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| Avebury World Heritage Site
Management Plan |
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Contents
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Avebury World Heritage Site Management Plan |
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1. The Avebury World Heritage Site
The Avebury complex of sites and monuments, situated on the edge of
the Marlborough Downs in north eastern Wiltshire, represents a unique surviving
example of outstanding human endeavour in Neolithic times and later. Avebury
Henge, Stone Circles and associated sites, seen in juxtaposition to later
historic features - small villages, designed parklands and large manor
houses, greatly contribute to a distinctive historic and cultural landscape.
The particularly rich assemblage of archaeological sites, both visible
and buried, provides a vivid record of past landscape patterns and use.
Indeed, these monuments and features have exerted a considerable visual
and cultural influence on the surrounding landscape for almost 5, 000 years.
Since 1986, the outstanding universal value of the Avebury complex has
been recognised by its inscription, together with Stonehenge, as a World
Heritage Site (WHS) under the UNESCO World Heritage Convention.
The boundary of the Avebury WHS encloses an area of 22.5 square kilometres
around the six key prehistoric monuments in the care of the state (in “Guardianship”)
which form the basis of the WHS designation. These monuments are: Avebury
Henge and Stone Circles; Windmill Hill; Silbury Hill; West Kennet Long
Barrow; West Kennet Avenue; the Sanctuary. These monuments are managed
by the National Trust who own and manage just under a third of the WHS
for the purposes of permanent preservation and public access. The rest
of the WHS is in multiple ownership and is an intensely farmed landscape
with a thriving local village at the core of the area. In addition to its
historical and archaeological significance, the Avebury WHS also contains
many important features of built heritage and nature conservation value.
The overall importance of the conservation value of the WHS is reflected
in its inclusion within the North Wessex Downs Area Of Outstanding Natural
Beauty. The majority of the Avebury WHS is, therefore, subject to a variety
of pressures from modern life. The present land use pressures on the historic
and natural resources arise principally from agriculture, tourism and traffic.
2. The purpose of the Management Plan
The WHS Management Plan has been prepared on behalf of the Avebury WHS
Working Party in consultation with local people and all those with an interest
in the management of the area. The Working Party comprises representatives
from the agencies who hold management responsibilities in the WHS. English
Heritage, as the lead body developing Management Plans for World Heritage
Sites in England, funded a collaborative project which developed the Management
Plan for Avebury between September 1996 and August 1998.
World Heritage designation brings enormous prestige to Avebury but does
not carry with it any additional statutory controls. However, as stated
in the Government’s Planning Policy Guidance Note 15:“ Planning and the
Historic Environment”, WHS status is a key material factor which must be
taken into account by the local authorities when making planning decisions.
The Plan is not prescriptive or binding on landowners and management agencies,
but aims to set the framework for co-ordinated management and the development
of partnerships. In this way, the WHS Plan is intended to enhance the existing
plan coverage (such as the local statutory plans and the National Trust’s
estate management plan) and will serve to inform existing and future management
documents relating to the area.
The preparation this strategic Management Plan for the entire WHS is
a significant move forward in securing the future character and quality
of the WHS landscape as a whole, which is locally cherished and internationally
recognised. The Plan provides a framework for the holistic and proactive
management of the landscape, helping to ensure that the special qualities
of the WHS are sustained and preserved for future generations.
In particular the Plan aims to:
-
establish an overall vision for the long-term future of the Avebury WHS
which will be widely accepted.
-
explore opportunities for positive management with farmers, landowners,
and other agencies which will enhance the landscape character of the WHS
whilst respecting economic interests.
-
provide guidance and attract widespread support and which will lead to
an increased understanding, respect and care for this exceptional cultural
landscape.
3. The Contents of the Plan
The process of developing this Plan has involved a great deal of research,
survey and consultation. As part of this process, English Heritage employed
consultants to undertake a landscape assessment and a visitor and traffic
management assessment of the WHS. In addition, English Heritage has developed
a comprehensive database of all the cultural and environmental assets of
the WHS, held within a Geographical Information System (GIS). These projects
form the main building blocks of the Management Plan.
