Avebury Residents’ Pack: bringing together diverse stakeholders in Avebury (United Kingdom)

Ceremony of the Gorsedd of Bards of Caer Abiri in Avebury, 1993. Source: Philip Shallcrass, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Meeting of the Secular Order of Druids, Avebury, Wiltshire, circa 1994. Source: Philip Shallcrass, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The project had the following strategic priorities:

• Engage the local community; replace any view of the World Heritage site as constraint or as excluding local residents with an understanding of the opportunity and inclusivity it represents.
• Identify the broad spectrum of values to be found at Avebury.
• Bring together the diverse stakeholders to facilitate understanding and tolerance.
• Develop a feeling of pride and stewardship amongst residents.
• Use the values identified to develop a more appropriate visitor strategy.

At the outset, all residents were invited to participate in an aerial photograph standing in the henge, which was used to define the graphic identity of the project. The book Values and Voices compiled pieces of writing from a range of people, including archaeologists, residents, farmers, and pagans, both local and from as far away as Germany and America, expressing their personal and professional views of the World Heritage site. The publication evolved organically, with contributions being accepted as they came in, along with a wide range of formal and informal consultation platforms to attract contributions. As the common perception of those managing World Heritage was one of rigid bureaucracy, this flexibility and absence of tight deadlines or barriers made people feel that their opinion was truly valued.

As a result, the publication Values and Voices includes contributions from a range of people and references the many different kinds of significance found at Avebury, from its OUV to its very personal value to those born and raised in the area. Individuals and groups not usually represented on formal management committees, such as druids and business owners, also contributed pieces on their relationship to the site. All the voices are heard side-by-side, with no bias given to any particular narrative. This has helped instil an increased feeling of ownership of the site, and the notion that everyone’s values have been given equal weight alongside the larger concept of Outstanding Universal Value.

Additionally, the Pack included information leaflets from the main organisations involved in the management of Avebury, removing the feeling of bureaucracy, and identifying who was responsible for what in a much more transparent way. The Pack also indicated how residents could be more involved in the day-to-day running of the site, primarily through voluntary duties such as tracking traffic and guiding visitor parking.

The development of the Avebury Residents’ Pack – while not relieving all tensions – has made residents more willing to accommodate pagan interests in Avebury. The village continues to work with the National Trust to make areas of land available for camping at peak times of the year, and the Chair of the Parish Council in Avebury now chairs the Avebury World Heritage Site Steering Committee. The Residents’ Pack is a valued possession – only very few copies have ever appeared on eBay, and those at a price which reflects how greatly the pack and the World Heritage is valued by its residents.

As of 2021, site manager Ms Anne Carvey reports that there are higher levels of awareness and acceptance about World Heritage values on the site, as well as a general feeling that the pack had an impact at the time it was issued. A number of the issues which impact the residents of the village are now better managed, such as parking and the management of pagan festivals. Whilst there is some interest in updating the Residents Pack, this project is not a current priority.

The case study of Avebury shows the importance of facilitating communication between different stakeholders. When interests in a site are as diverse as those at Avebury, it is vital to create a level of understanding between different interest groups to avoid feelings of alienation or disregard in favour of others. Through this type of communication, it is far more likely people will work together in order to uphold these values.

Finally, it is also necessary to recognize the criteria of a site that leads to its inscription may not be felt widely amongst the local community. For this reason, it is even more important to engage with people, find out what they value most about the site, and what they find to be the positives and negatives of inscription. Management must be guided by the needs and values of the local community; otherwise, no management strategy will be sustainable or lead to a sense of guardianship amongst its stakeholders.

Source: Sustainable Tourism Toolkit, UNESCO, 2012. Ms Anne Carvey, site manager, 2021.

© UNESCO

© UNESCO