The Land Bone and Stone Apps (2014-2017)
We’re proud and excited to announce that we’re part of this £3 million investment boost for Dorset’s spectacular countryside. Here’s what we wrote about the project at the time.
People living in West Dorset, Weymouth & Portland will be better able to enjoy, learn about and care for the surrounding countryside thanks to a grant of nearly £2 million from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF).
The South Dorset Ridgeway Landscape Partnership, made up of 14 local organisations led by the Dorset Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), is an innovative mix of archaeologists, artists, historians, landowners, naturalists, teachers and, most importantly local people. Everyone has come together to safeguard the South Dorset Ridgeway landscape, help people enjoy it and feel pride for an area that many experts consider as important as that around Stonehenge.
The Partnership will deliver a range of activity over the next five years, valued at nearly £3 million, including: support for landowners to help wildlife, such as butterflies and Grey Partridge; create better access to the high ground of the Ridgeway so that more people can enjoy the breathtaking views; an exciting events programme including ‘Inside Out Dorset’ in 2014; help for schools to use the landscape as an ‘outside classroom’; cutting edge digital media projects to fire the imagination and breathing life back into local song and traditional crafts.
Phil Collins, newly appointed member of the Heritage Lottery Fund’s South West Committee*, said:
“As a new member of the Heritage Lottery Fund’s South West Committee I was thrilled to see such an amazing project at my first meeting! This area is so important in terms of biodiversity and is a huge asset to the South West’s tourist offer. HLF’s investment will help conserve this precious ‘landscape of our ancestors’, ensuring people from near and far can better understand its history and, most importantly, help them enjoy one of the most diverse Neolithic and Bronze Age landscapes in Europe.”
Andy Foot, Chairman of the Dorset AONB Partnership and local Farmer said:
“This landscape has been shaped by people that have lived and farmed here for 6,000 years. The challenge for us is how we will shape it for the future. The South Dorset Ridgeway Landscape Partnership Scheme provides abundant opportunities for the people who live and work here to enjoy this landscape, feel pride in it and make their own contribution to ensure this place retains its special character in a changing, modern world.”
As part of PROGRAMME: B Community Participation: The South Dorset Ridgeway GPS-Soundscape, SATSYMPH LLP is producing four location-specific GPS-enabled soundscape apps through the delivery phase of the Scheme. The apps will be produced in collaboration with Scheme Partners and local communities and will overlay a virtual, digital sound world onto key sites and features in the South Dorset Ridgeway area. The sound worlds will be accessed through the use of smartphones; using the GPS capability in the phone to trigger sound elements related to the location of the listener.
This project thus presents an innovative and powerful means to interpret the landscape, it’s heritage and the people who live and work in it, past and present. Once published the apps will be available indefinitely. We are committed to working with partners such as the DIVAcontemporary, Inside-Out, Windrose Rural Media Trust, ArtsReach and others to raise awareness and understanding of the significance of the Ridgeway. We bring expertise in collaborative working, teaching and enabling communities and young people to express themselves through digital and locative media.
The South Dorset Ridgeway Landscape Partnership area takes in the high ground between Dorset’s county town of Dorchester and the Georgian resort town of Weymouth. The roughly rectangular area is approximately 7km from north to south and 17km from west to east. The area is bordered by the English Channel to the south and the River Frome valley to the north; from the villages of West Bexington in the west to Poxwell in the east.
The South Dorset Ridgeway provides an introduction to the best that the British countryside has to offer. It is home to a remarkable ancient ceremonial landscape, mixed with some of the most spectacular scenery in the UK. The South Dorset Ridgeway deserves to be explored further and for its rich heritage; to become more widely understood.
The challenge for the Landscape Partnership Scheme is to engage the wider population so that many more are aware of the remarkable landscape that lies on their doorstep.
Led by the Dorset Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, the Partnership that came together to meet this challenge can be seen on page 2.
