Land management and access work in the Caradon Hill area was focused on brokering a better understanding between the existing users of the moor and the graziers. The aim was to manage footfall and to help with education so that any potential damage is reduced and best management practices for long-term sustainability are encouraged.
The Project worked closely with farmers, landowners and commoners, helping with environmental grants, management plans and access improvements. It was important that work carried out to improve access to the landscape and special sites was sustainable, so a key part of the work in this area involved education and awareness. Maintaining and upgrading existing and historical paths and tracks took place alongside potential for new trails, such as the creation of part of the long distance cycle route, The Caradon Trail.
Key Areas of support:
The Caradon Trail
Working with councils, volunteers and sites along the route to create and publicise part of a long-distance cycle and walking route through the project area.
New Access to Special Sites
We assessed which historic sites would be suitable for improved access and putting in place long-term plans to manage this access. The process helped to restore the connections between communities and heritage.
Improved Access
We upgraded paths, tracks and car parking areas. Surfaces and features of historic tracks were improved and maintained using traditional skills.
Land Management Capital Works
The Project enabled a competitive grants scheme which supported small-scale projects that bring landscape, wildlife and historic environment benefits to the project area. Applications were decided by a Grants Panel from the Project Partnership Group (PPG).
Providing long-term, wide-ranging guidance to land managers and helping with applications for funding to carry out the necessary work.
Features of the Caradon Hill area:
The main population centre of Liskeard is an ancient market town with a history going back to Norman times. It was the local centre for wool trading and agriculture, and later a stannary town where tin taxes were levied. The landscape aspect of the rural moorland to the north of Liskeard (southern edge of Bodmin Moor) was typically random farms and small enclaves prior to the 19th century mining boom when many of the current hamlets developed very rapidly.
The moorland is privately owned, but certain individuals hold Commoners’ rights to graze livestock on the land. There is a common misunderstanding amongst the public that ‘Common Land’ means nobody owns it and anyone can use it. This has been complicated by Open Access designations (CRoW Act), commonly misquoted as ‘the right to roam,’ because the majority of Common Land was overlain as Open Access Land where anyone may walk (but not drive or ride).
The Commoners earn a living from grazing ponies, cattle and sheep on the open moorland these are a particular type of ‘tougher’ livestock, not the ‘softer’ dairy cattle or riding-ponies and horses that the public are more familiar with.
Interesting facts:
- CHAHP offered training workshops in rural skills and free advice on land management
- Just because the landscape looks like a large windswept wilderness, it doesn’t mean it’s abandoned and is, in fact, carefully managed
- Everyone can benefit from a greater understanding of the different uses of the landscape and take pride in helping to sustain it