Maker Heights 5 year Vision

The Conservation Management Plan covers a period of five years from 2020 to 2025 by which time the aim is for the existing buildings to be comprehensively repaired and conserved. Sustainable and complementary new uses and activities shall be found that are compatible with both the current educational, community, recreational, artistic and commercial uses operating on site, and the significance of the heritage assets including the contribution made by their setting. The vision is that at the end of the five-year period the buildings will be stabilised and the site capable of paying for itself in terms of on-going maintenance and minor repairs on a day to day basis.  After the five-year tenure of this CMP, an updated or revised CMP will need to be produced to support the long-term sustainable future of the site.

Maker Heights is a former military site, set in a spectacular headland location on the Rame peninsula in the far south east of Cornwall, which played an important role in the defence of Plymouth from the late 18th century. It is a nationally important site containing a relatively unspoilt collection of Listed and Scheduled fortifications and military works including five late 18th century redoubts, a late 18th century barracks block and a World War Two (WWII) heavy anti-aircraft battery. These fortifications are of outstanding significance for their illustration of military engineering and history from the last quarter of the 18th century until the mid-20th century. This is enhanced by their dramatic and largely unaltered setting, and their relationship to the wider group of historical defences surrounding Plymouth. The barracks is the most complete and unaltered small garrison barracks in the country dating from the late 18th century.

There are multiple ownerships on the site. The freehold of the Barrack Block is in the ownership of the Rame Conservation Trust. The surrounding outbuildings, Redoubt No 2 to the front of the Barrack Block and the campsite overlooking Plymouth Sound are owned by Evolving Places Limited. Rame Conservation Trust also retains a long-term lease from the Mount Edgcumbe Estate for the rest of the site including Redoubts Nos 1, 3, 4 and 5.

In recent years new uses have been found for a number of buildings on the site; rooms in the former barracks are used as studios by an artists’ community and by the Patchwork Studio venue; rebuilt Nissen huts are used as an educational field centre, an artist’s studio and a café, and a campsite has been created which holds small-scale cultural festivals. The buildings on the site, however, have not had sufficient repair and maintenance and their condition has deteriorated. 

As part of the Conservation Management Plan process key issues that have been identified at Maker Heights include: ownership; different visions and opportunities; infrastructure; condition of the buildings; site security; at-risk sites; gaps in existing knowledge; delivering a sustainable future for the site. 

Also, key opportunities that have been identified at Maker Heights include: enhancing the site; potential for grant funding; a Heritage Partnership Agreement (HPA) to facilitate upkeep; assessment of designations, developing an interpretation strategy; and community archaeology projects.

Nineteen conservation management policies have been collated to inform the Vision and assist with the next phases of the sites’ evolution. These include an initial joint mast planning exercise to identify a sustainable and sensitive future for the site; the ‘joint master plan’ will be a dynamic long-term planning document, connecting different aspects and operations of this complex site, to guide future decision-making.

In addition, based on the understanding and appreciation of significance, issues and opportunities, and linked to the policies of the Maker Heights CMP, 19 prioritised management recommendations have been set out.

You can read and download the Conservation Management Plan here.