Selected projects
4.19.6 The Monuments at Risk Survey
The Monuments at Risk Survey (MARS) was commissioned by English Heritage from Bournemouth University and was carried out between July 1994 and November 1996, and a full report of the project was published in June 1998. The survey records the general condition of England's archaeological resource, and the risks it faces, and also represents the first stage in an ongoing process for monitoring change by setting benchmarks against which such changes will be measured in the future. This is the first time such a survey of archaeological monuments has been undertaken in England, and its results will provide essential information for archaeological resource management at local, regional, and national levels. MARS establishes a factual basis to set alongside the results of assessments of other environmental resources, and will guide the development and evaluation of conservation and management policies and initiatives.
The data for the survey were acquired and analysed through four interconnected programmes: a national survey that compiled data from county and district Sites and Monuments Records and the National Monument Record, field survey of a sample of monuments to record (among other things) details of survival, condition, current land use, accessibility, and visibility, aerial photographic survey to explore patterns of land use change in relation to the survival of monuments, and case study research to investigate patterns of decay relating to particular monuments and types of landscape to provide background information against which the changing archaeological resource can be viewed. A sampling scheme was developed to look at a cross-section of all recorded monuments through field survey and the aerial photographic survey. A 5% sample of the land area of England comprised randomly distributed north south or east west oriented sample transects; these contained 14,591 recorded monuments.
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MARS provides graphic evidence of the growth and character of the recorded archaeological resource. Since the national survey of local authority Sites and Monuments Records in 1983, there has been a 117% increase in the number of records, resulting in a total of 937,484 entries by 1995 (equivalent to about 300,000 individual monuments), and it is estimated that by the end of the millennium there will be more than one million entries in the Sites and Monuments Records. Approximately 6.5% of the land area of England contains recorded archaeological monuments or deposits having an average density of 2.25 monuments per square kilometre. Nearly half of all monuments are small (covering less than 3ha), and almost one quarter of recorded monuments are of unknown date.
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MARS provides an overview of monument condition in 1995 and benchmarks against which future changes can be measured. In 1995, 65% of earthwork monuments were flat (only 31% in the MARS sample remained upstanding) and 57% of monuments represented as buildings and structures had also been flattened or destroyed. Small, single monuments survive in generally better condition than larger monuments and 49% of all surviving monuments were visible from ground level. 18% of monuments are covered by some form of protective designation (the more important monuments by multiple designation), and nearly twice as many scheduled earthwork monuments were found to have good or very good survival compared with their non-scheduled counterparts.
MARS also recorded important information about the relationship between monuments and land use. In 1995, 87% of MARS monuments lay under a single land-use regime and about 95% of recorded archaeological monuments lay within five key land-use types: arable, pasture, developed and urban land, semi-natural land, and forestry. The dominant land use under which monuments lie is developed and urban land (44%), but calculated by area, the dominant land use is pasture (33% of monuments). In 1945 approximately 33% of earthwork monuments lay under arable land, and in 1995, 35% of earthwork monuments were under this land use. 43% of monuments surviving in 1995 had changed land use at least once since 1945; 14% of monuments under pasture in 1994 were under the same land use during the 1940s, and 40% of monuments under field-crop were under the same land use during the 1940s.
The results of MARS demonstrated clearly that 2% of monuments were at high risk, and approximately 4520 monuments across the country will require special attention during the next three to five years; an additional 28% of monuments are recognised as being at medium risk and will require careful monitoring. The highest levels of high-risk monuments were found in the West Midlands, Yorkshire and Humberside, and the North East. Field systems and standing buildings are the forms of monument most at risk, and older monuments are at greater risk than more recent remains. The three land-use categories with the highest levels of risk are arable, forestry, and developed and urban land.
MARS provides clear insights into the nature and state of the archaeological resource in England, and the conclusions of the project demonstrate three specific needs: concerted strategic policy is required that is integrated with other allied interests at all levels; practical initiatives must be developed in response to MARS, at appropriate levels within the range of local, regional, and national archaeological organisations; robust theoretical approaches must be applied to the definition, modelling, and monitoring of the archaeological resource in England. It is estimated that at least 23,500 monuments have been wholly destroyed since 1945, and during the same period there has also been a significant decline in the proportion of earthwork monuments that have good areal survival (from 95% in 1945 to 76% in 1995).
Most monument destruction and loss results from three specific causes: property development and urbanisation, agricultural activity, and natural processes and erosion. The introduction of PPG-16 in 1990 provided a framework to address the first of these, but many of the factors leading to loss and erosion are outside the control of current protective measures or legislation. English Heritage together with its local, regional, and national partners is now developing a range of initiatives to address the various issues raised by MARS. It is the first study of its kind and will provide a benchmark by which future generations will chart the condition of the nation's archaeological heritage.
Link to MARS Strategy document