Introduction to the Project and the Region · 2016-09-15 · Cornwall and Devon are dominated by...

Introduction

1

Introduction to the Project and theRegion

Chris Webster with a contribution from David Dawson

1.1 Introduction to the ProjectThis document comprises the first two stages of aproject to prepare an Archaeological Research Frame-work for the South West of England (SWARF). TheResource Assessment (Chapters 1 to 9) aims todescribe the current state of knowledge of the arch-aeological resource in the historic counties of Glou-cestershire, Somerset, Wiltshire, Dorset, Devon andCornwall. It provides the basis for identifying gapsin our knowledge and thus research priorities for thefuture which form the Research Agenda (Chapter 10).It has already brought together a wide range of peoplewith an interest in the past of the region who other-wise seldom meet and will hopefully produce newpartnerships to carry forward research.

The Archaeological Research Framework is aresponse to a perceived lack of directed academicenquiry in the majority of archaeological projectstoday, brought about by the development-led natureof most of the work. Archaeology has come a longway from its origins as an intellectual pastime of thelanded and middle classes in the 19th century but,because of the way it developed after the SecondWorld War, the location of most archaeological workin Britain today is tied to the planning process anddevelopment. Since the formalisation of requirementsfor archaeological work in PPG16 (DoE 1990) therehas been a continual rise in the amount of archaeo-logical work in the region (see Figure 1.1 on the nextpage and Figure 1.13 on page 19). The popularityof television programmes devoted to archaeology,particularly Time Team, has never been higher andsuggests significant public interest in certain aspectsof the subject. Universities have also seen a signifi-cant rise (now falling again) in numbers of studentswhich has led to an increased amount of fieldwork,although this is often directed away from local projects

by the demands of the Research Assessment Exer-cise. Despite this increased interest and participation,however, the vast majority of archaeological investiga-tion is driven by the needs of construction projectsrather than research questions.

Recognising this situation in the early 1990s, EnglishHeritage surveyed the work of professional archaeol-ogists, resulting in the publication of Frameworks forour Past (Olivier 1996). This showed that there hadbeen work on national research priorities but therewere major gaps at more local levels: the levels atwhich the planning process works. It also criticised themethodology of previous frameworks which reflectedstrongly the interests of a limited number of authorsand omitted significant areas in which the authors hadno interests (Olivier 1996, 9). The result of thisappraisal was the development of a programme ofRegional Research Frameworks which would provide acontext within which the development control archae-ologist could consider work, sites outside the devel-opment control system could be evaluated and thefunding from developers used to best effect (Olivier1996, 2).

Methodology

The production of this Archaeological ResearchFramework was initiated by the SW group of theAssociation of Local Government Archaeological Offi-cers (SWALGAO) and English Heritage in 1996 whichled to the production of a number of draft researchobjectives and agreement of the wider archaeologicalcommunity to work towards a coherent RegionalResearch Framework for the SouthWest following themodel proposed in Frameworks for our Past.

In 2001 the project was re-awakened and itwas agreed that SWALGAO should draw up adraft proposal for English Heritage. Two seminars

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The Archaeology of South West England

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1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004

Figure 1.1: Annual numbers of all types of archaeological activity in the South West recorded by the ArchaeologicalInvestigations Project, Bournemouth University.

(at Exeter and Swindon in December 2001) wereattended by over 60 people, with 30 apologies, andproved to be an important first step in assessing thescope and scale of the Framework project. Invitationswere sent to a wide range of the heritage sector inthe South West and delegates attending the meetingcame from a wide variety of backgrounds - univer-sities, local authorities, contracting units, museums,local amenity societies and independent consultants.A project design was prepared by Bob Sydes (thenof Bath and North East Somerset Council) but hewas unable to complete the task for internal manage-ment reasons. A revised version was prepared byBob Croft of Somerset County Council and submittedto English Heritage in December 2003. Followingdiscussions with Kathy Perrin and Vanessa Straker ofEnglish Heritage in February 2004 a new version of theproject design was prepared, following more closelythe model established in other regions. This wasagreed and work began in the summer.The production of Research Frameworks falls intothree phases as set out in Frameworks for our Past. Thebasis is an assessment of previous work and currentknowledge, followed by the identification of gaps inknowledge and thus research priorities. The finalphase is the production of a strategy to address theseissues.

