MARS The Monuments at Risk Survey of England 1995 Pathways to Protecting the Past AN ENGLISH HERITAGE STRATEGY DOCUMENT

• The size of the resource
• Countering destruction
• Land-use and natural erosion
• Designation and protection
• Public benefit, access to information, and monitoring
• Further Information

The Monuments at Risk Survey was commissioned by English Heritage from Bournemouth University and was carried out between July 1994 and November 1996. A full report and a summary version have been published. This statement, circulated as part of the Summary Report, sets out English Heritage's first responses to the main issues identified by MARS, in particular identifying key policy developments and outlining future initiatives.

MARS is the first stage in an ongoing process for monitoring change. Much of its work was concerned with setting bench-marks against which such changes will be measured in future. This is the first time such a survey of archaeological monuments has been undertaken in England.

The size of the resource

England's archaeological resource is one of the largest most diverse, and best documented in Europe. It includes material from more than half a million years ago through to the modern era and is the raw material from which our national identity has emerged. New discoveries are regularly made, but, equally, monuments are destroyed every day; some of those which are lost have been known about for a long time, others are destroyed before they are even recognized.

England's archaeological sites and monuments records will contain over one million entries by the end of the Millennium. These are of central importance to the future management of the archaeological resource. English Heritage and its partners will:

• Continue essential support for these records with a view to improving their status, accessibility and interaction.

• Press for the statutory recognition of established records held by local authorities.

• Support initiatives that promote the use of agreed data standards and enhance inter-record compatibility.

MARS shows that some areas of the country have fewer records of archaeological remains than others. The reasons for this are complicated and still only partly documented.

English Heritage has already devoted significant effort to successful initiatives which have expanded our knowledge of the archaeological resource in poorly understood areas, notably through the Monuments Protection Programme, its surveys of English Wetlands and urban programmes. The RCHME's National Mapping Programme using aerial photography will be particularly valuable in this context. MARS demonstrates the need for these programmes to continue and with its partners, English Heritage, will:

• Target resources for survey at areas and regions where the number of recorded monuments is significantly below the national average.

• Promote the development of methodologies to prospect for sites currently hidden by peat, alluvium, pasture and woodland.

MARS shows that nearly a quarter of recorded monuments are of unknown character or date. This makes informed management very difficult. English Heritage will:

• Maintain and extend its programmes aimed at achieving the better dating and classification of recorded monuments, especially those revealed only on aerial photographs.

Countering destruction

The loss of archaeological monuments over the last 50 years has been severe, both in the number of monuments completely destroyed and the proportion nibbled away in piecemeal fashion.

MARS demonstrates that at least 22,500 monuments have been wholly destroyed since 1945- a rate of just over one monument per day over that period. In addition, there has been a 20% decline in the proportion of archaeological earthworks having good survival from 95% in 1945 to about 75% in 1995.

MARS also makes clear that most monument destruction and loss falls into one of three general areas: property development, agricultural activity, and natural erosion. The introduction of PPG16 in 1990 provides a framework through which to address the first of these and appears to be working well.

English Heritage, in association with local authority archaeologists, will:

• Further promote and support the application of PPG 16 on Archaeology and Planning and the guidance it contains.

• Provide grants to help establish new posts within local authorities to reinforce the protection of archaeological remains through the planning process, ensuring that every county, district and unitary authority has access to high quality archaeological advice for strategic planning and development control.

• Commission research into less well-covered areas such as contaminated land and the prevention of natural erosion.

• Review legislative provision for controlling agricultural damage to recorded monuments, and seek adequate responses given the scale of the problem. Special attention will be given to the need for resources to revoke the class consent for ploughing on individual Scheduled Monuments, and the possibility of including certain agricultural land-use changes within the planning system.

MARS shows that 2% of all monuments (4500) are at high risk of serious damage or destruction within 3-5 years. English Heritage will:

• Take early action to identify and define practical programmes of investigation and recording, where possible with preservation strategies, for monuments at high risk.

• Consider how best to deal with the 28% of monuments (c.65,000) at medium risk, including refining methods of rapid risk assessment to identify medium-risk monuments, the assessment of relative importance, and the identification of appropriate management measures. In the first instance, we will focus on risk-assessment within the Schedule of protected monuments.

• Develop a methodology for, and promote the use of, local risk assessments to allow local authorities to identify particular monuments at high risk and to suggest specific solutions.

• Encourage, and where possible grant-aid, the purchasing of archaeological monuments by local authorities and appropriate public bodies in order to ensure their long-term preservation and maintenance.

Land-use and natural erosion

Land-use is critical to monument condition and survival, and is the key to archaeological resource management. It is recognized that such issues are not exclusive to the archaeological resource considered here but are set within a wider social, economic, environmental and political context.

