Somerset Extensive Urban Evaluation
The predominantly rural county of Somerset is characterised by a lack of large conurbations and a considerable number of small market towns. The county town, Taunton, is the largest urban area with a population (in 1993) of 43,000 people. All but two of the towns in the county have their origin in the medieval period.
A survey of thirty four towns in Somerset was undertaken almost twenty years ago (Aston and Leech 1977) and this identified areas of archaeological interest and areas which had suffered destruction. The survey did not attempt to identify and characterise the historical components of the towns or to relate the information obtained to the planning process.
Between 1977 and the present day urban development has taken the form of a large number of small scale, disjointed projects which has made the task of assessing the importance of particular sites in relation to their surroundings difficult. As a result there has been a significant loss of historical and archaeological information.
The Extensive Urban Evaluation project was designed to address the problem of the lack of contextual and comparative archaeological and historical information by characterising particular areas of the towns (known as plan elements) and making an informed assessment of their archaeological and historical importance.
The specific aims of the project included:
The project used information available in the public domain to identify and characterise discrete plan elements of each town. Sources consulted included the Somerset County Sites and Monuments Record, the Victoria County History, current and historic maps, the Royal Commission on Historic Monuments (lists of buildings of special architectural or historical interest) and the Monument Protection Plan survey of historic towns, together with other locally published sources.
The information obtained was plotted onto a 1:2500 scale Ordnance Survey map of the county using digital mapping software. This was chosen to allow easy transfer of the information onto the GIS-based development control system being implemented by the County and District Councils and to facilitate the production of maps to be integrated into the final report.
On the basis of this information a brief description of each area (or plan element) of a given town was written. These were used as the basis for a summary of the historical development of each town. Once the plan elements of each town had been identified, defined and described, an assessment of the importance of each was made, with reference both to other areas within the town and between different towns.
The information gathered and collated in this manner was then used to write planning and protection policies for each plan element or group of plan elements. Recommendations for conservation work formed a key element in these policies.
A report, circulated to the relevant planning authorities and to English Heritage, was produced using the information generated by the project. Consideration is currently being given to the publication of a similar report to replace that written by Aston and Leech (1977).
Aston, M and Leech R. 1977 Historic towns in Somerset, Committee for Rescue Archaeology in Avon, Gloucestershire and Somerset, Survey No. 2.