Phase 1: The Resource Assessment What weknow

Phase 2: The Research Agenda What we wouldlike to know

Phase 3: The Research Strategy How we aregoing to find out

The current document contains the results of thefirst two phases of the Research Framework; thestrategy will be circulated separately as it is intendedto be updated more frequently.

The Authors

The Research Framework, including the current docu-ment, has been written by archaeologists working in,or with an interest in, the archaeology of South WestEngland. They comprise local authority archaeolo-gists, academic archaeologists, archaeological contrac-tors and amateur archaeologists who have collabo-rated in 8 period-based groups to produce a reportunder the editorship of a Group Convenor. Theinitial membership of the groups was suggested bySWALGAO but was then supplemented by othersuggestions and volunteers. Input from others waswelcomed and, indeed, encouraged.The current document thus represents the collatedtexts from many authors and because of this it is notpossible to identify the individual authorship of a blockof text. The contributors to the text are given at thehead of each section of the Resource Assessment anda full list of those involved is given on pages xv–xvi.

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Introduction

The sections on the environmental background areslightly different. It did not prove possible to forma group of environmental specialists and thus almostall the work had to be undertaken by one person,Vanessa Straker. It was originally intended that thismaterial should be produced first and incorporatedinto the writing of the period chapters but, becausemost of the work could not be shared out, in the eventit was some of the last to be completed and most hashad to be inserted with only a limited amount of inte-gration.

The first version of the Resource Assessment waspresented at a two-day seminar in Bristol in May 2005and the Research Agenda a year later. Both meet-ings were open to all and allowed a wide range ofviews to be expressed, many of which are incorpo-rated into this final version. The report thus boastsnot only many authors but also a great many contribu-tors from all sections of the archaeological communityof the South West.

1.2 Introduction to the RegionThe region is that covered by the Government Officefor the South West and comprises the historic coun-ties of Gloucestershire, Somerset, Wiltshire, Dorset,Devon and Cornwall. For the most part the regionreflects the historic boundaries of the counties but anarea of Hampshire (around Christchurch) was trans-ferred to Dorset in 1974. The county of Avonwas also established in 1974 comprising the hinter-land of Bristol and Bath but this has now been spiltinto the unitary authorities of South Gloucestershire,Bristol, North Somerset, and Bath and North EastSomerset. Five other unitary authorities have alsobeen carved out of counties: Swindon, Bournemouth,Poole, Torbay and Plymouth. There are also twoNational Parks: Dartmoor in Devon, and Exmoorstraddling the Devon/Somerset border. Together theycover around 3% of the region.

South West England is the largest of the nineEnglish local government regions, covering an area of23,837 km2 (18.3% of England). It is also the leastcompact, stretching for over 360km with the Isles ofScilly a further 50km beyond Land’s End. Tewkesbury,in the north, is about the same distance from Scotlandas it is from Penzance in the West. Despite its size ithas the third lowest population but is one of the mostculturally diverse: from inner-city Bristol to the Islesof Scilly.

In the South West, the Historic Environment is oneof the main drivers for the economy largely throughtourism-linked activities. The archaeological and builtheritage of the region adds to the character and qualityof life of the South West. It will be important thatall future planning, development regeneration, agri-environment, social and cultural strategies acknowl-

edge and take account of the context of archaeologicalresearch frameworks.

1.2.1 Geology of the South West

The South West contains most types of geologicalformation known in Britain from the granite of Dart-moor to the recent peats and clays of the Severnestuary (Figure 1.2 on the next page).

Cornwall and Devon are dominated by the granitemoors: Dartmoor, Bodmin Moor and smaller areas,including West Penwith and the Isles of Scilly. Theseareas are also the source of the minerals that havehad a profound effect on life in the area. The higherlands are surrounded by lower rolling countryside,composed mostly of Devonian and Carboniferoussandstones. These rise to high moorland on Exmoor.

Much of Somerset and the Severn valley lies onTriassic marls and the mixed clays and limestones ofthe Lias. In the south the Greensand of the BlackdownHills continues into Devon to reach the coast. To theeast, in Dorset and eastern Somerset lies the ridgeof Jurassic limestone which also forms the Cotswoldsin the north. Much of Dorset lies on chalk withyounger sediments in the areas around Poole Harbour.The chalk continues north to form much of Wiltshire,including the high areas of Salisbury Plain and the Marl-borough Downs. Mendip and the area around Bristolcontain areas of carboniferous limestones with coalmeasures that also continue across the Severn to formthe Forest of Dean.

