Archaeology Wales Hillside School, Blaenavon ASIDOHL By Philip Poucher Report No. 1172 Archaeology Wales Limited, Rhos Helyg, Cwm Belan, Llanidloes, Powys SY18 6QF Tel: +44 (0) 1686 440371 E-mail: [email protected] Archaeology Wales Hillside School, Blaenavon ASIDOHL Edited by: Authorised by: Signed: Signed: Position: Position: Date: Date: By Philip Poucher Report No. 1172 Date: September 2013 Archaeology Wales Limited, Rhos Helyg, Cwm Belan, Llanidloes, Powys SY18 6QF Tel: +44 (0) 1686 440371 E-mail: [email protected] Contents Summary 1 1. INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Introduction 1 1.2 ASIDOHL layout 1 2. ASIDOHL STAGE 1 2 2.1 The Proposed Development 2 2.2 The Site 2 2.3 Previous Assessments 2 2.4 Planning Policy Context 3 2.5 Limitations 5 2.6 Methodology 5 3. ASIDOHL STAGE 2 – ASSESSMENT OF DIRECT, PHYSICAL 7 IMPACTS OF DEVELOPMENT 3.1 Introduction 7 3.2 Impact Assessment 7 4. ASIDOHL STAGE 3 – ASSESSMENT OF INDIRECT IMPACTS 10 OF DEVELOPMENT 4.1 Introduction 10 4.2 Impact Assessment 11 5. ASIDOHL STAGE 4 – EVALUATION OF RELATIVE 25 IMPORTANCE 5.1 Introduction 25 5.2 Evaluation of the relative importance of the part of HLCA001 25 directly/indirectly affected 5.3 Evaluation of the relative importance of the part of HLCA002 27 directly/indirectly affected 5.4 Evaluation of the relative importance in the national context 29 of the HCAs directly/indirectly affected 6. ASIDOHL STAGE 5 – ASSESSMENT OF OVERALL 31 SIGNIFICANCE OF IMPACT 6.1 Introduction 31 6.2 Possible Mitigation 32 6.3 Conclusion 33 6.4 Bibliography 34 List of Illustrations Fig.1: Location of Site Fig.2: Plan of proposed development Fig.3: Plan of current layout within the area of proposed development Photo 1: Hillside Primary School Photo 2: Hillside Nursery School Photo 3: Recreational ground Photo 4: View down King Street (within HLCA001) overlooking site Photo 5: View form site overlooking part of HLCA001 Photo 6: View down Upper Hill Street past the site Photo 7: View north from site Photo 8: View south overlooking site Photo 9: View SE across the site Photo 10: View SW from the site towards Forgeside Photo 11: View south from the site towards Coity Mountain Summary In July 2013 Archaeology Wales were commission to carry out an ASIDOHL to determine the potential impact of a proposed housing development within Blaenavon, which lies within the Blaenavon Landscape of Outstanding Historic Interest and World Heritage Site. The proposed development site currently comprises Hillside Primary and Nursery Schools, now disused, and a recreational area, to the northeast of the central Conservation Area within Blaenavon. 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 In July 2013 Archaeology Wales were commissioned to carry out an ASIDOHL to investigate the possible impact on the historic environment of a proposed housing development on the site of a former primary and nursery school on Upper Hill Street, Blaenavon, including former recreational land to the rear. The site lies within the Blaenavon Landscape of Outstanding Historic Interest (HLW (Gt) 1) and the Blaenavon World Heritage Site (WHS). As such an ASIDOHL (Assessment of the Significance of the Impact of Development On the Historic Landscape) was required to help inform the planning decision on the proposed development. ASIDOHL Layout 1.2 In assessing the impact of the proposed development guidelines are laid out in Guide to Good Practice on Using The Register Of Landscapes Of Historic Interest In Wales In The Planning And Development Process (Revised 2nd Edition) which includes revisions to the assessment process (ASIDOHL2). This guidance lays out a staged process for assessing the impacts, based on five stages. Stage 1 consists of gathering the contextual information and provides the introduction to the report. Stage 2 is an assessment of the direct physical impacts of the proposed development, in absolute terms, relative terms and landscape terms. Within this tables are provided to quantify these impacts and their magnitude. Stage 3 is an assessment of the indirect impacts of the development, in terms of both indirect, physical impacts and also indirect (non-physical) visual impacts. Again tables are provided to quantify these impacts and their magnitude. Stage 4 is an evaluation of the relative importance of the Historic Character Area directly and/or indirectly affected by the proposed development. This is done in relation to the whole of the Historic Character Area concerned and the whole of the historic landscape area on the Register, followed by an evaluation of the relative importance of the Historic Character Area concerned in the national context. Stage 5 is an assessment of the overall significance of the impact. This combines stages 2 and 4 to produce an assessment of the overall significance of the impact of the proposed development and the affect that altering the Historic Character Area has on the whole of the historic landscape area on the Register. This stage also includes an examination of mitigation or positive benefits and a concluding statement. Further guidance on the general assessment of the Cultural Heritage and the potential impacts of development on the Cultural Heritage is included within the Design Manual for Roads and Bridges, Vol.11, Section 3, Part 2. Both were used within this assessment. 