Heritage Management Plan for Spa Ponds

The following is an archive of what the page looked like while the project is active. For the Heritage Management Plan and ongoing discussions of the heritage of Spa Ponds please check out:


The Spa Ponds Heritage Project will contribute to improving the management of Spa Ponds’ heritage through the production of a community-led Heritage Management Plan accompanied by the development of the skills and understanding necessary to implement and update the Plan.

The Heritage Management Plan will complement our existing Ecological Management Plan and will guide the management of the site to help ensure that any heritage assets identified will, at the very least, be protected from  inadvertent harm.

For the purposes of this Project, the Heritage Management Plan will provide a practical anchor for training, mentoring and community-led research (including desk research and non-intrusive fieldwork, as well as oral histories), drawing on professional Community Archaeology support.

Research findings will be analysed and shared with the wider communities of place (including residents of Forest Town and Mansfield Woodhouse) and communities of interest (e.g. those interested in local history, and in the heritage and archaeology of the Sherwood Forest area).

From the Introductory Workshop, 14 Jan 2016:

The process of preparing the Plan is as important as the ‘product’

The Plan should help answer:

  • What is really significant about the site?
  • How can these be maintained and preserved?

Process:

  1. Agree scope and purpose
  2. Collect information
  3. Describe the heritage of the site
  4. Assess its significance / Agree baseline condition
  5. Set aims and objectives
  6. Develop ‘work programme’
    (generate research wish-list / identify works requiring funding)
  7. Monitor / Review

Key components:

  1. Purpose of the plan / Vision for the site
  2. Description and history
  3. Assessment of significance /
    summary of current condition
  4. Identify any management issues & objectives
    (including future research and other work)
  5. Lots of appendices and maps!