Hopefully this spooky season there aren’t actually any Greater Horseshoe Bats in your cauldron! This particular species of bat is one of the rarest, and Cornwall’s protected landscape offers key...
Melodie Manners
Representing 4,000 years of Cornish history
The Monumental Improvement project (MI) has been developed with funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
This five-year project will seek to ensure that the 38 Scheduled Monuments in the Cornwall National Landscape are better identified, supported and enjoyed by a wide range of people.
Raise awareness of Scheduled Monuments in Cornwall National Landscape and their threats
Support regular Historic Environment recording of Scheduled monuments
Engage more young people with archaeology in Cornwall
Deliver stabilisation works to safeguard monuments for future generations
Support landowners and enable them to better understand and care for their monuments
Raise awareness of how historic environment can support biodiversity
Upskill existing community groups to create a legacy of monumental support
Provide a digital, interactive resource to help better identify and explain the significance of Scheduled Monuments
Provide skills development in the local community and create jobs
Engage new audiences with Cornish heritage
Work closely with partners and stakeholders to successfully deliver the project
Develop a network of volunteers and empower them to take ownership of ongoing maintenance
Cornwall National Landscape’s Monumental Improvement project is now in its three-year delivery phase and will be supporting a wide-ranging volunteer programme around Heritage at Risk interventions. Funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and other partners, the project is seeking to ensure that 38 scheduled monuments listed on the Heritage at Risk Register or classified as vulnerable, are better identified, supported and enjoyed by a wider range of people by 2025. With 18% of the 988 scheduled monuments listed on the Southwest Heritage at Risk Register located in Cornwall, it is hoped that the project will deliver on the Cornwall National Landscape (AONB) Management Plan 2022-2027 aim to bring the historic environment in the protected landscape back into better management.
Our archaeological team will be working other project partners on the physical conservation of some of these sites as well as writing up management plans for them going forward. So there will be lots of opportunities for volunteers to be involved and learn new skills whilst improving the historic environment of Cornwall.
With a strong health and wellbeing focus to the project, there will be numerous opportunities for people to get involved in the work to remove as many sites as possible from the Heritage at Risk Register. Wellbeing focused activities such as forest bathing and meditation will be on offer, as well as a wide-ranging volunteer programme focused on archaeology and ecology to help conserve the scheduled monuments. By providing opportunities for people to connect to their local heritage, spend more time outdoors, meet new people and actively make a difference to their local area, the project is aiming to boost wellbeing and empower local communities to care for the scheduled monuments on their doorstep.
Project legacies will include on site interpretation at some of the sites, management plans and also tool kits and training packages to enable communities to carry on with the works in the future.
Our Primary Purpose is to conserve and enhance Natural Beauty.
Our priority is to lead and support projects which deliver under these four key categories.
We will actively engage with over 200 community volunteers to improve awareness for the importance of Cornish heritage and culture
38 heritage sites will be significantly better understood and more easily accessible
26 heritage sites will have improved local diversity of wildlife and flower forna
We will seek to make more than 100 people have greater awareness of current climate challenges
During May, we celebrated National Walking Month by hosting a series of Guided Walks at 6 of the scheduled monuments on our project! 3 of which were Show & Tell walks to showcase the geophysical results of recent archaeological surveys carried out by the project.
At the end of May our team attended the 9th Annual Green Man Festival at Mount Edgecumbe. Across the Saturday and Sunday, we hosted lots of activities including pottery making, bird nesting box building, drawing sessions and guided walks. We also had an exhibition from some of our volunteers showcasing the nearby Scheduled Monument, Mount Edgcumbe Barrow.
In June, our Monumental Improvement team attended the 2024 Royal Cornwall Show where we spoke to many new faces about our project. At our stand we had some exciting archaeological activities such as a pot puzzle as well as artifact timeline where visitors had to guess what period the artifacts were from and those who guessed correctly got to keep an Archi-ologist sticker! We were also recruiting young archaeologists to join our upcoming re-launch of the Young Archaeologists’ Club in Cornwall this July. We have lined up 3 launch events across Cornwall to encourage the next generation of budding archaeologists.
We are always looking for new volunteers and partners to help support the project. If you would like to find out more or get involved in the project, please send us an email to monuments@cornwall-aonb.gov.uk.
Our conservation repairs will be continuing this year at Kynance Gate. If you would like to support any of these repairs, register your interest below.
We are pleased to be able to support Student Placements. If you would like to find out more about the possibility of doing a student placement with us, please contact monuments@cornwall-aonb.gov.uk to check the eligibility criteria.
For any other queries contact monuments@cornwall-aonb.gov.uk.
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