About Me

Heritage Lincolnshire is running an innovative approach to managing heritage at risk by training and supporting a network of volunteer 'heritage stewards' to complete surveys on Lincolnshire's heritage assets including historic buildings, places of worship, parks and gardens, conservation areas and archaeological sites. Project Officers Michael Knapton and Natalie Hamilton, together with some of our keen Heritage Stewards, will be writing a weekly blog on the Heritage at Risk project which will provide updates on the latest news and goings on, as well as offering an insight in to the day to day running of the project and the experiences of our Heritage Stewards.

Monday 11 July 2011

Conservation Areas


Much of this week has been taken up with preparing information on all of Lincolnshire's 163 Conservation Areas. This information is needed for our updated website so that our Heritage Stewards will have some information to help them complete their Conservation Area surveys. It is hoped that our Heritage Stewards will download the information, and a map, from our website that they will then be able to take out into the field.

Lincolnshire contains a plethora of Conservation Areas, all of which are unique. Many cover historic cores of rural villages but the County also contains Conservation Areas covering a a variety of interesting sites including: a former lunatic asylum (Rauceby Hospital), a glimpse of Victorian rural industry (Heckington Station) and “the English country market town par excellence" (Stamford). Stamford is of great interest not just because it contains over 430 Listed Buildings but also because it is England's very first Conservation Area - designated in 1967. The project has a fantastic group of volunteers in Stamford and it is likely that they will have to continue to tackle the town together to complete the Conservation Area survey.

There is no such thing as a 'typical' Conservation Area (which will make surveying them very challenging). 'Lincoln -The Dell' is less than a hectare (i.e. smaller than a football field) while Louth is over 140 times as large! Some contain hundreds of listed buildings such as Stamford (433), Boston (226) and Lincoln Cathedral (312) while others contain none - Stamford Northfields, Dawsmere and Fleet Fen.

We, alongside Lincoln City Council, have provided specialist Conservation Area for our Heritage Stewards and we will be planning more in the future (keep an eye on http://www.lincshar.org/events-training). These types of survey will involve additional research and reading and, of course, they will take much longer to complete than a normal building survey. I'm looking forward to doing a few of my own when time allows as it will be a great way of gaining a much more in-depth knowledge of certain site around the county.

Michael, Heritage at Risk Project Officer

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