Askern, South Yorkshire
Stephen worked with Spawforth Associates, Civic Regeneration and Richard Gibbon former head of collections at the National Railway Museum, developing a new masterplan for the town which lies north of Doncaster on the A19. Askern had been an inland spa town in the Nineteenth Century before being completely transformed by coal mining at the end of the century. It suffered severe decline with the closure of the pit which closed in the 1990s. It has a population of 5,434. Askern is also well known in South Yorkshire for its greyhound racing stadium.
The lake survived and here you see the new layout for the town, a new visitor centre and even a light railway to connect Askern to its local archaeological feature, an Iron Age site. The plan featured interpretation islands or 'outposts' in the landscape.
