D How do you compile, maintain and enhance an HER?
| D.1 Compilation - the beginnings | D.3 Compilation from basic sources | D.4 Keeping up to date with fieldwork | D.5 HERs and enhancement projects | D.6 Case studies of HER enhancement projects |
Contributors: Tony Austin, Victoria Bryant, Tom Dawson, Kate Fernie, Paul Gilman, Stuart
Jeffrey, Neil Lockett, Jason Lowe, Peter McKeague, Robert Mowat, Damian Robinson, Peter Rowe, Jeff Spencer, Carol Swanson, Alison Tinniswood.
Maintaining and developing an HER is a continuous process that involves various types of work. At
any one time, new information may be received from recent fieldwork about
changes or additions to the lists of protected sites, or through project work.
Numerous different organisations and individuals are involved in the process of
collecting and supplying information, and with the increasing use of GIS and
on-line access, new ways of making a wide range of data accessible to HERs are
beginning to emerge.
This section of the manual gives general guidelines
for maintaining and developing the information resources of an HER and suggests
some new approaches to recording information from development-led fieldwork and
some ideas for enhancement projects. For the purpose of this manual this topic
has been broken down into three areas:
·
Compilation from standard digital and
documentary sources of information
·
Fieldwork and digital data collection
·
Enhancement projects such as national
projects and programmes, local partnerships, universities and special interest
groups
Case studies of some recent HER enhancement projects
are also included.
D.1 Compilation - the beginnings
The information in most HERs has been compiled over a
long period of time. Much of it was collected before the use of databases let
alone GIS and this has greatly affected how we can use it in the present.
For most HERs compilation has been a complex process
involving collecting information from a wide range of sources including
national agencies, local bodies and private individuals. When SMRs were
developing in the 1970's and 1980's three stages of information collection were
envisaged: compilation, enhancement and ongoing maintenance.
In reality, the development of the information base
held by HERs has been more ad hoc.
The resources available for compiling information have varied considerably from
one HER to another and also over time. A mixture of permanent and temporary
staff (funded from, for example, local authorities, English Heritage, Historic Scotland, Cadw, RCHME,
RCAHMS, RCAHMW and the Manpower Services Commission, National Trust),
volunteers and students have been involved in compiling and enhancing SMRs and
HERs. In many of the present HERs increasing responsibilities for development
control activities, the pressure of work arising from planning guidance and
limited resources have given rise to backlogs of information waiting to be
compiled and input into the HER database. The purpose of this section is to step
back from the backlogs and take a fresh look at the range of information
sources that is available and to consider old and new approaches to
incorporating it into HERs.
D.2 How does your recording policy fit in?
Section B. 4.1
recommends HER officers to prepare a recording policy. This document should identify both the
sources of information that are locally available to the HER and also provide a
framework to identify gaps or weaknesses in the information base (this may have
already been provided by an HER Audit, see section B.2.4). HER officers are recommended to make
reference to their recording policy when planning programmes of work to
maintain or enhance the record. When
planning to incorporate either new material or information held in backlogs,
some key issues to consider are:
·
Does the information provided lie within the sphere of
interest of the HER, or has the information a more natural home elsewhere?
·
Does the information provided by a source contain
enough detail to meet the HER’s requirements and the HER Basic Compliance
Specification set out in Annex 1 of Benchmarks for Good Practice? (Chitty 2002).
·
Does the information duplicate existing material in
the HER?
·
Could the information be more easily acquired from
another source?
·
Can the information be incorporated into the HER
without extensive additional work?
·
How high a priority is this new information in
relation to your research framework?
·
Does the material involve the acquisition of physical
archive? If so is it original material, in which case is the HER the most
appropriate body to hold it after incorporation? Is digital archiving required?
Reference should be made to the HERs collection and disposal policy for archive
material.
D.3
Compilation from basic sources
| D.3.1 National heritage datasets | D.3.2 Compilation from documentary sources | D.3.3 Recording Maritime Heritage | D.3.4 Compilation from digital sources | D.3.5 Approaches to compilation from basic sources |
There are several standard sources of information that all HERs should
incorporate. The OS record cards
provided the basic starting point for most.
