{"id":21958,"date":"2019-03-12T16:06:50","date_gmt":"2019-03-12T16:06:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ihbconline.co.uk\/newsachive\/?p=21958"},"modified":"2019-03-11T18:11:59","modified_gmt":"2019-03-11T18:11:59","slug":"ancient-woodbury-hillfort-being-damaged-by-illegal-off-roading","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/?p=21958","title":{"rendered":"Ancient Woodbury hillfort being damaged by illegal off-roading"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"website\"<\/a>An ancient Iron Age hillfort, Woodbury Castle, near Exmouth, is being wrecked from motorists illegally driving their vehicles off-road despite signage and temporary fences being installed at the site.<\/h3>\n

<\/p>\n

The Midweek Herald<\/em> writes:<\/p>\n

The remains of Woodbury Castle, a protected Iron Age hillfort, are being damaged by the illegal activity \u2013 despite signage and temporary fences being installed at the site. The castle is protected by a Scheduled Monument, and Historic England and the Pebblebed Heaths Conservation Trust are working closely with Devon and Corwall Police to protect the newly-repaired remains. Ruts caused by tyres are damaging the soil and newly grass seeded areas, preventing grass from growing.\u00a0 Off-roading on the ancient ramparts compacts and erodes the original fabric of the site.<\/p>\n

Kim Strawbridge, site manager for the Pebblebed Heaths said: \u2018Although we encourage responsible access to the heaths, we want to make it clear that damaging and illegal activity will be taken seriously. \u2018It is illegal to drive on the majority of the tracks on the wider heath as well as the hillfort itself without permission.\u00a0 The whole of the Pebblebed Heaths, or Woodbury Common as it tends to be known locally, has legal protection for its wildlife as well a specific areas which have legal protection for historic features.\u2019<\/p>\n

However, the issue is still ongoing \u2013 police recently issued an illegal off-roader who was seen at the beauty spot with a warning.\u00a0 PC Martin Beck, rural crime officer, said: \u2018The impact of this type of crime isn\u2019t just simple damage this is against our future generations who we protect our cultural assets for.\u00a0 Illegal off-roading gets reported in various places across the county. If you are an off-roader please stick to places you know you can go. If it\u2019s not your land find out first who\u2019s it is and ask before going on it.\u2019<\/p>\n

Repairs to the vehicle damaged ramparts began in 2018, with new pedestrian access provided that limits off-roading.\u00a0 The Trust, Historic England and Natural England have spent the last year undertaking a large-scale project, employing local contractors, to restore and conserve the ramparts (the banks forming part of the defensive boundary of the site) and to provide better information and public access for visitors on foot.<\/p>\n

Read more….<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An ancient Iron Age hillfort, Woodbury Castle, near Exmouth, is being wrecked from motorists illegally driving their vehicles off-road despite signage and temporary fences being installed at the site.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sector-newsblog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21958"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21958\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21960,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21958\/revisions\/21960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}