FIRST AID FOR FINDS

An essential handbook for the recording and care of finds on site. A must for every unit, beginner and professional, fully revised 1998, now supplied in a durable pvc ring-bound cover suitable for on-site use. Published jointly with UKIC Archaeology Section (text revised 1998, updated with new cover July 2001)

Price: Members (UKP) �18.00,
non Members (UKP) �21.00

NOW SOLD OUT

By J M Hawker ISBN 0-903789-18-3

A practical guide to field drawing for students and experienced archaeologists covers basic techniques for site and grid location; drawing plans, sections, elevations and profiles; and gives the conventions generally used as well as details of the more advanced techniques needed for survey, site location and the recording of standing buildings.

The manual provides a comprehensive overview in a problem solving format which allows the user to find all the instructions for a particular task in one place and like First Aid For Finds is supplied in a durable pvc ring-bound cover suitable for on-site use.

Price: Members (UKP) �18.00,
Non Members (UKP) �21.00

The day was extremely well attended with barely a spare seat in the large conference hall, and all lectures were well received by an attentive and enthusiastic audience. The event started with an introduction to the society, with emphasis on the close links between the University and the Society, and this was followed by a brief introduction to RESCUE given by our own Mick Jones, City of Lincoln Archaeologist, joint-organiser of the meeting. As well as the range of interesting lectures the meeting was also an opportunity to launch a new Roman Lincolnshire publication which was available at a special price to conference attendees in the lunch break, and which seemed to sell well! Nine lectures were packed into the day; all of about half an hour and these covered a broad range of topics which linked in seamlessly to each other to inform the audience of both rural and urban evidence of life in late Roman Lincolnshire, supported by artefactual and environmental based talks. At the invitation of the Society, RESCUE Council members, Jude Plouviez and Roy Friendship Taylor, widened the scope of the study to the neighbouring areas of Northamptonshire and East Anglia which highlighted both differences and similarities. Indeed one of the strengths of the whole conference was the number of occasions when one speaker was able to compare and identify similarities in patterns of evidence presented by previous speakers, which gave the whole conference a strong sense of cohesion. Whilst the conference started by looking at how people lived in Roman Lincolnshire in the third and fourth centuries it finished with lectures examining the demise of the Roman population in the southern fenland areas and the city of Lincoln, finally concluding with a thought provoking talk offering new ideas as to what occupation is represented in Lincolnshire in the post-Roman period.

It is testament to the organisation of this conference, both in a practical and academic sense, and to the quality of the speakers that almost all attendees were present until the end, without the usual shuffling away before the final lecture that can mark the final hour of a conference. I was certainly captivated throughout! RESCUE is very grateful to Lincolnshire History and Archaeology for allowing us to combine our AGM with their conference, reserving for us some of their heavily oversubscribed places and providing us with such an informative backdrop to our business meeting. It is unfortunate that so few members were able to attend, they missed a great day-out.

We would like to continue to hold our AGM’s in conjunction with other local societies which allows us to integrate more with like-minded people and to offer opportunities to RESCUE members from all over the country to attend lively and interesting conferences as well as holding our own meeting in various places outside London.

Jo Caruth, RESCUE Council

Since the publication of Power of Place in 2001, the Government has strongly advocated the simplification of the planning process, through the integration of the various issues regarding heritage protection into a single unified consents regime.

Although in abeyance at the present time, the draft Heritage Bill manifested this principle, drawing together Scheduled Monument Consents and Listed Buildings controls into a single designations system, and including provisions for historic landscapes and battlefields.

This approach has been broadly supported by the heritage and planning sector.

With this simplification of the existing system in mind, RESCUE does not support the proposed changes to the Ecclesiastical Exemption Order 1994, outlined in the consultation on the Ecclesiastical Exemption: (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Order 2010. In RESCUE’s opinion, Ecclesiastical Exemption is an anachronism that has little demonstrable value within a modern planning and development context. Its continued operation complicates an already overcrowded development control process, whilst the Church itself implements only piecemeal protection for its heritage assets, and makes little or no provision for the formal archaeological care and investigation of its sites or buildings. We would strongly advocate therefore that in order to pursue the Government’s stated aim to rationalise and simplify the planning process, the Ecclesiastical Exemption Order should be abolished, and that subsequently all planning issues relating to ecclesiastical sites and buildings should be subject to local authority planning and listed buildings development controls.

In June 2006, a group of Druids requested the reburial of human remains from the Avebury museum.

The remains, an important bone collection dating back to 2,000 – 3,700 BC, were among the contents of the Museum which were gifted to the nation in 1966. English Heritage, as the Government’s statutory adviser on the historic environment, has been responsible for them since then. The National Trust owns the Museum and has curatorial responsibility on behalf of English Heritage for the management of the collection.

Dr Sebastian Payne, Chief Scientist at English Heritage, said:

‘We respect the beliefs that have led to this request, and we have taken the request seriously.

These remains are important for our understanding of the past. We found that the public overwhelmingly support the retention and display of prehistoric human remains in museums, and that there is no clear evidence for genetic, cultural or religious continuity of a kind that would justify preferential status to be given to the beliefs of the group which requested reburial.

