Abbey Fields Management Plan

Client: : Idverde and Warwick District Council Location: : Kenilworth Value: : £1,200,000

Abbey Fields is located the heart of the historic core of Kenilworth Town, it lies immediately east of the spectacular Kenilworth Castle ruins. The whole of Abbey Fields is a Scheduled Monument and lies within a Conservation Area surrounded by many Listed Buildings

The origin of Abbey Fields is a monastic estate within a precinct wall. Today Abbey Fields survives as a series of open fields which contain the ruins of St Mary’s Abbey, the church and churchyard of St Nicholas. There is a large lake in the fields which was created by Warwick District Council in the 1990’s on the site of the old Abbey Pool.

Idverde Uk were appointed by Warwick District Council to prepare a 10 year Management and Maintenance Plan for Abbey Fields. HDD were appointed by Idverde to assist with undertaking some extended consultation specifically focused on heritage elements of Abbey Fields, in order to develop heritage management content for the Management and Maintenance plan and improving management of the sites heritage.

HDD assisted Idverde with the following inputs into the Management Plan :

• desk based and field-based research into the sites rich heritage
• review of existing Conservation Plan
• prepared a discussion paper for heritage consultation
• undertook 1:1 consultation with key stakeholders
• undertook research into the current management and maintenance arrangements
• set out findings in a brief report outlining how heritage may be better managed in the future and Next steps for better managing the sites important heritage.