So says a press release from SPAB this week. SPAB is the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings www.spab.org.uk. SPAB, is an internationally recognised Society and has many high profile members and supporters including Griff Rhys-Jones, Tim Monogue and Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen.
Over the last three months, Lizzy Williams Chairman of the STOPHS2 campaign has been working with Robin Stummer, Editor of Cornerstone magazine, SPAB’s own publication and John Lawrence a freelance photographer who works for SPAB and many of the national broadsheets.
Lizzy saw for herself the heritage at stake when she walked the entire proposed route of HS2 this September. Lizzy “ found it incredibly distressing that the official HS2 maps failed to show all of the listed and scheduled monuments along the line in particular war memorials”. Her valuable insight into the hidden heritage treasures at risk from HS2 and the relationships she built on the way with the owners of these assets was invaluable to SPAB in producing the four page feature in Volume 31, Number 4 2010 SPAB magazine. SPAB complemented this article by a statement this week:-
“Despite fierce local opposition, the Government is pressing ahead with plans for a high-speed rail link (HS2) between London and the North via Birmingham. The proposed route would directly and indirectly degrade and destroy a vast swathe of England’s historic landscape, including houses, villages, churches and beautiful ancient countryside. The winter 2010 edition of Cornerstone, the highly respected members’ magazine of SPAB (The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings), waves a red flag at the destructive forces rumbling down the track toward the heart of England.”
Lizzy identified many historic buildings hidden along the line including many that are unlisted but should be. Many gems were literally stumbled upon including Dews Farm in Harefield built when Drake was still playing bowls. Reputedly Elizabeth I visited the farm to view the livestock and the farm was the birthplace of Cecil John Kinross a private in the 49th Edmonton Battalian Canadian Expeditionary Force awarded the Victoria Cross.
The Heritage at stake does not simply include buildings but valuable landscapes, all of which help to form and imprint our British identity as a beautiful, historic and cultural destination for international tourism. The “Setting of Heritage Assets” is the current English Heritage consultation and SPAB’s Robin Stummer reports “there can surely be no more an immediate, and large-scale, case-study than the entire HS2 scheme”.
AONBs are defined as “An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) is exactly what it says it is: a precious landscape whose distinctive character and natural beauty are so outstanding that it is in the nation’s interest to safeguard them”.
Philip Hammond dismissed the Chilterns AONB which was be carved through by HS2 as “not Constable Country”. Funny that as Constable Country shares exactly the same category as an AONB. Lizzy said “Mr Hammond is guilty here of dereliction of duty as a member of our government and should be made to withdraw his statement immediately. “
Sue Yeomans from the Chilterns Countryside Group also said
“AONBs, together with National Parks, are landscapes which are afforded the highest degree of protection in law. The people have rightful expectations that Ministers, such as Mr. Hammond, would recognise their ministerial duty to uphold the Acts of Parliament which enshrine their conservation. If HS2 goes ahead as Mr. Hammond plans, it will create a precedent, for so far as we are aware, no infrastructure of this scale has been approved in an AONB since the CROW Act of 2000, or in a National Park since 1995. Does Mr. Hammond wish to be remembered as the Transport Minister who inflicted a massive and unnecessary scar of concrete on the green and rural landscapes of the Chilterns AONB and rendered these Acts meaningless?”
You ask…
“Does Mr. Hammond wish to be remembered as the Transport Minister who inflicted a massive and unnecessary scar of concrete on the green and rural landscapes of the Chilterns AONB and rendered these Acts meaningless?”
Well yes I think he does.
I think being the man to trash an AONB really works for him.
He sees himself as a Brunel esq figure destined for eternal greatness through his works. And clearly the PM agrees.
I think future generations will look upon the mess and despair.
As will the French & the Germans he so badly wants to impress
It’s interesting to note that part of the proposed route that I have walked myself is scattered with fascinating old monuments in the form of the bridges over the Great Central Railway, that were built in Victorian times, to European specifications, for another supposedly revolutionary transport system, which was designed to link the North and South of the country with Europe.
Despite enormous investment at the time, the project was a spectacular failure.
Are there not lessons to be learnt here?