Green Lane Conservation Area Appraisal. - 27 February 2010

Desmond Brennan, Amenities Secretary, first announced the proposed ‘appraisal’ of Formby's Green Lane conservation area in the August issue of this newsletter when he described the background of the exercise and invited volunteers to join a small working party to carry out the basic review in conjunction with Sefton Council Planning Officers. Desmond wrote in the December issue that this is an excellent opportunity for the Society to contribute to the preservation of this important Conservation Area and by so doing, enhance the Society’s reputation. He then made a a renewed appeal for members (or others!) with historical or planning interests, or just a sense of place (but otherwise with no special expertise), to offer their services to help.

A small working party has now been formed consisting of interested members of the Committee together with Peter Lucas, (a former Chairman and actively involved in the original designation in 1983) together with Tony O'Donnell a member of the Society who actually lives in one of the few listed buildings in the Conservation Area.

This small working party has now had two meetings with Eddie Taylor and Helen Whale of the planning department as a result of which practical survey work is now about to begin.

The aim of Conservation areas is to preserve and enhance the character
and appearance of the designated area and to provide a basis for making sustainable decisions about its future through the development of management proposals.

The main purpose of the Appraisal is to define the 'special interest' of the area. The distinctiveness of an area may derive from more than its appearance. Character and Appearance must be considered separately although they may in some cases be the same thing. As well as recording the physical aspects of the area, its defining character or 'special interest' involves understanding the value of the area and the values attached to it by the local community. In approaching this task the ‘study area’ will initially extend beyond the existing conservation area boundary.

Any extension of the Conservation Area should still be coherent.
This means the area itself should be contiguous so should
be on the periphery of the existing area and it also needs to be coherent in terms of the character and historic development of the area in order to provide a context for the area. We need to look at how development around the conservation area relates to the area itself.

The Society will look at the historic origins and development of:
Formby/Freshfield in general and Green Lane in
particular. When buildings first appeared, architect, developer,
original purpose, if, how and when they changed, what buildings have
been lost. What details have been lost?
The origins and nature of Boundaries - walls, fences
etc. To what extent are historic boundaries reflected in the current layout of the area.
What are their origins? (Looking at historic maps is particularly useful
in this case).

When, how and why did Streets, lanes and footpaths first appear?
How have they been altered? Have any been lost? Again, historic maps may provide answers.

Trees - while the origins of individual trees is only likely to be
relevant to the appraisal if the tree is quite old, it might be of
interest to show if particular groups or lines of trees have been around for a while even if the trees themselves are
not that old.

Are there certain materials which have traditionally been
used in the area? For example - maybe the roads have cobbles underneath or a modern
building may have some materials salvaged from an older building.
Maybe all the houses in a row have been built from a particular type of brick that was typical for that area or that period. Or perhaps a path has been paved with a particular type of stone.

Other features - there may be many other features that are of interest
in the area which may be worth including. These can include things like mounting stones, traditional red phone boxes, street lamps, sign posts.

This work is likely to involve a combination of desk-top study and field
work, comparing various maps, photographs and illustrations of different ages and seeing how they relate to what is there at present to determine the historic development of the area.

The Tithe map with its schedule (now digitised) may answer some of these questions as will our extensive collection of illustrations, photographs. Directories and Census Returns.

Posted by: Dr Reg Yorke - on: 27 February 2010