Heritage At Risk Project Seeking Volunteers

A new heritage project has just started in the Lower Derwent Valley and they are looking to recruit anyone who may have an interest in learning new heritage skills.

This 3-year project has been set up by the DerwentWISE Landscape Partnership, and the aim is to train community volunteers to undertake basic ‘condition surveys’ of over 1,000 heritage features in the project area, which stretches from Matlock Bath to Derby.

The project is one of several regional pilot projects sitting alongside the wider ‘Heritage at Risk’ scheme launched by Historic England in 2008. The scheme identifies those historic sites that are most at risk of being lost as a result of neglect, decay or inappropriate development.

The results of the surveys will help the local communities, local authorities and land managers to understand heritage features better. At the core of the project area sits the internationally important Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site. The surveys will record some of the many attributes that add to the outstanding universal value of this special place and our findings will be included in the Historic Environment Record (HER) hosted by Derbyshire County Council.

How can you join in?

DerwentWISE will run several training workshops throughout 2016-2017. Volunteers can learn to survey different types of heritage site, including Buildings, Places of Worship, Archaeological Sites and Parks & Gardens.

The workshops are FREE! and open to everyone (although under 18s must be accompanied by an adult). The training is being delivered by ArcHeritage, with Locus Consulting and Trent & Peak Archaeology. Volunteers do not need to have any previous survey experience. For further information on the project and to see the next available training dates, please visit their website or contact them using the details below:

Anna Badcock, ArcHeritage, 54 Campo Lane, Sheffield S1 2EH t: 0114 2728884   e: derwentwisehar@yorkat.co.uk www.derwentwisehar.org