4.7 The work of the Field Monument Wardens
Scheduling of an ancient monument does not in itself ensure its continued preservation. This can only be achieved if the monument is appropriately managed and its condition is regularly monitored. Only 400 of the more than 17,000 monuments currently scheduled are cared for directly by English Heritage and responsibility for managing the remainder lies with a variety of private and public landowners. These include farmers, local authorities, businesses, independent bodies such as wildlife trusts and the National Trust, non-departmental government agencies (such as English Nature), and major land-owning government departments (such as the Ministry of Defence). Since the late 1970s a group of regionally-based Field Monument Wardens has been employed to monitor the condition of scheduled monuments by means of regular site visits. English Heritage currently employs 25 Wardens as out-stationed members of the Conservation Group regional teams. The core role of the Wardens is to monitor and report on the condition of scheduled monuments and to advise monument owners on best management practice. In cases where significant expenditure is required to improve site management, English Heritage might grant-aid necessary work and the Wardens are responsible for identifying appropriate cases. Wardens play an important role in representing English Heritage at a local level and frequently might be the only source of direct contact with the owner or occupiers of scheduled monuments.
In recent years, increasing awareness of the importance of heritage conservation and the expansion of government environmental land management schemes have greatly increased the range of the Wardens' caseloads. Working in close collaboration with Inspectors of Ancient Monuments in the regional teams, they now provide advice in a variety of fora including advisory panels for National Parks, Environmentally Sensitive Areas, and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and they have made a significant contribution towards insuring the effectiveness of the archaeological and historic landscape input into the Countryside Steward Scheme.
During 1997-98 Field Monument Wardens also made important contributions to several strategic initiatives, most notably the identification of standing scheduled monuments at risk for inclusion in the English Heritage Buildings at Risk register and by participating in a pilot scheme for monitoring the condition of scheduled monuments by means of aerial photography in a joint project with RCHME.
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The Isle of Wight Monument Management Agency Agreement
Several Wardens play a pivotal role in a number of agency agreements' that devolve responsibility for positive management of scheduled monuments to local authorities. Currently, schemes are operating in Berkshire, Hampshire, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Surrey, in the Peak and Dartmoor National Parks, and on the Isle of Wight. The Isle of Wight agency agreement' has been in operation for four years, allowing the Isle of Wight council to draw upon financial support from English Heritage to defray the cost of positive management to owners and occupiers of monuments. Although the sums of money involved are relatively small, several successful projects have been undertaken by the Field Monument Warden and County Archaeological Team working closely together. Grant aid has been used both to improve the condition of field monuments threatened by ploughing, scrub encroachment, rabbit burrowing, and erosion by stock and vehicles, and to enhance visitor enjoyment and understanding by the provision of interpretation. For example, interpretation panels featuring reconstruction paintings have been designed and produced by the County Council for the Roman villas at Brading and Combley and for Michael Morey's Hump, a round barrow later used as the site of a gibbet.
On Cheverton Down, one of the most intensively cultivated areas on the island, several round barrows have been brought back into sympathetic management. The occupiers have removed the monuments from cultivation and management agreements have been concluded to insure a healthy grass cover and the control of burrowing animals and invasive scrub. Consequently the progressive attrition caused by ploughing over many years has been halted. On Mottistone Down a group of round barrows close to the Tennyson Trail (one of the most popular walking and cycling routes on the island) has recently been repaired. Deeply incised pathways across the barrow mounds have been repaired and protected by meshing. Seeding or turfing the repaired areas was not possible as the area is a Site of Special Scientific Interest, so it is protected by a temporary fence which will be removed when ground cover has naturally regenerated. Nearby on Pay Down a similar barrow group, which has been seriously degraded by rabbit burrowing and subsequent stock erosion, has also been the subject of repair work. Here it was possible to repair eroded areas by importing topsoil and reseeding, with the repairs subsequently protected by a polypropylene and galvanised steel fabric. Unfortunately the rabbit population is extremely high and further damage has occurred from burrowing. Plans are therefore in hand to reduce the rabbit population by live trapping and to undertake further protective measures. The destructive power of rabbit burrowing in small field monuments such as barrows should not be underestimated, and was graphically illustrated in 1990 when two Bronze Age Arreton type spearheads and cremated bone, presumably originally in situ, were found in the upcast from a rabbit burrow in one of the island's scheduled barrows on High Down.
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The agency agreement with the Isle of Wight council has enabled a very quick turn-around time from the initial Warden's visit to the conclusion of a management agreement and landowners seem happier to deal with a local rather than a national body. Close liaison is maintained with monument owners allowing review and fine-tuning where necessary. This is a particularly useful aspect of a scheme that operates in the dynamic environment of the countryside where changes in farming practice, agricultural prices, visitor access, wildlife, and even the weather can seriously affect the conservation of fragile archaeological sites.