Alterations to Access Road, Rosewastis House, St Columb Major, Cornwall - Heritage Impact Assessment

This report presents the results of a heritage impact assessment that was carried out by South West Archaeology Ltd. (SWARCH) for alterations to an access road at Rosewastis House, St Columb Major, Cornwall. The proposed breaching of the hedge bank/retaining bank would have an obvious impact both visually and physically that would be negative to the heritage value of the bank and that would have indirect impacts on the gateway. The groundworks along the route of the proposed road have the potential to impact negatively on any buried archaeological resource, in particular within the area of the cottages and the buildings that are shown on the tithe map. The breaching of both hedge banks that has already taken place without recording, as well as the stripping of the ground across and in front of a historic carriage entrance to the site and through the site of the former scattered farmstead that is recorded on the tithe map, is inherently negative. A small fragment of walling from one of the historic buildings has survived next to the hedge bank. To the west of this the hedge bank has been partially breached, however a small amount still remains. The blending of farmland and gardens by breaching the boundaries is inherently negative. A fence has been partially built here, however its modern and semi-suburban visual character is inappropriate and it being set in straight lines with no reference to historic boundaries is damaging both visually and spatially to our understanding of the landscape. The impacts could be reduced and balanced to negative/minor to negligible through an appropriate mitigation strategy that could be formed from the recommendations that have been made within this report.