[Please forward to colleagues or lists that may be interested]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

OUR RECENT HERITAGE: DOES IT MATTER?

- English Heritage to encourage debate on
later 20th century landscape -


Cars and motorways, airports and tower blocks, council estates and
shopping malls. Nuclear weapons, power stations, wind farms and the
moonlanding. The smell of fast food, music festivals, TV and the web, easy
travel and shrinking distances.

All these defined the later 20th century. Like it or not, they have shaped
who we are and is already ¡¥heritage¡¦. Yet for many people, the physical
structures erected during the last 50 years are unwelcome, representing
the destruction of an older and idyllic landscape.

Change and Creation, a programme of debate, consultation and public
engagement launched on 19th November at an academic conference, represents
the first attempt to better understand the nature and value of the later
20th century landscape, how people perceive it, and what should be done to
manage change in the future. It is designed and led by English Heritage in
collaboration with University of Bristol, University College London and
Atkins Heritage.

The general public can now participate in the debate by sending their
thoughts to [log in to unmask] The following questions may be
considered:

„X What do you remember most clearly about the 20th century? How are these
events and activities still represented in the landscape?;
„X What do you appreciate, dislike or miss about the later 20th century
landscape?;
„X What should go and what should replace it? Would you prefer our
landscape to be more like it was in the early 20th century?; and
„X Do you have ideas for engaging your community, school or local society
with aspects of the 20th century landscape?

Dr John Schofield of English Heritage, said:¡¨ The diverse, powerful and
often contested nature of the recent and contemporary past is the starting
point of this programme. Our decisions about what to lose or what to
replace it with must be guided and informed by careful understanding. ¡§

Dr Dan Hicks of the University of Bristol said, "The Programme raises
questions over how we define and characterise heritage. Such questions are
very welcome, especially as part of the importance of the remains of the
1950s or 1980s lies in personal memories and community identities. By
encouraging dialogue, and a diversity of contributions - about football
stadiums, festival sites or industrial landscapes, for example - Change
and Creation promises to make a highly significant and open-minded
contribution to our understanding of the historic environment.¡¨

As the programme develops, it will engage a wide segment of society ¡V from
academics, archaeologists and professionals to government organisations,
heritage managers and culture critics - in a debate on its scope and
direction. It will seek to forge partnerships across organisations with
widely differing views and approaches, provide a framework under which
individual projects can be carried out, and pioneer trans-disciplinary
study methods for understanding the later 20th century landscape. It will
identify and characterise distinctive and influential late 20th century
landscape types in broad terms, focussing strongly on landscape character,
not the study of individual buildings.

More details about the programme¡¦s background, aims and possibilities can
be found on http://www.changeandcreation.org and in the programme booklet,
Change and Creation: historic landscape character 1950 ¡V 2000.
[end]

Issued by English Heritage
For further press information, please contact Renee Fok at English
Heritage Corporate Communications on 0207 973 3297 or renee.fok@english-
heritage.org.uk, or Hannah Johnson at University of Bristol Public
Relations Office on 0117 928 8896 or [log in to unmask]