The Calstock Parish has a rich human history, going back to the neolithic era, and may have even have been touched by the Romans. In more recent times the agrarian and industrial revolutions made their marks. This has left a considerable social and environmental record, represented by the many heritage assets present in the Parish. We are lucky that so much remains in both physical and archival form, and that it has been well surveyed and recorded.
Our historic environment is the basis for the distinctiveness of the area. The use of land and the development of our communities are inseperably linked, and provide the daily backdrop for local people as they go about their modern lives.
The protection of our heritage assets and the ways in which we respond to them in meeting our needs is therefore a crucial aspect of sustainable development for the Calstock Neighbourhood Development Plan.
Of particular assistance to the Calstock Parish Neighbourhood Plan process is the interactive Heritage Map set up by the Tamar Valley AONB service and the material held by the Calstock Parish Archive.
The latter includes social historical material which provides important context for the physical heritage assets within the area.
Part of the designated Neighbourhood Development Plan area is of very special significance, and falls within the Cornwall and Devon Mining Landscape World Heritage Site
Cornwall’s industrial settlements were the subject of a Conservation Area Partnership called the Cornwall Industrial Settlements Initiative (CISI) undertaken between 1998-2004. This partnership between English Heritage (with the Heritage Lottery Fund), Cornwall County Council, and the District Councils assessed the character and significance of 50 of the County’s industrial settlements. These included villages, ports and towns associated with Cornwall’s 19th century industrial revolution, based on metalliferous mining, slate and granite quarrying, and china clay extraction. CISI produced a settlement by settlement analysis in order to obtain an overview of the history, present character and importance of Cornwall’s industrial settlements. This helps determine where, for example, new Conservation Areas should be designated (and existing ones revised), and could provide the basis for Conservation Area Statements (to be drawn up subsequently by District Conservation Officers).
Four settlements in Calstock Parsih were assesed:
DRAKEWALLS and ALBASTON