People of the Peak: Past, Present, Future - funding announced for ambitious cultural heritage project

Plans are underway for an ambitious project to monitor and conserve the Peak District's cultural heritage thanks to initial funding of £204,376 from The National Lottery Heritage Fund.

The grant has been awarded jointly to the Peak District National Park Authority and the Peak District National Park Foundation to support the development phase of a new project which aims to improve the monitoring and conservation of historic monuments and buildings.

In this phase, a small team will be recruited to lead the project and test a range of different approaches to increase volunteer and community involvement in protecting the Peak District’s unique cultural heritage. Based on what they learn, they will also progress plans to apply for a full National Lottery grant of around £775,000 at a later date.

People have lived in the Peak District for over 10,000 years, shaping the landscape and leaving a wealth of cultural history. There are over 473 scheduled monuments and 2848 listed buildings, spread across the 555 square miles of the National Park.

The diversity of heritage sites is extraordinary, ranging from prehistoric burial mounds, tombs, stone circles and field systems to medieval granges, traditional farmsteads, industrial complexes and designed landscapes.

But monitoring and protecting this heritage is a huge task.

Ultimately, People of the Peak aims to grow the number of cultural heritage volunteers from 20 to 500, offering a wide range of volunteering opportunities from on-site activities to home-based roles such as heritage research and data analysis.

The project will increase volunteering opportunities in particular for young people aged 18 to 30 and people from ethnically diverse communities – and provide training in relevant skills such as condition monitoring, navigation, research and practical conservation.

People of the Peak will also include ‘BioBlitz’ citizen science studies – looking into the biodiversity of selected sites, monitoring for climate change vulnerability and informing future nature recovery projects.

The plans include working with landowners to better understand and protect heritage on their land and developing a £200,000 Community Heritage Grant Fund to support conservation work, which will launch should further funding be awarded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Anna Badcock, the Peak District National Park Authority’s cultural heritage team manager, said: "The Authority has faced significant funding cuts over the last 10 years, across all services. A well-trained volunteer cohort is vital to help the Authority monitor and care for the heritage of the National Park, through its own work and in partnership with others.

"If we don’t have a clear picture of the state of heritage in the National Park, risks go unidentified and opportunities for early intervention are missed.

"The natural and cultural aspects of all our landscapes are tightly interlinked. This project will also help us develop our approach to landscape conservation, which may need to adapt in the face of a changing climate."

Roisin Joyce, director of the Peak District National Park Foundation said: “We’re thrilled to be awarded this funding, made possible by National Lottery players, to allow development of the first stage of the People of the Peak project.

"The task of caring for heritage sites across a landscape of this scale is vast and existing monitoring and conservation is not enough.

"This project will create an inclusive volunteering programme so more people can get directly involved in monitoring and conserving our national heritage.

"With more and better-quality monitoring, we will be able to identify risks while a heritage grant fund and volunteer supported conservation activities will help to protect heritage found to be at risk and safeguard it for future generations."