4.0 Archaeological activities undertaken by English Heritage
4.8 The Hadrian's Wall Coordination Unit
The Hadrian's Wall Coordination Unit was established by English Heritage in
1996 as part of our contribution to the implementation of the Management Plan
for the Hadrian's Wall World Heritage Site. The Unit works with partners and
potential partners to achieve the appropriate balance between conservation,
access, the interests of the local community, and economic benefit to the region.
The Unit works closely with other parts of English Heritage to achieve its objectives.
The Unit is staffed by a Director, two archaeologists, a secretary and a part-time
administrator employed by ICOMOS-UK. Based close to the World Heritage Site,
the Unit provides an integrated focus for all English Heritage's activities
on the Wall and acts as a one-stop shop for the public and for other bodies.
During 1997, Commissioners reviewed the future of the Unit. They agreed to support
a work programme leading up to the first revision of the Management Plan in
2001.
Working with partners, the principal objectives of the unit are:
- to improve coordination, and to raise awareness
- to develop detailed policies or codes of practice covering all or parts
of the World Heritage Site
- to develop specific projects to implement parts of the Management Plan
or strategic developments resulting from it, including:
- putting in a safe state all visible masonry elements of the Wall and
other structures within the World Heritage Site
- identifying earthworks and buried sites at risk, and improving their
management
- developing landscape enhancement and management schemes developing a
new approach to transport and access within the World Heritage Site
- ensuring that Local Interpretation Plans and individual Site Management
Plans are in place throughout the World Heritage Site
- to carry out the generality of English Heritage casework within the World
Heritage Site and its setting
- to develop and implement monitoring and research strategies, based on an
appropriate database
- to obtain funding from other agencies as well as from English Heritage
- to use its experience to inform English Heritage's approach to World Heritage
issues generally, and to enhance its role as a centre of excellence
- to carry out the first revision of the Management Plan in 2001
Archaeological work is fundamental to all parts of the Unit's work. During
1997 98 highlights achieved by the Unit and its partners within English Heritage
included:
- completion of the drawn survey of Hadrian's Wall from Milecastle 37 to Housesteads;
this is part of an ongoing programme to record for the first time all surviving
visible masonry elements of the World Heritage Site which will provide an
invaluable record for research as well as management purposes
- completion of the Monuments Protection Programme for the Wall west of Carlisle
and for urban Carlisle
- the initial assessment of standing masonry in private ownership as a first
step towards its consolidation
- investigation by the Central Archaeological Service of the condition of
the Wall and vallum earthworks at Blackcarts (reported separately below);
this is intended to be the first part of a systematic investigation of the
environmental potential of the World Heritage Site
- completion of the desktop study of thirteen milecastles under regular or
occasional ploughing and the identification of candidates for geophysical
survey to establish their precise location; the next phases will be geophysical
survey by the Ancient Monuments Laboratory and then field evaluation by Central
Archaeology Service, followed by negotiations with owners to establish appropriate
management regimes
- Wallsend B monitoring of Lottery-funded reexcavation and display of the
fort by Tyne and Wear Museums; funding of the preparation of the report on
the 1976 84 excavations from the Archaeology Commissions budget
- Vindolanda B monitoring and advice on the excavation of the commandant's
house by the Vindolanda Trust
- Birdoswald B monitoring of Lottery-funded work, including investigation
by the Central Archaeology Service of the plan of the north west sector of
the fort
- evaluation by the Carlisle Archaeology Unit at Stanwix to establish the
degree of survival of the fort, leading to the use of non-destructive construction
methods for a proposed school extension
- working with the Countryside Commission and the Lancaster University Archaeological
Unit to ensure the archaeological integrity of the National Trail
A particular feature of all this work is the research knowledge gained from interventions
undertaken for management reasons. Particularly noteworthy are the basic record
of the masonry of the Wall, the environmental potential of the Wall, and the additional
knowledge to be gained on milecastles as well as the work on the forts.