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Click
on one of the projects below to find out more about it:
The Creswell Initiative
Pride of Place
Virtually the Ice Age
Whitwell Cairn
Pleistocene Collection Assessment
The
Creswell Initiative
Creswell
Crags is one of Britain's most important archaeological
sites, as important as Stonehenge or Hadrian's Wall. The
caves tell the fascinating story of life during the last
Ice Age when the Crags were amongst the most northerly places
on earth to have been inhabited by our ancient ancestors.
The recent cave art discoveries underline the international
significance of the site.
The
Crags have suffered from the late nineteenth century when
the Creswell Caves became known to scientists. Early excavators
used dynamite to blast their way into the caves, and a road
and a sewage works have been built in the gorge. Tens of
thousands of archaeological finds from the site are now
dispersed amongst 30 different museums around the UK.
The
Creswell Initiative is the title of a major project which
proposes to carry out the works necessary to look after,
protect and tell people about the story of life at Creswell
Crags. The total cost is estimated at £14 million.
The project will give a major boost to the local economy,
creating a new vision for the future of this ex-coalfield
area.
Key
projects include relocation of the sewage works and road,
development of a new museum and interpretation centre, and
creation of an Ice Age studies centre. Over £8 million
has been raised so far. The Heritage Lottery Fund and English
Heritage funded the preparation of a Conservation Plan for
Creswell Crags which provides a blueprint for managing and
enhancing the site and the surrounding Heritage Area.
Severn
Trent Water relocated the sewage works during 2000 at a
cost of £4.5 million - the largest Private Sector
contribution ever made in this country towards the conservation
of a Scheduled Ancient Monument. The European Regional Development
Fund financed a programme of conservation and access improvements
including the creation of Crags Meadow amenity and education
area on the site of the former sewage works, dredging and
restoration of Crags pond, and improvements to cave conservation
and access.
A
Planning Application has been submitted to relocate the
B6042 road with most of the funding secured through ENTRUST.
This £1.2 million scheme is planned to start in December
2003.
A
team of consultants led by Hilary McGowan and OMI architects
are working with the Trust to develop proposals for a new
Museum and Education Centre at Creswell Crags. An Operational
Appraisal, Development Options Appraisal and Education Markets
Research have already been completed and a bid will be submitted
to HLF East Midlands in autumn 2003.
Related
projects include the HLF funded Creswell Townscape Heritage
Initiative scheme (curretnly valued at over £6 million)
to restore the Model Mining Village at Creswell, and the
Creswell Heritage Area Management Action Plan funded through
the Aggregates Levy scheme.
Project
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Pride
of Place
"Pride
of Place" project, developed by Creswell Heritage Trust,
is a programme focussed on encouraging visitors and local
communities to discover and explore the cultural and natural
heritage of the southern Magnesian limestone landscape along
the Robin Hood Line corridor. This programme is designed
to assist local communities in their drive for regeneration
by building on the positive aspects of the area and to raise
the national profile, thereby encouraging inward investment,
tourism and local pride and sense of place.
"Pride
of Place" aims actively to encourage people to visit
the Meden Valley and to discover and explore its heritage
components. By encouraging such visits, "Pride of Place"
will help to dispel perceptions of this area as a derelict
industrial landscape and replace that perception with a
new positive identity based on the scenic countryside setting
with nationally and internationally important cultural and
natural heritage sites. Increased numbers of visitors provide
a measure of the success of the project in creating a new
positive identity for the Meden Valley. If the area is attractive
to visit, then with its central location and good communications
it is also one that is attractive to live and to invest
in. Likewise local pride and sense of place is a measure
of the vibrancy of local communities and of their commitment
to a new future. By involving and engaging with local communities,
"Pride of Place" will promote awareness of and
pride in the distinctive local landscape.
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Virtually the Ice Age
Creswell Crags is one of Britains most significant cultural
resources, a potential world heritage site ranking in importance
with Hadrian's Wall or Stonehenge. It is of international
significance as a scientific and education resource. Through
the use of Information Communication Technology this project
aims to raise the image and profile of Creswell Crags and
provide greater opportunities to access this internationally
significant resource through the World Wide Web.
This
project, the first stage in the development of an on-line
digital resource, has been developed in partnership with
The British Museum and Derby Museum and Art Gallery. Funding
has come from European Regional Development Fund, Resource,
and The Coalfields Regeneration Trust. It is envisaged that
major benefits will come from this project towards assisting
with regenerating the former Nottinghamshire / Derbyshire
coalfield by encouraging visitors and investors to see beyond
the image of redundant collieries and pit tips to a landscape
of outstanding cultural and natural heritage. Plans to host
a link to this resource via the British Museum's web site
will provide access to a large virtual visitor market, The
British Museum being the top museum attraction receiving
nearly 5.5 million visitors every year. Virtual visitors
will be able to explore the cultural resources of the Creswell
area which will encourage actual visitors to these sites.
Equally significant will be the opportunity for local communities
to explore and interact with the history on their doorstep
through this innovative education resource.
As
well as the Web resource due to be launched in March 2001,
funding has been secured to distribute a CD ROM and to host
the resource on museums kiosks.
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Whitwell Cairn
The
archaeological site Whitwell Cairn, a Neolithic burial monument,
was discovered and excavated in 1990. This project, through
funding from English Heritage, is a post excavation and
publication project.
Initial
radiocarbon dates from the site are the earliest obtained
for non-megalithic burial structures placed at the very
start of the Neolithic, providing an opportunity to explore
the transition between the Mesolithic and Neolithic. The
site structures follow a complex sequence which includes
two mortuary deposits, a single inhumation later enclosed
by an oval planned cairn, and a multiple burial group enclosed
by a rectangular cairn. There is evidence for an early timber
mortuary structure which contains the multiple burial group.
The
project is at an advanced stage with publication planned
for 2001.
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Pleistocene Collection Assessment
Collections
which have been developed as a result of archaeological
research at Creswell Crags and at other caves and rockshelters
within the Creswell area are highly dispersed. Of particular
relevance to Creswell Crags was the need to carry out a
base line published audit which could inform the process
of establishing research agendas for the East Midlands and
wider national research frameworks, and provide information
which could help to support the conservation of this Pleistocene
resource. Further, through a greater understanding of the
excavated material from Creswell Crags the Trust would be
in a stronger position to promote the archaeology of Creswell
Crags to the public and enhance their enjoyment of Palaeolithic
archaeology.
This
survey, funded by English Heritage, set out to establish
the range, quantity, quality and condition of Creswell Crags
Pleistocene archaeology, where it is stored and its condition.
A key aim was to publish the findings of the survey in order
that future research and presentation has an assembled corpus
of information on which to draw. The study is the first
step to more detailed assessments, analyses and future management
of the collections.
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2001 Creswell Heritage Trust
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