Conservation Management Plans

Conservation management plans for historic parks and gardens
In caring for, or managing change in, historic parks, gardens and other designed landscapes, there are often many features, historic layers and associations to consider as well as diverse interests like nature conservation and the farm business or opening up the property as a visitor attraction. Historic park and garden conservation management plans have been developed as a tools to pull together research, develop an understanding of what matters and why, and how to conserve it. From this informed basis, plans are then used to develop programmes of repair, restoration or to draw up proposals for change.

Grant bodies are likely to ask to be consulted on the conservation management aims before management and maintenance prescriptions are drawn up. Expert advisers are usually needed to help prepare plans for important historic parks and gardens.

Conservation management plans do not need to be lengthy documents but large and complex historic parks and gardens may require a range of historical research and survey information. Information needs to be organised so that the plan is easy to use.

Sources of guidance on conservation management plans are given below. Each publication has been prepared for a type of site or a grant scheme and needs to be tailored for your historic park and garden but all follow the same principles.

The Heritage Lottery Fund's diagram on the right shows the process of developing and updating a plan:

Grants for conservation management plans
Grants may be available towards the costs of preparing conservation management plans or associated surveys and studies from English Heritage, Heritage Lottery Fund, Countryside Agency and through Defra's Environmental Stewardship scheme. Please see each organisations' grant scheme for details and check what plans and costs are eligible for grant aid.

Latest guidance on conservation management plans
Heritage Lottery Fund (2004) Conservation management plans. Helping your application.

The HLF guidance takes you through why they ask for plans and how plans can help you plan the conservation of your heritage property and maintenance programmes. A model brief, checklists and guidance on special aspects like audience planning is also provided on this web site.

Countryside Agency (2005) Preparing a heritage management plan.

Although designed as guidance for heritage property granted conditional exemption from capital taxation or for maintenance funds, the Countryside Agency's publication is also useful reference for other estate and landscape plans. The guidance includes an example of a heritage management plan for illustration.

CabeSpace (May 2004) A guide to producing parks and green space management plans http://www.cabe.org.uk/AssetLibrary/2109.pdf

This guidance is designed to help draw up management plans for publicly accessible parks and green spaces.

English Heritage (2004) Grants for historic buildings, monuments and designed landscapes. Maintenance plans.This leaflet tells you how to prepare a schedule for the planned maintenance of your historic building, monument or designed landscape.

 

Other references on plans: 

 Sponsored by English Heritage, the Landscape Design Trust are preparing a new edition of  Researching a garden's history: A guide to documentary and published sources. See  www.landscape.co.uk
Kate Clark (2001) Informed conservation . Understanding historic buildings and their landscapes for conservation . Product Code XH20171 Published by English Heritage see www.english-heritage.org.uk

This book gives guidelines on techniques for understanding historic properties and how to apply this research, survey and analysis to repair, alteration, development or management work. It includes advice on plans.

English Heritage (1998) The care of historic buildings and ancient monuments. Guidelines for government departments and agencies. Product Code XH20077 see www.english-heritage.org.uk

Part C of this handbook looks at the conservation management of historic buildings, their settings and contents.

Kate Clark - editor (1999) Conservation plans in action: Proceeding of the Oxford Conference. Product Code XH20127 Published by English Heritage see www.english-heritage.org.uk

These conference proceedings provide an insight to thinking on plans, how plans had been used as tools to help manage sites and places range of applications of plan, and the emergence of the conservation management plan approach.

Other publications on site management plans
Countryside Commission (1998) Site management planning. A guide. CCP 527 see www.countryside.gov.uk

Countryside Council for Wales (2003) Management plans for SSSI, Natura 200 Sites and Ramsar Sites see www.ccw.gov.uk