The archaeology commissions programme enables English Heritage to allocate funds for important archaeological activities not covered through the work of the commercial sector operating under the aegis of PPG-16. In 1997 98 266 projects were funded at a total cost of £4,895,975. Resources were allocated within the framework of Exploring our past (table 2).
Principal areas of funding
The total Archaeology Commissions budget remained approximately the same (£4,895,975 compared with £4,875,535 in 1996-97, an increase of £20,440), which represents a slight decline in real terms (allowing for inflation).
During 1997 98 there was a substantial decline in expenditure on backlog projects (down 400,636) and pre-PPG-16 planning conditions (down 113,331 as we move further away in time from the introduction of PPG-16). This is a result of moves to provide increased resources for sites whose destruction is not covered by PPG-16 (up 155,789), PPG-16 assistance (up 218,543), urban extensive strategies (up 52,653), professional infrastructure (up 36,516), and strategic projects (up 103,205). These moves reflect our new research agenda.
The list of commissioned projects has been organised to reflect the broad context within which the funding was allocated. The figures given for each of the following areas represents the total expenditure on that area in 1997 98.
Development or threat led
Planning condition pre-PPG-16 (538,803)
Significant archaeological deposits, of national or strong regional importance, continue to be threatened by developments where pre-PPG-16 planning consents fail to ensure adequate protection or recording, most notably in the case of mineral extraction. Significant work in this area includes the analysis following on from the programmes of recording at Boxgrove, and at a number of gravel extraction sites in the Thames valley.
PPG-16 assistance (385,940)
In some cases, archaeological discoveries of national significance might be lost despite an adequate implementation of PPG-16. Where a brief for archaeological recording was adequately set, and the developer has made every effort to comply with reasonable PPG-16 planning conditions, English Heritage can provide additional resources to enhance the archaeological record and analyse the results (eg 95-7 High Street, Evesham and St Mary Magdalene Almshouses, Colchester). This is most often the case where the evaluation, despite being well planned, failed to characterise sufficiently the archaeological resource under threat.
Destruction not covered by PPG-16 (433,765)
English Heritage provides resources to rescue important archaeological information from sites subject to natural erosion (rivers, hillsides, coasts), agricultural activity (long term degradation, ploughing, etc), and other activities outside the planning process, such as treasure hunting, as at Ellingham, Norfolk. The Monuments at Risk survey has highlighted the continued loss of archaeological resources through these processes, and particular initiatives are being developed to address some of these areas (for example, a series of related projects are currently being commissioned to explore the nature and management of England's Coastal Heritage).
Management and protection
Archaeological resource reviews (469,472)
English Heritage funds projects (such as the Avebury Landscape assessment and the Humber wetlands project), which are aimed at collating and reviewing archaeological evidence over a broad area, to enhance the interpretation of the landscape and to contribute to it long-term management. It is recognised that a strong understanding of existing knowledge is essential to the development of management plans at a local or regional scale, and the development of new dynamic research agenda.
Local Authority Archaeology posts (140,524)
Assistance was provided to a number of local and regional planning authorities to enhance their development control and strategic facilities.
The Monuments Protection Programme (269,826)
A number of acceleration programmes were undertaken to support the implementation of the Monuments Protection Programme. In addition, areas of the heritage that are poorly understood and protected, most notably the recent industrial past, are being explored through a sequence of reports aimed at characterising the nature of the resource so that measures to protect it can be put in place.
Farm survey grants (32,954)
These small grants continue to be an important means of improving the presentation and management of the archaeological resource, and increasing local awareness of the importance of archaeological remains (eg South Elmham Hall, Suffolk).
Excavation/fieldwork projects (84,303)
English Heritage commissions a number of projects for specific management or academic research purposes, such as the Essex cropmark enclosure project, which are aimed at informing curatorial decisions regarding specific sites and landscapes.
Extensive and intensive urban strategies (430,288)
Ongoing programmes to collate information and to inform the management of some of our most important urban landscapes. Intensive studies focus on individual settlements, whereas extensive studies attempt a broader understanding of urban centres in a region.
Strategic infrastructure
Strategic projects (550,598)
This category covers projects commissioned for a variety of strategic purposes. The principal objectives are reflected in Table 2. Increasingly, this category includes projects designed to explore the management of the archaeological resource in England (such as the Thames Estuary survey and aerial photographic monitoring), and to provide assistance in synthesising the results of development-led archaeology into regional research frameworks. With the rise in the number of development-led interventions, with an increasing number of small-scale recording exercises, there is a desperate need to collate and compare the results of this work within a broader context (eg the British Palaeolithic synthesis). This is a key feature of the research agenda being developed at English Heritage.
Professional infrastructure (154,302)
English Heritage continues to increase resources devoted to this area of activity, as it takes the view that there is an urgent need to help develop the infrastructure of archaeology. To this end, new training initiatives have commenced, including the establishment of a training forum to help promote and coordinate efforts in this area. English Heritage, in partnership with numerous other organisations, has also commenced a number of strategic surveys designed to provide information the better to understand key areas of the discipline, and thus enable appropriate developments to take place (eg into the use of publications, the use of digital data, and the nature of archaeological employment).
Dissemination and publication
Pre-PPG-16 analysis projects (1,400,406)
There are still a considerable number of pre-PPG-16 excavations that, for whatever reasons, received inadequate funding to analyse and disseminate properly the information gathered during the course of recording. A rolling programme of analysis and publication has been designed to bring the most important and significant of this material to the attention of the profession and the public (eg Flixborough, Salford, and York). There is no cut-off date to the sites, rather there is a continuing attempt to extract the most important data and make it available through individual site publications, or as part of wider reviews.Table 2: Breakdown of expenditure following the framework defined in Exploring our past
Academic objectives Processes of change Hunter-gathers: lower Palaeolithic to post glacial Hunter-gathers into Farmers (c 5000 3200 BC) Diversification in farming communities (c 2500 2200 BC) Communal monuments into settlements (c 1300 300 BC) Briton into Roman (c 200 BC AD 200) The early medieval period (c AD 350 700) The Viking Age and late Saxon period Transition from medieval to post-medieval traditions The Industrial Revolution (c AD 1700 1850) Total
Landscapes Buried Pleistocene landscapes Relict field systems Towns and their hinterlands Castles and their hinterlands Medieval rural settlement Upland landscapes Thames Valley Total
Towns Towns: survival assessments Post excavation programmes The origins and development of the small town Total
The archaeological study of buildings The archaeological study of buildings Dendrochronology and historic carpentry Church and cathedral archaeology The archaeological study of parish churches Reassessment of reports on cemeteries (c 500-1850 AD) Total
Industrial archaeology
Patterns of industry and craftsmanship
Identifying the resource Methods Identifying the resource Field techniques Sampling of cropmarks by small-scale excavation Total
Identification projects Wet and waterlogged sites The coastal zone The offshore submerged zone Alluvium Colluvium Unploughed upland Ploughed landscapes Unploughed lowlands Industrial landscapes Total
Protecting the resource Protecting the resource The Monuments Protection Programme Site and Monuments Records Conservation archaeology posts Total
Managing the resource Managing the resource The Survival Assessment Programme Pleistocene deposits Caves and rock-shelters Flat cemeteries Total
Analysing the resource Regional Reviews Artefact and Environmental Reviews Total
Other research objectives