A MAJOR four-year project that aims to preserve the legacy and the landscape of the North York Moors gets underway this month.

The £3.8m project, entitled This Exploited Land of Iron, will record, protect and conserve the remaining landmarks and features when ironstone mining and the railways in the North York Moors were making a huge contribution to the industrial revolution.

About 14 per cent of the National Park will be included in the project in a sweeping arc from Goathland in the east, following Stephenson’s original rail route north to Grosmont, before turning west along the Esk Valley to Kildale, and over the Moors south eastwards to Rosedale.

The scheme has been supported by a grant of £2.8 million from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF).

Key aspects of the Landscape Partnership Scheme, which is supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, North York Moors National Park Authority, David Ross Foundation and a number of local community and historical society groups, include:

l Creating virtual 3D models to record important remains such as the kilns at Rosedale and the blast furnaces at Grosmont, using similar technology that was used to record Richard lll’s grave in Leicester;

l Improving safety features to enable first-time above ground public access to sites such as Warren Moor mine, the only Victorian ironstone mine chimney left standing in the UK;

l Conservation support to help protect and improve those natural habitats that have reclaimed many of the spaces left by the once-flourishing industry. For instance planting rowan trees to provide berries for the critically endangered migratory bird, the Ring Ouzel, which nests in Rosedale during the summer, and surveying the Fen Bog nature reserve to find out more about how best to protect this special habitat;

l Creating a new permanent exhibition space at The Moors National Park Centre at Danby and new waymarked trails through the Land of Iron.

Tom Mutton, programme manager for This Exploited Land of Iron, said: “The Victorians blazed a trail in the North York Moors with the discovery and subsequent mining of ironstone.

“With many archaeological remains of this historical period continuing to melt back into the landscape as nature reclaims them, recording this legacy will be as important as the work to slow down the degradation process and preserve the biodiversity which the area supports.

“With the support of volunteers and awarding small grants to local community groups we aim to make the ironstone heritage more sustainable by 2021, in better shape and better understood by people.”

A three-week art exhibition will take place at the National Park’s Inspired by… gallery at The Moors National Park Centre, Danby. The launch event is on Saturday, March 18. For more information, go to northyorkmoors/landofiron