Scheduling 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 1970's a group of regionally-based Field Monument Wardens has been employed to check 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 may 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 may 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 warden's caseload. 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.
Field Monument Wardens also make important contributions to other strategic initiatives. In 1998-9, for example, they have been involved in scoping and evaluating the second year of a pilot scheme for monitoring the condition of scheduled monuments by means of aerial photography, in a joint project with RCHME. Similarly, our warden for the Welsh Marches, Judith Leigh, has been involved in a project to improve the management of one of our principal linear earthwork monuments, Offa's Dyke.
Managing Offa's Dyke
Offa's Dyke traditionally forms the border between Wales and England. Although the national boundary does indeed follow the 8th century AD earthwork for a short distance, the reality is more complex. Research over many years by Dr David Hill suggests its construction was not the product of a single campaign and in some areas (such as Archenfield around Monmouth) it was never built at all. Offa's Dyke Long Distance Footpath is a further complication. Although this does closely follow the earthwork for part of its length, it also diverges from it in places: a Sunday newspaper journalist congratulated himself on his achievement in reaching the Dyke on the crest of the Black Mountains; he certainly reached the path but here the earthwork runs some 10 miles to the east across Herefordshire farmland.
In Shropshire however there is a fine stretch of the Dyke, probably a defensive boundary built by Offa against the kingdom of Powys, and it runs from near Bishop's Castle to Knighton through the designated Clun Environmentally Sensitive Area. Over 80% of the eligible land in the Clun area was proposed by farmers for ESA agreements and following discussions and meetings between the ESA Project Officer and EH Field Monument Warden, as well as the statutory periodic ESA review, priority is now to be given to incorporating management prescriptions for the ancient monuments into individual ESA Conservation Plans.
As a pilot scheme, detailed management prescriptions for each individual monument within the ESA (apart from the Dyke) were compiled by the FMW and subsequently the first cooperative funding package was put together to cover the total cost of the work proposed for an upland Iron Age enclosure: ESA paid their standard percentage grant for the capital work, in this case involving fencing and some minor earthwork reinstatement under FMW direction, and an English Heritage Management Agreement contributed to ongoing maintenance over 5 years including controlled occasional grazing. The effect on this very eroded upland monument where sheep congregated has been dramatic, with very rapid recovery of a protective grass cover - and stock have adequate shelter elsewhere under hawthorn hedges.
Similar detailed prescriptions are being produced by the FMW for each 'land parcel' or field on the Dyke itself with a photographic and plotted record of damage. These can be used by the Project Officers to incorporate specific management requirements into ESA Conservation Plans. During the fieldwork, priorities were identified enabling the most urgent cases to be actively targeted. At the same time the effect of walkers on the monument was assessed and alternative and less damaging routes identified wherever path and monument coincide. Originally the long distance footpath was routed along the crest of the earthwork but fortunately the legal designation of the route was incomplete. A temporary Alignment Officer allocated to the Offa's Dyke Management Service, the body responsible for Path management, is now working on these anomalies, designating the less damaging route where no official line exists and looking to apply for variation orders where the originally designated route is damaging the earthwork. It is fortunate that many walkers actually prefer striding through flat meadowland alongside the Dyke rather than stumbling along the increasingly uneven surface of the earthwork itself.
A similar project is in hand for the more recent Shropshire Hills ESA, where all the Scheduled Ancient Monuments are currently being visited, and prescriptions and priorities compiled, in order to ensure that historic landscape features are specifically benefiting from funds supporting traditional farming regimes.