The Plan comprises a statement of the objectives necessary for the long
term preservation of the WHS and its landscape setting, aiming to balance
the interests of conservation, public access, and the interests of those
who live and work in the area. The objectives are based on the identification
of the values of the WHS, key management issues, and an assessment of why
the WHS is sensitive and vulnerable to the pressures of modern life.
Part One of the Plan contains an assessment of the cultural values that
make Avebury special, including justification for its inscription as a
WHS. The protection of WHS values and sympathetic land management within
the area greatly depends on identifying and resolving key management issues.
Part Two contains the descriptive information used in the identification
of 51 issues related to management needs. Following on from the description
and evaluation, Part Three sets out objectives for the management of the
WHS based on a strategic view over thirty years, and medium term objectives
for five to ten years. In total, twenty-five objectives have been identified.
The overall long-term objectives set the context for the more detailed
medium-term objectives, strategies and programme for action outlined in
Part Four.
The Plan has been specifically designed and formatted to foster its
use as a working document, which can be updated on a regular basis. For
this purpose, a range of supplementary information has been placed into
appendices and presented at the back of the main Plan.
4. Avebury’s World Heritage and other values
The identification of the cultural values of the Avebury WHS forms the
basis of, and underpins, the Management Plan. This approach should help
to ensure that the values that make Avebury important, especially its “outstanding
universal value”, are not diminished. The international importance of Avebury,
together with Stonehenge, was recognised by its inscription onto the World
Heritage List, as site C373 (Stonehenge, Avebury and associated sites),
in 1986 on the nomination of the UK Government. The nominating document
describes Stonehenge and Avebury as the two most important prehistoric
monuments in Britain.
For a site to be included on the World Heritage List it must meet at
least one of six criteria set out in the World Heritage Convention. The
inscription of Avebury and Stonehenge onto the List recognises that together
they fulfill the following three criteria:
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Represent a masterpiece of human creative genius
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Exhibit an important interchange of human values, over a span of time or
within a cultural area of the world, on developments in monumental arts
or town planning and landscape design
-
Bears a unique or at least exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition
or to a civilisation which is living or which has disappeared
In the first part of the Management Plan the values of the Avebury WHS
have been defined and described under the following headings:
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archaeological and historical
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landscape and conservation
-
social
-
economic
-
research and educational
It is recognised that these values do overlap quite considerably, but together
they cover the full range of the site’s cultural significance.
5. Long-term objectives
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Understand and influence the long-term change in the WHS cultural landscape
for the benefit of the historic environment.
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Gain recognition for Avebury as a very special place for which special
treatment should be given by government departments, agencies, landowners
and visitors in order to safeguard the historic environmental assets of
the WHS and their setting for the benefit of succeeding generations.
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Meet Britain’s obligations under the World Heritage Convention in relation
to the effective management of the Avebury WHS.
-
Ensure the sustainability of all uses of the WHS.
6. Short and medium-term objectives
The monuments and their historic landscape setting:
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Provide the most appropriate landscape setting for all the major monuments
and to halt ongoing degradation of sites and monuments under current land
use.
-
Enhance and conserve the landscape character of the WHS with respect to
tree cover and other planted features.
-
Enhance and protect the visual sensitivity of the key monuments and their
setting.
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Ensure the boundary of the WHS offers the best possible protection for
the monuments and their landscape setting.
-
Develop management compartments for the WHS an prepare appropriate action
plans for each.
-
Establish an accurate picture of the current condition and vulnerability
of all monuments.
The planning and policy framework:
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Maintain and enhance the rich built heritage features in the WHS, recognising
their relationship to the monuments and landscape.
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Optimise the use of agri-environmental schemes and other management agreements
in order to enhance the protection of the monuments and their landscape
setting.
