Cockington Country Park

A Green Flag Park

Cockington Country Park was founded in 1991 to regenerate one of Torbay's most-valued but least-cared for resources. A dynamic partnership of the public and private sectors with the local community has reversed the decline in buildings, landscape and recreational facilities and has brought a wide range of benefits and improvements. The key to success has been the development of a shared vision and the harnessing of communal effort and diverse resources.

2. Background

Cockington is a 460-acre country estate in Torquay. It comprises a well-preserved thatched village of considerable charm, a Manor House and Church set in formal parkland and an attractive valley with mixed woodland, pasture and wetlands. Since Victorian times the village in particular has been a tourist attraction and pictures of the village centre adorn many a chocolate box. It currently attracts approximately 350,000 visitors per annum. Because of the historic value of the area, the whole of Cockington is a Conservation Area and almost every building within it is Listed Grade 2.

The estate is mentioned in the Domesday Book and, over the period 1088 to 1935, it was owned by only three families. In 1932 the estate was sold to the Cockington Trust which in turn sold the farmland and Manor House (known as Cockington Court) to the Torquay Corporation for £50,000. In 1947 the Trust sold the village to The Prudential.

The effect of these changes of ownership was to bring to an end 900 years of unified management. Post-war Cockington was divided as never before and, over the proceeding decades, the signs began to show. The expansion of Torquay onto farmland meant that Cockington's three farmsteads shrank to one and the village began to fill with now-redundant farm buildings; Cockington Court, no longer lived in, fell into disrepair; many different uses were planned for the building but none came to fruition and the decay continued; the farm estate and woodlands also began to show the symptoms of urban fringe countryside decline with overgrown hedges, over-grazed pasture and tumbledown walls, gates and fences.

Torbay Borough Council and Prudential struggled through the 1970's and '80's to find a solution to Cockington's problems as local opinion mounted that Cockington, "the jewel in Torbay's crown", was tarnished and neglected. Much of the debate centred on the future viable uses for the farm buildings in the village and for Cockington Court.

The catalyst for solving "the Cockington Question" was the arrival on the scene in 1988 of the Devon Rural Skills Trust, a small local charity dedicated to the preservation of skills such as thatching and dry stone-walling. They sought a headquarters and proposed to lease Cockington Court to demonstrate their skills both within its walls and around the estate, where so much restoration work was needed. The vision that began to develop was of the Council, Prudential, Devon Rural Skills Trust (DRST) and the village community coming together to re-integrate the management of Cockington. Instead of a single family, there would be a single Management Board where problems would be addressed in a concerted manner. The final piece of the jigsaw fell into place when the Countryside Commission agreed to fund a project officer and a programme of capital works. Cockington Country Park duly came into being in May 1991.

3. Main Projects and Achievements

3.1 The Cockington Management Advisory Board (CMAB)

This body has met quarterly since 1992. Its founder membership consisted of an independent Chairman and a further eleven members drawn from local ward Councillors, The Prudential, the DRST, the Vicar of Cockington and representatives of village residents, village businesses and horse-riding interests. In 1993 it published the Cockington Management Plan which had as its Mission Statement the following:

To conserve and enhance the environment of Cockington and its surroundings in harmony with the needs of the rural community, visitors, wildlife and the landscape.

The Plan is a comprehensive document with a series of detailed Objectives and an Action Programme phased over a rolling 5-year period. It has been updated and revised each year and has proved a key element in guiding the effective resolution of Cockington's problems and the work of the Project Officer.

The challenge for Cockington has been to revise the public's perception of it as little more than a thatched village dominated by souvenir shops. Over the decades of inaction tourism had continued to sustain the village to a degree, but the surrounding estate was barely appreciated. After 5 years of development one of the most prominent findings from visitor surveys is that improvements to the Country Park have succeeded in changing visitor behavioural patterns: more people stay longer and more people explore further than in 1991.

3.2 Cockington Court

The Council, having found a viable use for the Court, invested £440,000 in its restoration. The DRST raised a further £140,000 from charitable trusts and grants from government and industry and used this money to develop the Court as a visitor attraction and to fund apprenticeships based in Cockington. The Trust broke new ground in attracting people to visit a building which for years had lain empty and ignored and the partnership between the Trust and the Country Park proved fruitful as the landscape was gradually restored. Sadly the effort of maintaining momentum was too much for the organisation both in management and financial terms and in 1994 they were forced to surrender their lease.

Torbay Council has since 1995 directly operated the Court as a Craft Centre and has seen a significant improvement in visitor numbers and stability of business tenants. There are ten workshops in the Court let to practicing craftspeople who demonstrate and sell their produce to visitors. The Court Craft Shop sells only high quality crafts made in Devon.

The DRST also set up a demonstration Organic Garden in one of the Court's attractive walled gardens now managed by a local community group ( Shares) formed in 1997 employing a dedicated gardener . The Court is rapidly becoming a centre of gardening excellence with accredited Royal Horticultural Society training courses run by Bicton College in the building and grounds.

3.3 Cockington Village

Prudential, together with the Council, came to the conclusion that the only way to conserve the farm buildings of Cockington was to proceed with their conversion to dwellings. In addition it offered 999-year leases to existing tenants and almost all were taken up.

