CW60 p24 - Ancient Sites:Layout 1 2/10/08 11:08 Page 27
The grassy area near the Nine Maidens stone circle has recently been discovered to be a tumulus (a burial
mound). Such areas will be heavily grazed and damaged if cattle are introduced. Picture by Ted Motler.
a garden in the Cot Valley near St Just. An authorities), the National Trust has been accused of
unscrupulous farmer nearly sold the circular operating a policy of not employing Cornish people
capstone of the unscheduled Bosporthennis Quoit, for any position higher than menial labour.
having dragged it away from the site. Happily, his A highly alarming recent development has been
Their policy
action was discovered before it was too late and the the formation of yet another unelected body called
site’s actual owner forced him to put it back. Culture South West which is to take on the role of
statement
The National Trust began its reign in Cornwall on a commandeering, controlling and manipulating our
fairly benign footing, although it was the first to start birthright cultural heritage. Every person, whether
looks as
selling off buildings to second-home buyers. That Cornish or not should regard the formation of this
though it has
hardly endeared them to local people, and their body dangerous and, of course, no one local is
current practice of renovating buildings for holiday-let employed by Culture South West. Their policy
been written
use, rather than as homes for local people hasn’t statement looks as though it has been written
helped their cause either. After a while, they began to without consultation with culture overall being without
deny the traditional rights of local people, such as trivialised in a way that should deeply worry us all.
the age-old right for farmers to take sand from a Cornish culture, or at least their version of it, consists
consultation
beach on the Lizard to spread on their fields. Now largely of the Eden Project, Trebah Gardens…hold
with culture
the NT hierarchy has taken on an almost feudal on, culture does not equal tourist attractions. As
attitude towards local residents, even interfering with John Angarrack famously wrote, this compares with
overall being
planning applications which are nowhere near the defining French culture as being Disneyland, Paris.
land they hold. Worse, local planning authorities Culture is deep, ancient and multi-facetted and it is
trivialised in a
regard them as a statutory authority for consultation our intellectual property, not that of some unelected
way that
(which they are not. I recently read right through the quango based hundreds of miles away. Cornish
National Trust Acts and found nothing at all that culture is unique and, as a result, priceless. It needs
should deeply
grants them any such role or authority). Like ‘English’ close guardianship, protection and understanding
Heritage (and, to a large extent, even our own local and bears no relationship to cultures found in Devon, worry us all
seyth warn ugens 27
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