Rombalds Moor landmarks are still ‘at risk’ (From Ilkley Gazette)

Rombalds Moor landmarks are still ‘at risk’

2:48pm Monday 22nd October 2012 in News By Jonathan Redhead, Ilkley/Otley Reporter

A raft of historical monu-ments on Rombalds Moor remain at risk, according to the latest survey.

Despite attracting local and international tourism, English Heritage has retained six of the moor’s best-known landmarks on its Heritage At Risk Register 2012 due to a general decline in condition since the last survey.

The prehistoric sites are suffering from a host of problems, including general erosion caused by visitors, vandalism and plant growth.

Sites featuring on the register include the enclosed settlement known as Round Dykes Camp on Addingham Low Moor and the Twelve Apostles Stone Circle on Burley Moor.

Both are described as “generally unsatisfactory with major localised problems” caused by erosion.

Four scheduled monu-ments on Ilkley Moor are also included in the register.

They are the cup and ring marked boulder known as Hanging Stone Rock, two cup marked rocks on the path south east of the Cow and Calf Rocks, Green Crag Enclosure with its carved rocks and disturbed cairn and the Cairnfield carved rocks and associated curved bank at the north west end of Green Crag Slack, east of Gill Head reservoir.

The sites are among 40 across the Bradford district to feature on the at risk register.

English Heritage has published the report in a bid to focus attention and funds towards the plight of sites across the country, and includes neglected Grade II homes by adding them to the existing register of threatened Grade I properties.

There are some 29,000 beautiful or historic Grade II buildings in Yorkshire, accounting for 93 per cent of all listed buildings in the region, and including them on the register is one step towards trying to secure their future.

Trevor Mitchell, planning and conservation director for Yorkshire and the Humber, said: “We have put them on on our register in London since 1991 and 96 per cent have been saved.”

He said inclusion on the list would help find funding for restoration work from groups such as the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Mr Mitchell added: “Grade II buildings are the essential building blocks of York-shire’s distinctive heritage.

“When one of them is lost, it’s as though someone has torn a page from our history book. Each one tells a story of our shared past.

“It’s going to take a tremendous team effort, but as the Olympics have shown, that’s something this country is good at.”