In some cases SMRs recasting projects created computer records from the
OS cards, in other cases digital data was supplied from the appropriate
National Monuments Record.
D.3.1 National heritage datasets
A key information source for HERs is details of sites in their areas
that are either under some form of statutory protection or that are registered
as being of special interest or at risk.
This information is maintained by English Heritage as part of its
statutory functions (Historic Scotland and CADW within their respective
countries). HERs and Historic Buildings
Records should all routinely receive paper notifications of changes and
additions to schedulings or listings (in Scotland this information is supplied
digitally by Historic Scotland).
Digital data from the national
heritage datasets will be available to HERs in the future under licence from
the NMR. These datasets include:
·
AMIE: a historic environment database of sites, monuments, buildings, archives, archaeological/architectural
interventions and surveys in England and its territorial waters
·
Record of Scheduled Monuments (RSM):
a
database of scheduled monuments in England
·
Listed Building System (LBS): a database of the lists of buildings
of special architectural and historic interest in England maintained by English
Heritage on behalf of the DCMS
·
Parks and Gardens Registration
System (PaG): a database of the register of parks and gardens of historical interest
in England
·
Battlefields Register: the register of battlefields of
historical interest (http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/battlefields)
·
Buildings at Risk (BAR) Register: a database of grade I and II* listed
buildings and upstanding scheduled monuments identified as being at risk of
deterioration or loss (http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/bar).
Many local authorities keep their own BAR register for grade II listed
buildings.
·
Protected Wrecks: a list of protected wreck sites in
English coastal waters
·
Desk GIS: provides a corporate Geographical
Information System with integrated access to historic environment data such as
the RSM, LBS, AMIE and PaG both spatially and textually. HSIS enables the
capture, display and analysis of statutory and non-statutory data in context
with other geographic data
·
Controlled Sites and Protected Places: Designated under the 1986 Military Remains Act. NB All crashed military
aircraft are covered by this Act.
·
List of World Heritage Sites: a list of World Heritage Sites in
England.
·
National reference datasets managed
by the Data Standards Unit: includes the Thesaurus of Monument Types, Thesaurus of
Building Materials, administrative area lists.
The adoption of nationally agreed
data standards and indexing terminology by HERs, means that it is becoming
easier for digital data to be provided in a standard format ready for
incorporation into HER databases (see D.4.3).
The are also a number of key web-based initiatives aimed at the online
dissemination of historic environment data:
LB Online
(http://lbonline.english-heritage.org.uk/)
provides
up-to-date access to the statutory Lists of Buildings of Special Architectural
and Historic Interest and is made available by English Heritage and the DCMS.
The site is currently for the staff of Local Planning Authorities, National
Amenity Societies and some other authorised government agencies.
Images
of England (http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/)
Images of England is a groundbreaking heritage initiative funded by the
Heritage Lottery Fund and English Heritage. The project aims to create a 'point
in time' photographic record of every listed building in England. The
photographs, taken by hundreds of volunteer photographers, are being posted
alongside existing list descriptions for each building to create what will be
one of the largest free to access digital image libraries in the world with
over 300,000 images when complete.
PastScape
(http://www.pastscape.org/homepage/index.html) is a prototype web site developed by English Heritage’s National
Monuments Record (NMR), which provides an easy-to-use method of accessing
information taken directly from the NMR's national historic environment
database (AMIE) containing nearly 400,000 records on the archaeology, monuments
and buildings of England and its territorial waters. These records contain
descriptions of any interesting archaeological details, pictures (where
available), and links to maps and aerial photographs on other websites.
MAGIC (http://www.magic.gov.uk)
this interactive map-based site, launched in July 2002, combines information on
key environmental schemes and designations. The site is the result of a
partnership project between seven government organisations with responsibilities
for rural policy-making and management. Users are able view and query the
available data sets through the use of standard GIS tools.
ArchSearch (http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/collections.cfm)
or http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue provides an online search catalogue to collections containing details
of around 1,000,000 sites, monuments and interventions in the UK, or other
locations where UK-based archaeologists work. It also links to a growing number
of digital archives and electronic publications.
