Watershed Landscape project shortlisted for Landscape Institute Awards

Hollingworth Lake, Littleborough, part of the Reservoir Trails project, which includes eight new walking routes around the reservoir landscape in the moors between Littleborough and Saddleworth

The annual Landscape Institute Awards shortlist has been announced, with the South Pennines Watershed Landscape project among 34 British and international landscape projects, from Hong Kong to Canada, battling it out in 16 categories.

The three-year project, managed by the rural regeneration company Pennine Prospects, tells the story of the South Pennines landscape through a number of projects based on science, archaeology and creative arts, designed to re-engage members of the community with their environment, which includes the Reservoir Trails project of eight new walking routes around the reservoir landscape in the moors between Littleborough and Saddleworth. 

The the South Pennines Watershed Landscape project has been shortlisted for the Communications and Presentations category.

The Watershed Landscape project has had a huge impact on the South Pennines through many different projects. For example, through working with apprentices, volunteers and experts from other partnership organisations, it has been able to restore footpaths, dry stone walls and natural habitats, for endangered species as well as future generations. Meanwhile, it has helped people become reacquainted with their landscape through art, with artists in residence conducting workshops in schools, community centres and on the moors. It has also brought dedicated volunteers together to record the condition of the prehistoric stone carvings on Ilkley Moor through the Carved Stones Investigation project.

Pam Warhurst CBE, Chairwoman of Pennine Prospects said: “I am so proud that the Watershed Landscape project has been recognised at a national level. This Heritage Lottery funded project has a legacy embedding landscape-scale work in the South Pennines with the recognition by government of the South Pennines Local Nature Partnership and our own initiative to promote the South Pennines Landscape Park.”

Noel Farrer, President of the Landscape Institute said of this year’s shortlist: “I have been taken aback by just how good the entries were. The shortlist features wide-ranging projects which start by re-acquainting people with their landscape and, through developing interest and desire, wake people up to the role that landscape can play in their lives. If we can achieve this for our body of work, and crawl out into the light, we will have moved our entire society closer to landscape.”

Fiona Spiers, head of the Heritage Lottery Fund Yorkshire and Humber, said landscape-scale projects were particularly important because they brought together, “community groups and public bodies with a shared passion of caring for our incredible natural environment.”

The Landscape Institute Awards are presented annually to encourage and recognise outstanding examples of work by the landscape profession. Entries from the UK include the Eastside City Park, Birmingham; Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon and Battersea Power Station Pavilion and Pop-Up Park.

The submitted entries span diverse categories, from small to large scale public and private projects and include: Adding Value through Landscape, Heritage and Conservation, Science, Management and Stewardship, Neighbourhood Planning, Strategic Landscape Planning, Urban Design and Masterplanning.

Funding for the Watershed Landscape project came from the Heritage Lottery Fund, and the South Pennines LEADER programme (the Rural Development Programme for England), which is jointly funded by Defra and the European Union, and managed by Pennine Prospects.

Now in its eighth year, the Landscape Institute Awards winners will be announced by prominent Urban Revitalisation Strategist Majora Carter during a ceremony on November 27, at the Big Top, Bloomsbury in London.

The Watershed Landscape project has been awarded a Laureate in the Europa Nostra Awards 2013 and has also won the UK Landscape Award.