1 ASIDOHL STAGE 1 2.1 The Proposed Development (Figure 2) The proposed development consists of terraced, semi-detached and detached housing and apartments, two storeys high, with small gardens and parking bays, connected by several new parking streets and interspersed with area of planted tree cover and small open spaces. This covers an area of c.1.7 hectares. The main vehicular access to the site will be from Upper Hill Street. These works are likely to include enabling works, such as installation of contractor’s compound, construction of access roads, parking areas, storage areas, borrow pits and associated services. As well as landscaping and terracing works, topsoil stripping, foundation excavation, the construction of roads and infrastructure; and service installation. 2.2 The Site Blaenavon is situated on the south-west slope of the Blorenge Mountain at the head of the Afon Lwyd - the most eastern of the South Wales valleys. The eastern ridge of the South Wales coalfield outcrops on this hillside and coal, iron ore, fire clay and limestone are all easily accessible. Most of the town lies between 310m and 370m above sea level. Blaenavon is unusual in the Valleys as being a single definable settlement, not linked by urban valley sprawl, and for having key commercial streets running up the hill slope and not parallel to the valley bottom. The area of proposed development itself consists of Hillside Primary school and the adjacent Hillside Nursery school, both fronting Upper Hill Street in Blaenavon (Figures 1 & 3). The proposed development site extents westwards behind these buildings to incorporate a landscaped area behind that is now a concrete recreational area with a small built football pitch and surrounding scrub and patches of long grass, set within a wider area of grass scrub crossed by tarmacked footpaths. Hillside school is an early 20th century red-brick structure (built at some point between 1901 and 1920), with a small playground and some small ancillary structures, the school itself is disused and boarded up and there is currently no access to the site. Similarly the adjacent nursery school is disused and boarded up and consists of a mid-20th century (built at some point between 1938 and 1962) single-storey structure with small grounds. Upper Hill Street rises to the north and the area in general occupies a southward facing hill-slope with land also falling away to the west to the rear of the school. Upper Hill Street forms the eastern boundary to the proposed site, fronted on its eastern side (outside the area of proposed development) by rows of 19th century terraced housing. Modern (post-1989) detached dwellings form the north-eastern boundary. The southern and south- western boundary is formed by the rear gardens and property boundaries to mixed 19th century and 20th century terraced and semi-detached housing along Queen Street and Old Queen Street. The remainder of the northern boundary is formed by the main tarmacked footpath through a small area of open scrubby grassland, with the open area extending beyond, itself bounded by modern (built at some point in the 1960s or 1970s) apartment blocks to the north, and a large 19th century building and church to the west. The south-western corner of the site borders the Blaenavon Conservation Area. 2 2.3 Previous Assessments The industrial landscape of Blaenavon has been inscribed as a World Heritage Site since 2000 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and included in the Register of Landscapes of Outstanding Historic Interest, published by Cadw, CCW and ICOMOS UK in 1998. As such, detailed research has been undertaken into the history and development of the area, a list of the projects and studies undertaken in this area can be found in the Bibliography and Appendices of the Blaenavon World Heritage Site Management Plan 2011 – 2016 (Blaenavon World Heritage Site Partnership 2011). There has been no specific previous archaeological assessment examining the site of this proposed development but lying as it does within the Blaenavon Area of Outstanding Historic Interest (HLW (Gt) 1) this immediate vicinity, including the site of the proposed development has been further assessed as the Historic Landscape Character Area 002 Blaenavon Urban Extension. The area has also been assessed as part of Landmap, which includes an assessment of the geological landscape (Mynydd Garn Clochdy (TRFNGL020) Upland valley slope), the landscape habitat ((TRFNLH006) Residential/Green Space), the visual and sensory (Blaenavon (TRFNVS031) Urban), the cultural landscape (Blaenafon Town (TRFNCL897) Sense of Place) and the Historic Landscape (HL016 Blaenavon (TRFNHL016) Nucleated Settlement).