Similarly a number of national
digital data sets are available to HERs in Wales. These include:
·
Scheduled Ancient Monuments
database: a database of scheduled monuments in Wales maintained by Cadw on behalf
of the Welsh Assembly Government.
·
Listed Building database: a database of the lists of buildings
of special architectural and historic interest in Wales maintained by Cadw on
behalf of the Welsh Assembly Government.
·
Parks and Gardens Register: a database of the register of parks
and gardens of historical interest in Wales maintained by Cadw.
·
Historic Landscapes Register: a database of the register of parks
and gardens of historical interest in Wales maintained jointly by Cadw and the
Countryside Council for Wales. The Register
can be viewed on the CCW web site.
·
Protected Wrecks: a list of protected wreck sites in
Welsh coastal waters.
The
Extended National Database for Wales (END). http://www.rcahmw.org.uk/nmrw/extdbs.shtml, The END is based on a partnership
of Welsh heritage bodies, including the
RCAHMW, the Archaeological Trusts of Wales, Cadw and the National Museums and
Galleries of Wales (NMGW). who have created a national index of archaeological
and architectural information. The information encompasses NMRW's site
database, the Sites and Monuments Records held by each of the four
Archaeological Trusts, and Cadw's scheduled monument and listed building
database. CARN (http://www.rcahmw.org.uk/data/carn.shtml)
is being developed as the entry point
to the END.
The RCAHMW has made a selection of
information from the NMRW available on the Internet through the on-line Coflein
database. This is currently available only in English but a Welsh Language
version is planned.
Historic Scotland provides a digital
version (in Shape File format) of the Scheduled Ancient Monument designations
for use within a GIS. This information provides an indication of the legally
protected extent, the statutory designation remaining within the paper
document. Listed building information is available via Pastmap (see below).
Pastmap (http://jura.rcahms.gov.uk/PASTMAP/start.jsp)
is a map enabled query system for Scottish National
Archaeological and Architectural Datasets (Listed Buildings, Scheduled Ancient
Monuments, National Monuments Record of Scotland, Historic Gardens and Designed
Landscapes and some Sites and Monuments Records). This site, curated for the
Scottish Ministers, is a partnership project between Historic Scotland and the
RCAHMS, and also incorporates a dataset managed by
Historic Scotland (Inventory of Historic Gardens and Designed
Landscapes).” Scottish Ministers have just transferred sole
responsibility for compiling and maintaining the Inventory to HS. Pastmap is being further
developed with the Scottish SMRs as active partners, and the site hosts GIS
data from several SMRs, with a view to having full coverage within 3 years
time. A link to HLA data is also available through this portal (See case study
in E.5.11)
In common
with the OS record cards and the National Archaeological Record (NAR), most
English SMRs were first compiled by trawling through information published in
specialist local and national journals, monographs and thematic gazetteers to
identify references to sites and monuments. Additional information was obtained
from local museum and society records and from documentary archives, including
the archives of local researchers, such as antiquarians, OS correspondents and
others. Documentary and cartographic archives remain valuable sources for HER
revision and enhancement. In Scotland where initial compilation in most cases
took place later than in England, it was generally undertaken via a download of
digital data from the National Monuments Record for Scotland.
It is not
possible to include a complete list of the many publications that are specific
to an area or research topic. However,
the following list provides a summary of documentary sources commonly used in HERs:
·
Local
monographs and journals
Antiquarian
monographs specific to the county
Domesday
book by county
English
Place Name Society: place names of the county
Monographs
specific to the county
Local archaeology
society(ies) journal series
Local
historical and local studies groups journal series
Leaflets and
pamphlets relating to local sites and areas
RCHME county
inventories
RCAHMS
Inventories
RCAHMW
county inventories
Victoria
County History: volume specific to the county
Pevsner's The Buildings of England and Wales series:
volume specific to the county
The Rutland Press Illustrated Guides Scotland (The Rutland Press is the publishing division of the Royal Incorporation
of Architects in Scotland)
·
Regional
monographs and journals
BAR British
Series: topical research related to the region
CBA Regional
Group publications
Regional
archaeology and history society journal series
·
National
monographs
National
thematic publications
Medieval
Towns
Margaray‘s Roman Roads of Britain