Herefordshire Rivers: Frome Valley

English Heritage summaries. 2003/2004

EH Project Number	3690MAIN
Funded Unit	Herefordshire Council

The study is part of the LEADER+ Herefordshire Rivers project which is one of the national LEADER+ project within the UK that is financially supported by the European Union and administrated in the UK by DEFRA on behalf of the government along with funding support from English Heritage. The main theme of the project concerns raising awareness of, celebrating and enhancing, the diverse and rich environmental heritage of the rivers, floodplains and valleys. The aim is to do so through a series of community-linked projects that provide audits of this heritage, and seek out mechanisms to enhance both understanding and development of the assets, while safeguarding their existence. The project seeks to promote heritage-related and river-focused sustainable economic activity, to celebrate the heritage and contemporary cultural perspectives through artistic endeavours, and to engage the community in as many different ways as practicable in appreciation of their environment.

The Frome Valley project is a twelve- month study starting in March 2004 and is being delivered by Herefordshire Archaeology who have teamed up with the Bromyard and District Local History Society. The Archaeology, Landscape Change and Conservation project is a continuation of the archaeological investigation of Herefordshire river valleys that has developed from a pilot study undertaken in 2003 within the Arrow Valley, which was also sponsored by LEADER+ Herefordshire Rivers and English Heritage (Project No 3302).

The project has a number of elements: -

 ·        An overview of how the landscape has changed through map regression and field observation

 ·        Study of the ancient landscape by geomorphological survey

 ·        Site investigations of archaeological sites under active erosion

 ·        Whole-farm studies and audit of the historic environment

 ·        Monument management and conservation works

 ·        Workshops and talks

 ·        Site interpretation and information

 

 These project elements aim to achieve: -

 ·        Raised awareness of the richness of the heritage.

 ·        Improved understanding of how fragile and vulnerable that heritage is.

 ·        Encourage everyone living locally to see what is distinctive, historically, in the environment and how the landscape of today has come about.

 ·        Show how simple and not at all costly the range of actions that can be taken and ideas that can be implemented are to safeguard the heritage for the future.

 ·        Demonstrate how interest in the Frome Valley heritage from outside the area, both within the county and beyond it, can be generated and sustained.

 

More information about the project and forthcoming events can be viewed at http://www.smr.herefordshire.gov.uk/news_events2/news_index.htm
 
 

This page was published 03/08/04