A series of squares, pedestrian routes, street furniture and public artworks inspired by local myths has created a new heart for Lancashire’s Burscough Bridge. The village had over the decades lost its sense of identity and become dominated by traffic and the busy A59 road that cuts through it.
BCA Landscape, working with hard landscape supplier Hardscape and designer Smiling Wolf, have reclaimed the many underused spaces next to the busy road. Physical improvements were rooted in ideas to renew the village’s identity, although many residents had only a sketchy knowledge of local myth and tradition. ‘A collective notion of identity is a notoriously complex idea to pin down,’ says BCA’s Andy Thomson. ‘Ultimately it is the little things that have meaning, woven together from a greater picture, rather than grand sweeping sloganeering or imaginary visions that people don’t trust, and see through immediately.
The design partnership worked closely with West Lancashire District Council, Lancashire County Council, Burscough Parish Council, Lancashire County Council and a local community steering group. The community had clear preferences, with a new village clock being a top priority. The £1 million scheme, funded by West Lancashire Investors in Business Regeneration Programme (NWDA) also had the key objective of bringing about a dramatic change in how Burscough Bridge is perceived. Rather than rely solely on the recent past and the Victorian heritage of Burscough Bridge to recreate a sense of place, the design team reached back further in time, to a ‘weirder, stranger’ England rendered almost invisible by the Industrial Revolution. Much of the iconography in the design scheme is inspired by the Pace Eggers, local performers with bowler hats and black-painted faces, who would re-enact scenes from the Crusades during Easter festivities. Designs based on these ideas, realised in a circular map of Burscough’s past in Church Square and graphics of the Pace Eggers in the flagstones of Wharf Square, have created a sense of place that the local community can relate to and enjoy.
Hard landscape consultant Hardscape was involved from the outset in the complex design process, ensuring that aspirations met deliverable reality. ‘Our role was to interpret the designs and put them into a drawing format that we could use to manufacture the graphics into pavement,’ says Hardscape director Mathew Haslam. ‘We advised on the choice of materials and made production drawings from BCA Landscape’s designs which were then used in the water jet cutting process.’ Already, as with many other regeneration scenarios, a key impact of this successful placemaking initiative is confidence and positivity: a number of local shops have been given facelifts since the project was completed. It’s clear that investment in a quality public realm adds value in quantitative as well as qualitative terms.
Juliana O’Rourke spoke with Mathew Haslam, Hardscape Products Ltd,
and Andy Thomson, BCA Landscape
KEY POINTS
• Client: West Lancashire District Council; project collaborators included Lancashire County Council, a church group and a community steering group
• Area of project: 0.9 ha
• Funding: West Lancashire Investors in Business
Regeneration Programme (NWDA); value £1 million
• Principal suppliers: Hardscape Products Ltd www.hardscape.co.uk
PRACTICE DETAILS
BCA Landscape, Liverpool
www.bcalandscape.co.uk