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Enhance the protection of the monuments and historic landscape setting
of the WHS afforded by the Local Plan and policy framework.
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Enhance the protection of the WHS from the activities which do not currently
require planning permission, but are potentially damaging to upstanding
and buried archaeological features.
Traffic and parking management:
-
Develop long-term radical solutions for the reduction of volume and speed
of traffic passing through the WHS.
-
Implement short to medium-term measures providing comprehensive treatment
to all important road links within the WHS, in order to improve safety
and the quality of the historic environment.
-
Implement a strategic policy to reduce parking congestion in the Village
area on peak days, dispersing the pressure without exceeding the overall
capacity of the WHS historic landscape to absorb change.
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Reduce the reliance on the private car by visitors to Avebury WHS, by encouraging
the uses of more sustainable methods of transport to get to the site and
to move around within it.
Public access and sustainability:
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Ensure all aspects of public access and tourism at Avebury are sustainable,
despite the likelihood of increasing visitor numbers in future.
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Mitigate the physical damage caused to monuments and footpaths by the impact
of visitor pressure, and restore the areas significantly effected.
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Reduce the negative effects of visitor pressure at Avebury on quality of
life of local community.
-
Encourage visitor appreciation of the wider landscape in order to enhance
enjoyment and understanding of the WHS at the same time as dispersing visitor
pressure from the Village area.
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Ensure that the development of any further visitor facilities at Avebury
are compatible with sustainability objectives.
-
Establish an integrated monitoring program which will promote proactive
management by predicting potential damage to the site and will assess the
effectiveness of management actions in tackling the problems.
Research
-
Encourage and promote academic research to achieve a deeper understanding
of the WHS necessary for its appropriate management. All research should
be carried out with due regard to the principles of sustainability and
to appropriate standards of work.
7. Implementing
the Plan
The Plan
seeks to advise and influence the management of the WHS in line with its
objectives, but has no statutory power or status. It hopes to achieve a
sense of “ownership” from all the users of the site, as well as the managers
and the local community, in order to generate the commitment necessary
to achieve its objectives.
Part
Four of the Plan sets out a detailed PROGRAMME FOR ACTION to achieve
the management objectives in the short-medium term. This section will be
updated on a regular basis. The implementation of the Plan will be achieved
by a variety of agencies and individuals who own or currently have management
responsibilities in the WHS. Some strategies will require collective action,
while others will fall to a single agency or individual. The willingness
of owners and farmers to support the Plan and contribute to the maintenance
of the historic landscape features is fundamental to the achievement of
the objectives.
Two
specific mechanisms are proposed to aid the successful achievement of the
objectives:
-
The continued
existence of the Avebury WHS Working Party to oversee the implementation
and delivery of the Plan and monitor its success.
-
The provision
of an Avebury WHS Officer, funded by English Heritage and accommodated
by Kennet District Council. The Officer will develop methods for promoting
proactive management and for reviewing and monitoring the effectiveness
of the Management Plan in the long-term.
8. Contact
information
Questions
or further information about the Avebury WHS Management Plan should be
addressed to:
The
Avebury WHS Officer
Kennet
District Council
Browfort
Bath
Road
Devizes
Wiltshire
SN10 2AT
Tel: 01380
724911 extension 830
E-mail:
melanie.pomeroy@kennet.gov.uk
9. Membership
of the Avebury WHS Working Party
-
Avebury Parish
Council
-
Countryside
Commission
-
Country Landowners
Association
-
Department for
Culture, Media & Sport
-
English Heritage
-
English Nature
-
Farming and
Rural Conservation Agency (MAFF)
-
ICOMOS UK
-
Kennet District
Council
-
National Farmers
Union
-
National Trust
-
Wiltshire County
Council
Acknowledgements
Published
by English Heritage. Written by Melanie Pomeroy. Photographs: English Heritage.
© English Heritage.
