1. Robert Lloyd-Sweet English Heritage
Understanding Local Heritage and the Oxford Toolkit

2. Oxford’s nationally valued heritage
Education
Medieval/Georgian/Victorian City Centre
Limestone Architecture
Skyline

3. What about Oxford’s Locally valued heritage?
Homes and communities
Industrial city
District centres
Education outside the university
Green spaces

4. First principles Local listing is as much about information as control
Nominations need to say why listing is merited

5. First principles Significance is what we value an asset for.
Importance is how much notice we take of it.
Local significance is different to, not less than, national significance.
Heritage assets might be valued for different reasons locally than they are nationally

6. Two approaches Comparative curatorial (The stamp collector)
“I want the best examples of each type of building for my collection”
- Thematic survey required
Contextualist
“I want to preserve the buildings that make my place special”
- Area survey required

7. Setting up your list: OHAR
The process
Getting people involved
Characterise the areas and identify potential heritage assets
Criteria – how will these reflect local conditions?
Consultation
A review process
Adoption/Rejection

8. Working together
The Project Board – What to do with a Heritage Champion
Public steering group – develop robust criteria and nominations form
Working group – develop character statement themes
Residents’ Associations preparing neighbourhood character statements
Wider outreach programme to encourage nomination of heritage assets
Councillors and local experts as review panel

9. Character Assessment Toolkits
These will help you describe character
They may help you justify value judgments
They may help you work together or with particular information sources
Material
Tools, skill, effort x time, honesty
Quality product

10. Tools that are available
Cumbria County Council ‘Landscape Character Guidance and Toolkit’
CPRE ‘A Toolkit for Your Countryside’
Urban Design Skills ‘PlaceCheck’
English Heritage ‘Understanding Place’ and ‘Conservation Principles’
The Oxford Character Assessment Toolkit

12. The Survey Tools A detailed toolkit A fast toolkit
A comparable approach
Observations are guided to have weight
A scoring system to help convey positive and negative contributions

13. One Area or Many?

14. Description + analysis

15. What goes in a character statement?
Describe the area
Review its historical development
Identify key positive characteristics and features
Including key themes
Identify issues for character

16. Example – Tettenhall Neighbourhood Plan

17. Using it as a basis for local listing
Which buildings/spaces make the greatest contribution to the area’s character and distinctiveness?
Do they do this as ‘heritage’?
Architecture
History
Archaeology
Art
Are they heritage assets?

18. Using criteria
85 (25%) English Councils have published criteria for local listing of buildings
64 different criteria in total
5 criteria used by between half and three quarters
11 criteria use by between half and a quarter

19. Oxford’s ’Exclusive’ Criteria
it must be capable of being a heritage asset within the government’s definition
it must have heritage interest that can be conserved and enjoyed
It must have value as heritage for the character and identity of the area for its heritage interest beyond personal or family connections
Its significance must be greater than the general positive value of its surroundings

20. The significance engine
Heritage Interest
Heritage Value
Assessment of importance
Properties
Architectural
Historic
Archaeological
Artistic
Contribution
Historical
Evidential
Aesthetic
Communal
(character)
Specialness
Rarity
Age
Integrity
Group
(character)

21. The nomination form
The Inclusive Criteria

22. East Oxford: Neighbourhoods

23. East Oxford: Themes Immigration, Cultural Diversity and Tolerance
Protest, Celebration and Art
Faith
Industry
Shopping
Health and Social Welfare
Education
Entertainment
Car Manufacturing

24. East Oxford Heritage Assets

26. Investigate the unexpected

27. The Old Music Hall, Cowley Road
Criterion 1
It’s a building
Criterion 2
It has architectural and historic interest
Criterion 3
It connects us with the past of Cowley Road as a focus of entertainment and political activism
It makes a positive contribution to the aesthetic value of the area
It connects us to the history of a company that has significant as a part of Oxford’s identity
Criterion 4
It is a rare survival in Oxford
It has a high degree of integrity
It’s age relates to a time when Cowley Road was developing as the focus of a new suburb

28. Oxford Stadium, Sandy Lane
Criterion 1
It’s a group of buildings and a place
Criterion 2
It has historic interest and some architectural interest
Criterion 3
It connects us with the histories of two sports in Oxford with a national and local level of interest for over 75 years
The buildings and spaces illustrate the development of these sports
It illustrates the early history of the area as part of the city’s edge
It has drawn the community together and contributed to their identity
Criterion 4
It is a rare survival in Oxford (+ Oxfordshire and England)
It has a high degree of integrity (it retains buildings that document its development).
It’s age relates to a time before the major suburb around it developed and reflects the mix of employment and recreation uses.