THE chairman of English Heritage, Sir Neil Cossons, visited the Forest of Dean this week to see for himself conservation projects the agency is involved in.

After visiting Gunn's Mill at Flaxley on Tuesday morning, Sir Neil inspected improvements in the conservation area around Coleford's Market Square – and formally declared the scheme open. The landscaping was jointly funded by the town and district council, South West Regional Development Agency and English Heritage.

After lunch and a tour of the Dean Heritage Centre, Sir Neil was shown Lydney Docks – like the Heritage Centre the subject of a forthcoming substantial lottery funding bid.

Sir Neil – the country's most distinguished museum director – first attracted attention as the pioneering director of the Ironbridge Gorge open air museum in the 1970s. Having transformed London's Science Museum, he moved to the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, which recently completed a comprehensive facelift.

He succeeded Sir Jocelyn Stevens in the English Heritage post earlier this year.