ABSTRACT
In taking this path we have tried to acknowledge a variety of different ‘communities of interpretation’ to be approached through a number of different media and allowing for different sorts of interaction. Public access has developed over the period of the project. Each year, we have built upon our experiences from previous seasons and experimented with different types of activities. We have also had to cope with relatively high numbers of visitors, so much so that we had to balance publicity and promotion of the project with the need to avoid long-term erosion of the moorland. Throughout, we have provided a variety of forms of engagement: from informal, and more formal, guided tours to co-ordinated projects with local schools and from an interactive website to the involvement of artists and theatre groups. We have also developed various forms of access for different special-needs groups. As a step away from a more conventional producer/consumer relationship, we also encourage people to participate ‘in the field’ in various ways. Our primary concern in this work has been to promote the recognition that a great deal of what people encounter in the landscape is as much a product of history as it is a part of nature. This is crucial in an area such as the Gardom’s Edge moorland, which is often regarded and valued by visitors as being of outstanding natural beauty, and by some even as unchanging and timeless in character.