MARS shows that approximately 27% of all monuments are in arable cultivation, and that this is one of the major destructive factors affecting the resource. It is also one of the activities least controlled by current effective measures or legislation. English Heritage will

• Press for greater awareness of archaeological management needs within the agri-environment programme, particularly in future reforms of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), to help to address the problem of agricultural erosion. Countryside-wide approaches are essential here so that the needs of both recorded and presently unrecorded monuments are considered.

• Encourage, and where possible support with grant-aid, the appointment of Countryside Archaeological Advisers to assist land-owners and land-users in formulating appropriate approaches to the management of archaeological monuments.

• Continue the programme of visits by Field Monument Wardens to help the owners of Scheduled Monuments manage and look after the monuments in their care.

• Continue investigations of plough-damage at particular monuments.

• Continue the improvement and, where possible, the expansion of grant schemes and management programmes through Management Agreements and the more broadly based Countryside Stewardship and ESA schemes.

MARS also shows that woodland is a continuing threat to monuments and to their settings. English Heritage will:

• Promote research into how to minimize damage from new planting programmes.

MARS demonstrates that 42% of monuments have different land-uses to their surroundings. This situation is usually detrimental to the setting of a monument, the appreciation of its landscape context, and its visual enjoyment. English Heritage will:

• Review how best to influence practical land-use around monuments.

MARS shows that natural erosion is one of the major hazards facing archaeological monuments, but falls outside the controls available through the planning system or any protective designations. English Heritage, in association with others, will:

• Continue the work already started with reference to the coastline and inter-tidal zone.

• Promote controlled experimentation and research into the containment and prevention of natural erosion in order to arrest the declining condition of archaeological monuments subject to these hazards

Designation and protection

Scheduling is the one of the oldest pieces of protective legislation on the Statute Book, and it appears to work well in reducing the destruction of monuments and controlling risk. Other, less direct, designations are important for archaeology too.

Overall, approximately 18% of the recorded archaeological resource is designated under some form of site or area specific status and the results of the MARS survey will be used to target the further development of management plans for monuments with special needs.

MARS has also shown that Scheduling monuments helps prevent their loss. English Heritage will:

• Maintain support for the Monuments Protection Programme.

• Target the work of the Monuments Protection Programme to take account of regions with the highest levels of monument loss (South East), regions with highest levels of reported risk (West Midlands and North West), and monument forms hitherto subject to the heaviest casualty rates (large single monuments and field systems).

The survival and condition of monuments within National Parks and AONBs is generally better than in areas of countryside not designated in these ways. English Heritage will:

• Encourage National Parks authorities and local authorities responsible for AONBs to develop and expand their important work in managing and safeguarding archaeological monuments, and focus attention on areas which do not benefit from much overall protection.

Public benefit, access to information, and monitoring

Archaeological remains are a matter of great public interest, and it is one of the strengths of the resource we have left that a good proportion is visible and accessible. Those responsible for looking after archaeological monuments have a duty to make information about their work available and monitor change regularly so that resources are periodically redirected according to the best available information.

MARS shows that the visibility and accessibility of remaining monuments is fairly good. A quarter of archaeological sites are located on publicly accessible land and approximately 49% of all monuments are visible. English Heritage will:

• Encourage owners to draw up access plans to enhance public benefit wherever possible.

• Attempt to ensure that public awareness of their local archaeological resource is raised through education and information.

• Promote the retention of public access to visible archaeological monuments on publicly owned land in cases where such land is sold off or transferred to the private sector.

MARS emphasizes the inter-relationships between many facets of the cultural heritage and the survival and condition of archaeological monuments. English Heritage will:

• Encourage excavators to record information about monument survival in relation to past land-use practices when investigating monuments.

• Consider with its partners how to make information on archaeology and current research programmes available on-line to archaeological resource managers and the general public.

MARS is the first study of its kind and will provide a bench-mark by which future generations will chart the condition of the nation's archaeological heritage. To derive full benefit, the survey should be repeated at regular intervals every two decades. English Heritage will:

• Organize the next census of our archaeological resource for the year 2015.

• Develop further analytical projects drawing on the MARS data, particularly projects relevant to the themes put forward in its strategy document Frameworks for our past (English Heritage 1998).

For further information about the above-mentioned initiatives and policies, together with details about the MARS Reports and where to obtain copies please contact:

Archaeology Division,
English Heritage,
23 Savile Row,
London W1X 1AB.
United Kingdom.
Tel.: +44 (0)171 973 3000
Fax.: +44 (0)171 973 3001

Email: archcom@eng-h.gov.uk

Archaeology Division WWW: http://www.eng-h.gov.uk/