government, which is a party to the 1960s, the furnaces and other major World Heritage Convention. This industrial archaeological sites were provides for the identification, pro- directly protected and managed by tection, conservation, and presenta- 108 The George Wright FORUM Archaeology and the National Park Idea: Challenges for Management and Interpretation tion of cultural and natural sites of the first time a unified framework for outstanding universal value. management of this unique asset. A prerequisite for World Heritage status is the existence of effective le- A management plan is also needed gal protection and the establishment to satisfy the U.K.’s obligations un- of a management plan to ensure the der the World Heritage Convention. site’s conservation and presentation. UNESCO, through its subsidiary In the U.K., legal protection is bodies, the International Centre for achieved through controls such as the Study of the Preservation and the listing of buildings and schedul- Restoration of Cultural Property ing of ancient monuments, the estab- (ICCROM), and the International lishment of conservation areas, and Council on Monuments and Sites by the outstanding international im- (ICOMOS), has produced a set of portance of the site being taken into management guidelines for cultural account as a key consideration by World Heritage Sites. These guide- local planning authorities. A man- lines stress the importance of long- agement plan enables all the agencies and short-term management plans to involved with the World Heritage resolve conflicts and protect the Site to co-ordinate their activities and cultural value of each site. The or- helps ensure that the site is managed ganisation of the Ironbridge Gorge to the highest possible standards. management plan reflects the guide- lines published by UNESCO. The Need for a Management Plan It is intended that the manage- The Ironbridge Gorge today is a ment plan will provide an overall scenic cultural landscape, but its framework of objectives and actions former industrial character has been for the site, but it is not in itself a concealed by the natural regenera- statutory document. It does not tion of the landscape. The tenure of confer any new powers; it can only the land is complex: the Gorge has advise, inform, and promote. Each an existing residential community of individual agency has its own set of over 3,500, and receives 800,000 aims and priorities, but it is intended visitors annually. The management that the plan will help to foster effec- plan is intended to guide the long- tive partnerships (Table 1) to make and short-term management of this best use of scarce resources. The complex landscape. It will be a management plan can only operate working document that will com- with the direct support and co-op- plement the existing programmes of eration of all the agencies, and of the the responsible agencies, and foster many individual residents and users partnership work by establishing for of the site. Volume 16 • Number 4 1999 109 Archaeology and the National Park Idea: Challenges for Management and Interpretation Table 1. Key partners in the development of the Ironbridge Gorge management plan Telford & Wrekin Council Local planning authorities Shropshire County Council Bridgnorth District Council English Heritage Advisor to the government on heritage policy Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust Established 1968; manages most of the key industrial monuments Severn Gorge Countryside Trust Established 1991; owns and manages most of the countryside throughout the World Heritage Site Ironbridge Institute University of Birmingham Environment Agency Department of Culture, Media and Sport ICOMOS UK The aim of the management plan • Encourage the integration of dif- is to: ferent agencies’ management and • Express the special significance maintenance programmes set of the Ironbridge Gorge World clear objectives and high stan- Heritage Site; dards of management for future • Encourage public discussion and action in the World Heritage Site; and commitment; • • Balance the many and varied in- Establish a context for research, terests and pressures in the funding, and bidding. Gorge; To fulfil this brief, a number of • Establish a clear and sustainable task groups were set up to look at framework for the future man- themes and areas of work identified agement of the World Heritage by the inter-agency group as impor- Site; tant to developing a management • Coordinate existing policies for strategy for the Gorge. Officers from the conservation and manage- different agencies worked together ment of the World Heritage Site, and produced a series of short re- and review and widen their ports. These working papers pro- scope as necessary; vided a framework within which the 110 The George Wright FORUM Archaeology and the National Park Idea: Challenges for Management and Interpretation core team could develop ideas and about the upkeep of buildings within strategies. There has been a large the World Heritage Site and about amount of source material for the the key role played by the bridges core team to draw on in the prepara- over the river in linking communities tion of the plan. The material covers throughout the Gorge. Many people a broad range of subjects, including felt that to facilitate good decisions archaeology and historical develop- about the management of the World ment, planning and transport policy, Heritage Site, all those who work woodland and countryside manage- and live in the Gorge should have ment, and ecology, and reports on access to the fullest information. A tourism and land instability. key aim of the management plan is to In June 1997, a consultation both inform and involve the local document was published. Based on community. The lead agencies have key issues that reflected the areas signed up to: where damage to the special qualities • Conserve the industrial heritage of the World Heritage Site could oc- in its distinctive semi-natural cur, the Ironbridge Gorge Initiative landscape; also highlighted the commitment to • Interpret it as a whole for a wide partnership working between the public; agencies. A copy was circulated to • Contribute actively to the eco- every home in the Gorge, to all the nomic, social, and environmental Friends of the Museum, and was quality of a diverse community; publicised widely. Three hundred • Work together to achieve high pre-paid responses were received; standards; 89% of respondents fully supported • Protect the heritage while en- the stated aims and actions. suring that, wherever possible, it The content of the first draft of remains accessible to all; and the management plan is based on the • Actively engage people and consensus achieved by the key man- agencies in the management of aging agencies in producing the the Gorge for present and future Ironbridge Gorge Initiative, and re- generations. flects the priorities and issues ex- pressed during the consultation. The Statement of Significance consultation responses endorsed the —World Heritage Values proposal that there must be a more The identification of the Iron- integrated approach to management bridge Gorge as a site of cultural sig- of the World Heritage Site. Trans- nificance forms the raison d’être of port-related issues were high on the the management plan. To ensure that agenda of respondents. Local resi- the special value of the site is not di- dents were particularly concerned minished, there must be an under- Volume 16 • Number 4 1999 111 Archaeology and the National Park Idea: Challenges for Management and Interpretation standing of why the site needs careful Industrial Revolution for the stewardship and management many thousands of visitors who through the implementation of a are attracted to the area each management plan.