While every case is different and must be determined on its merits, we feel that the general considerations given to this case are likely to apply to most prehistoric human remains in this country. We hope that other museums considering such requests in future will benefit from the evidence we have assembled and made accessible, saving them time and expense in reaching their decisions.’

A summary report on the case and the findings of the public consultation and the opinion poll are available at www.english-heritage.org.uk/aveburyremains.

The survey will offer an insight into the condition of England’s listed faith buildings and reveal how many are likely to be at serious risk of decay. It will also explore what is happening to maintain these national treasures for the future.

Find out more at www.english-heritage.org.uk/powar

A decision awaits resolution of issues arising from the Stonehenge Alliance’s solicitor’s letter to Wiltshire Council on the matter of its Appropriate Assessment of the impact of the proposed development on nearby Special Areas of Conservation (The River Avon and Salisbury Plain) that are protected by European legislation.

The Council’s reply to that letter, dated 21 May 2010, is currently being considered by the Alliance’s solicitor.

Meanwhile Wiltshire Council has advertised its intention to place Traffic Regulation Orders (TROs) on the A344 once it is stopped up at its junction with the A303, and on certain byways that are accessed from it within the WHS. The negative local response to the proposed TRO on the A344 has led the Council to state that a Public Inquiry will be held into the matter, possibly this autumn. Once any planning permission for the visitor-facilities scheme has been granted, the proposed stopping up of the A344/A303 junction will be referred to the Secretary of State. That proposal would then be advertised for consultation and, if the response to the TRO is anything to go by, there may again be a substantial local objection, possibly leading to another Public Inquiry that would precede that into the TRO.

All of these delays indicate that completion of the new visitor centre scheme in time for the 2012 Olympics would be quite a challenge.

Given the now very tight construction schedule and also bearing in mind the present economic climate, the Stonehenge Alliance has written to Secretary of State Jeremy Hunt, asking him to consider putting the whole scheme on hold in order to give time to consider alternative and more sensitive proposals that would better respect the sensitive archaeological landscape of the WHS. We suggested that it would be more economical in the short term to make improvements to the present facilities at Stonehenge which have long been allowed to decline.

Kate Fielden

Breaking news: The new coalition government has announced that they are withdrawing financial backing from the Stonehenge Visitor Centre project. Read our response to this news.

The Bill is amending legislation and its scope and content are a series of amending provisions identified by Historic Scotland and local government, during the course of discussions with stakeholders during 2007, which followed the publication of a report by the Historic Environment Advisory Council for Scotland on the need for a review of heritage legislation in Scotland.

Scottish Ministers concluded that what was required was a single, simple piece of legislation, with a limited scope, to amend three pieces of current primary legislation, The Historic Buildings and Monuments Act of 1953, the Ancient Monuments and Archaeology Areas Act of 1979 and the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act of 1997 all while protecting the core of the current system.

The Bill, published on 5 May, (see tinyurl.com/2w3zapu) will enhance the ability of central and local government to manage Scotland’s unique and irreplaceable historic environment, and will in particular support the Government’s Greener Strategic Objective and provide the regulatory authorities with a much-improved tool-kit to help manage, protect and enhance Scotland’s historic environment for future generations. It aims to harmonise aspects of the listing and scheduling systems and align them more closely with Scotland’s modernised planning regime; Improve the ability of central and local Government to work with developers and other partners; Improve the capacity to deal with urgent threats and increase the efficiency and effectiveness of deterrents; and help to ensure that Historic Scotland is able to meet the expectations of visitors in the 21st century.

The Scottish Maritime Museum has been unable to raise funds for its restoration and had proposed ‘scientific deconstruction to solve the problem that they could no longer retain the mooring where the ship was stored. No Heritage Lottery Fund money was available, either for any preservation plan or, Scottish Maritime Museum’s proposed ‘scientific deconstruction.

Options for the ship include moving it to Sunderland, Adelaide in Australia, a different location in Scotland, or a managed deconstruction of the vessel.

The vessel, also known as the SV Carrick, is five years older than the Cutty Sark and voyaged annually from London to Adelaide with passengers and a cargo of wool. Her sailing days ended in 1893 and she was purchased by Southampton Corporation for use as a sanatorium and floating isolation hospital following a cholera outbreak.

Last year Sunderland councillor Peter Maddison staged an occupation on board the vessel to highlight a campaign by the Sunderland City of Adelaide Recovery Foundation (Scarf) to bring it back to the city.

Glasgow University Archaeological Research Division (Guard) established in 1989 is a commercial enterprise run by university academics which employs some 30 staff and provides archaeological services to businesses and public bodies across Scotland, and is also known for its work on Time Team, and Two Men in a Trench, co-presented by Neil Oliver and Tony Pollard, who is head of GUARD’s Centre for Battlefield Archaeology.

The university had proposed closing the division, claiming it was not meeting financial targets.

However, supporters of Guard argue that it is a viable concern which generates hundreds of thousands of pounds for the university every year, and provides an invaluable service through its television work in bringing archaeology to a wider public audience, benefiting the reputation of the university in the process.

In the light of the publicity generated by the move the ruling court of Glasgow University has now set up a sub-committee of the university’s ruling court to look at the finances of the centre, rather than moving straight to closure.