The result has been to breathe new life into Cockington. Where once was corrugated iron, rotten timbers and collapsing farm buildings, there is now a collection of well-converted dwellings. The final set of barns is currently in the process of conversion, and once these are complete Cockington will have expanded from around 25 dwellings to 35. No new building has been allowed and the Planning Department have kept a tight control on the style of the conversions. The challenge now facing the Council, Prudential and Advisory Board is to ensure that a piecemeal process of house and garden "improvement" which is not covered by Planning law does not unduly affect the character of the village.

The village businesses have likewise been rejuvenated. One tenant who originally held the leases of all of the village centre properties and managed them all as gift shops, has reduced his holding to one gift shop. Three new businesses have arrived, one establishing a tea garden, one being a working farrier who has taken on the famous Cockington Forge and one maintaining a gift shop.

Thanks to the co-ordinating role of the CMAB the businesses in the village have generated a fruitful partnership with the Council and amongst themselves, establishing an advertising budget worth £7,000 p.a. and an Environment Fund to plough back a percentage of income from visitors to a grant-giving fund operated by the CMAB.

3.4 The Gamekeeper's Cottage and Warren Barn

Two outstanding buildings on the estate required urgent attention. The 16th century Gamekeeper's Cottage had been burnt down in an arson attack in 1990, and stood a roofless shell. Fortunately it was insured and in 1991 work began on its restoration. With a capital injection of £30,000 from the Council it subsequently opened to the public as a Visitor Centre and Schools Field Study Centre in 1995. The ground floor contains an exhibition on gamekeeping at Cockington and the first floor is for school use, lectures and illustrated talks by local groups.

Warren Barn is a 150-year old "out-farm" consisting of a Threshing Barn, Linhay and Bullock Shed. It was last used in the 1960's and was in danger of collapse, with its roof rotten and walls crumbling. The decision had to be taken: repair or demolish? The CMAB recommended strongly that, although no use had as yet been identified for the building, it should be repaired in the expectation that it would evolve along with the Country Park and a viable use would in time be found. The repair work began as a training project for a local Trust, Dartington Tech., but with a £30,000 Buildings at Risk Grant from English Heritage, sponsorship from Prudential and further capital from the Council the repair was completed by specialist contractors. The building is now weather-tight and plans are being drawn up for its use as a Camping Barn and saw-mill.

3.5 Landscape and Recreation Works

The process of restoring the landscape of Cockington was a delicate balance. Some local people had grown to enjoy its rambling, unkempt appearance and complained loudly at works they considered insensitive to the spirit of the place. It proved worthwhile to talk to local people before beginning major works and distributing letters to households affected by any work carried out.

The Council allocated £75,000 to landscape restoration work which was matched by a further £75,000 from the Countryside Commission. Works took place across a wide area, including:

• hedgerow restoration, funded in part by the Countryside Commission's Hedgerow Incentive Scheme. Some 1000 metres of hedgerow have been laid and/or planted since 1991.

• stone wall repairs have been carried out, much in the early years in partnership with the DRST and Bicton College.

• field corner copses and a new 5-acre woodland on a previously arable field have been planted - some 4,000 trees in all.

• the old orchards, formerly grazed by horses which were damaging the trees, have been stocked with sheep and over 150 new cider apple trees of traditional Devon varieties have been planted.

• rotational grazing regimes have been introduced to control over-grazing and weed infestation, with significant improvements in the quality of pasture and enabling increased rental income from the agricultural land.

• wildlife surveys and management plans have been implemented.

• over 6 km of new footpaths and surfaced horse-riding routes have been opened.

• a disabled access surfaced path and boardwalks has been opened through the water-meadows, the main pedestrian route to Cockington.

• a Visitor Centre has been provided in the main village Car Park, attracting 70,000 people a year.

• traffic management measures have been taken to reduce on-road car parking, support the horse-and-carriage businesses which are a strong feature of Cockington and reduce conflict between pedestrians, riders, carriages, buses and cars.

• a varied programme of events, festivals, concerts, open-air Shakespeare, school visits, and guided walks is operated by the Countryside Service and its team of Rangers and volunteers.

4. Conclusions

The five years of active work in Cockington have seen a considerable turn around in the fortunes of the area. The village and businesses have new-found life, the Court is a thriving centre for crafts and the estate is a much-loved and used stretch of urban fringe countryside which at long last looks cared-for. Local people from Torquay and Paignton, just as much as the seasonal visitors, have rediscovered Cockington and are equally important in the life of the Country Park. A survey of local residents in 1993 found that over 80% approved of the changes underway in the Country Park and surveys of visitors show that 80% now visit Cockington Court compared to only 40% in 1991. A Borough-wide tourism survey in 1996 found that 35% of visitors to Torbay come to Cockington, more than any other single attraction, and in 1996 visitor numbers in Cockington rose by 10%.

The main conclusion is that Cockington has achieved a good level of sustainable development: its businesses respect and value its environment, its visitors enjoy and help pay for the protection of its environment, and its wildlife and landscape are promised a secure future.