The archaeology commissions programme enables English Heritage to allocate funds for a number of important archaeological activities not covered by the work of the commercial sector operating under the aegis of PPG16. In 1994-95, 395 projects were funded at a total cost of £7,513,681. In all cases funds were allocated within the framework of Exploring our past, and as part of a developing framework of research goals. Other subjects not covered in Exploring our past that received particular attention in 1994-95 were:
Principal areas of funding
Selected commissioned project summaries
Summaries of projects representing the range of work funded through the Archaeology Commissions Programme.
Tables of the different types of projects, showing the funding for individual projects and the responsible organisations.
There are still numerous cases where pre-PPG16 planning consent gave no protection to important archaeological remains, now under threat. The most common reason for this continues to be mineral extraction, for example at Yarnton-Cassington in Oxfordshire, Hemington Pit in Leicestershire, and Hunts Hill in Essex. In 1994-95 some £1.2 million was expended in rescuing the archaeology of such sites, and presenting the results to the profession and the public.
In some cases, archaeological discoveries of national significance are unexpectedly made on projects being conducted under PPG16. Where a brief for the work was adequately set, and the developer has made every effort to comply with reasonable PPG16 planning conditions, English Heritage can provide additional resources to enable an adequate record to be made, such as at Cranford Lane, in West London. During 1994-95 English Heritage provided assistance with such important discoveries to the level of £405,831.
English Heritage also provides assistance where archaeological sites cannot be preserved and their destruction is taking place beyond the control of agencies with the power and resources to deal with the problem. This applies to natural processes such as coastal erosion (which has led to recording projects at the Roman signal station at Filey, North Yorkshire , and the prehistoric landscape at Low Hauxley, Northumberland ), or to the longer term degradation of important archaeological remains or landscapes through actions, particularly agricultural, which do not require planning permission (for example, the erosion by ploughing of the substantial Roman and Anglo-Saxon settlement at Heslerton, North Yorkshire). In 1994-95 some £325,000 was devoted to recording and analysing such important sites.
A great deal of funding has been devoted to assisting in the process of managing and protecting the archaeological resource. Most commonly this occurs by commissioning reviews collating existing knowledge and enhancing its coverage, in order to develop local or regional management plans. Some £231,249 was devoted to this during the year. Assistance was provided to a number of local and regional planning authorities to develop and enhance their SMR/development control facilities, at a cost of £293,904. The Monuments Protection Programme was assisted with key development and acceleration programmes (£126,493). In particular, work was undertaken on the development of academic background studies into the nature of lithic scatter sites and medieval settlement mapping. A major undertaking to examine the survival of archaeological information in England, the Monuments at Risk project, got fully under way at the beginning of the year, with expenditure of £593,250. This project is already producing important results regarding the state of the archaeological resource, and interim publications of the early results are in hand. Farm survey grants, introduced in 1990-91, continue to be an important means of improving the presentation and management of the archaeological resource. In 1994-95 some £97,529 was committed to these initiatives.
There is still a considerable emphasis upon the ordering and presentation of the results of earlier excavations. The very successful backlog publication programme, which led to the publication of over 1,000 pre-1972 sites (summarised in Rescue excavations 1938 to 1974, Butcher and Garwood 1994), is being continued with a rolling programme of analysis and publication designed to bring the most important and significant records from archaeological projects to the attention of the profession and the public, and to order and store their archives. There is no cut-off date to the sites; rather there is a continuing attempt to extract the most important information and make it available through individual site publications, or as part of wider reviews (see below). Using the publication of PPG16 as the cut-off date, the commissions budget is currently supporting a number of such reports: at least £2,614,092 was expended in 1994-95 on archive, assessment, and analytical work associated with this material.
A central and substantive part of the archaeology commissions programme is to promote archaeological research and to provide the framework for work conducted under PPG16. Most commercial archaeological projects are necessarily focused on the immediate impact of the development process upon the archaeological resource. PPG16 allows for the recording of such resources, where preservation in situ cannot take place, and the analysis and publication of the results. In addition, much important archaeological information is being retrieved from evaluations conducted in advance of planning consent. Where such work has produced significant archaeological results, the decision may be not to proceed with development, or to mitigate its impact upon the archaeology. In addition although perhaps individually of less significance, these small-scale evaluations are rapidly creating a very large body of data, useful in the broader context both of managing the general archaeological resource and of pursuing academic studies over a wider area.
It is often the case that the full significance of discoveries can only be properly assessed by placing the results of smaller scale work within a broader national or regional context. English Heritage provides resources for attempts to synthesise information, to maximise the knowledge gained, and to present it both to the discipline and to the general public. The commissions programme therefore provides a much needed bridge between these relatively small scale commercial interventions and the research needs of the discipline. During 1994-95 we began to see the growth of such synthetic projects, drawing together the results of numerous interventions, of both the pre and post-PPG16 era, into coherent frameworks. Examples of this include the post-excavation programme at Lincoln, the Roman cemetery in East London, the Roman small towns of the Cotswolds, work on Anglo-Saxon cemeteries in East Anglia, and the exploration of Salisbury Plain. We expect this element of the commissions programme to continue to develop in coming years, especially in association with the research frameworks initiative.
English Heritage takes a strong view on the need to develop the professional infrastructure of archaeology. To this end new training initiatives have been started, with conservation training for finds staff, and ceramic training in specialist areas (such as amphorae). In total, some £400,384 was devoted to training initiatives, regional artefact reviews, and handbooks/databases. It is envisaged that training courses and handbooks/databases will continue to develop, and suggestions are actively encouraged from the profession.
![[Go to Contents Page]](contents.gif)