Many of the lower lying areas along the Severnare covered by recent marine sediments and peatsformed as the sea level fluctuated. The effects of thesechanges are represented further west by the rias ofthe north, and particularly, south coasts of Devon andCornwall. Many of these are choked in their higherreaches by alluvium caused by tin-streaming on themoors above.

1.2.2 Landscape Character

In 1996 English Nature and the Countryside Commis-sion (now combined as Natural England), with helpfrom English Heritage, produced a map of Englandthat depicts the natural and cultural dimensions ofthe landscape. Two categories were mapped: NaturalAreas and Countryside Character. Natural Areas arebiogeographic zones that reflect the geological foun-dation, the natural systems and processes and thewildlife in different parts of England. The CountrysideCharacter Areas sometimes follow the Natural Areasboundaries and are described as “unique in terms of acombination of physiographic land use, historical andcultural attributes”. Concerns about the simplisticnature of the historical and cultural attributes used todefine these areas led to English Heritage’s HistoricLandscape Character analysis (below). The CCAs

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South West Archaeological Research Framework

Tertiary clays and gravels

Jurassic Clays

Chalk and Greensand

Jurasic Limestone

Coal Measures and Limestone

Igneous and metamorphic

Devonian and Carboniferous

Permian, Triassic and Lower Lias Blackdown HillsBlackdown HillsBlackdown HillsBlackdown HillsBlackdown HillsBlackdown HillsBlackdown HillsBlackdown HillsBlackdown Hills

Bristol CoalfieldBristol CoalfieldBristol CoalfieldBristol CoalfieldBristol CoalfieldBristol CoalfieldBristol CoalfieldBristol CoalfieldBristol Coalfield

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sForest of DeanForest of DeanForest of DeanForest of DeanForest of DeanForest of DeanForest of DeanForest of DeanForest of Dean

DartmoorDartmoorDartmoorDartmoorDartmoorDartmoorDartmoorDartmoorDartmoorBodminBodminBodminBodminBodminBodminBodminBodminBodmin

ExmoorExmoorExmoorExmoorExmoorExmoorExmoorExmoorExmoor

PenwithPenwithPenwithPenwithPenwithPenwithPenwithPenwithPenwith

Figure 1.2: Simplified geology of the South West.

do, however provide a broad overview of landscapetypes and are shown in Figure 1.3 on the facing page.The regional boundary is also shown to indicate howpoorly the region is defined, on its landward side, bythe characterisation. There are 159 CCAs defined,of which 40 (25%) lie in whole, or part, in the SouthWest. As the region covers only 18.3% of the landarea of England this provides another indication of thediversity of the South West.

1.2.3 History of RegionalGovernment in the South West

The origins of the current region lies with the militarygovernment imposed by Cromwell in 1655. Concernover potential rebellion led to the creation of a seriesof county militias which were grouped into regionalassociations. On 2nd August John Desborough wasgiven command of the militia association coveringCornwall, Devon, Somerset, Dorset, Wiltshire andGloucestershire with the rest of the country beingdivided up into a further 9 associations a week later.In September it was decided that the heads of theassociations were to be called Major-Generals, wouldhave (poorly defined) civilian powers and were to befunded by a new tax system (the decimation tax).

The system was deeply unpopular, not just becauseof the tax but also as many of the Major-Generalsfollowed a strongly puritan agenda which attemptedto rid the existing systems of local government of“ungodly” men. Despite attempts to rig the 1656 elec-tion, the parliament that assembled voted in January1657 against making the decimation tax permanentand, deprived of the funding base, the system wasabolished by Cromwell (Durston 2001), only to berevived in the years following the First World War.

The involvement of the whole population in the wareffort was seen to require military-style government,and the threat of revolution (on the Russian model)was considered very real. The Emergency Powers Act1920 enabled the appointment of District Commis-sioners to oversee this and the act was used to declarea state of emergency during the 1926 General Strike.The military district commanders were ordered toprovide troops if the commissioners requested but inthe event few of the powers were required. In 1938this became the basis of the Civil Defence EmergencyScheme, again based on Regional Commissioners withwide powers, which was made public in February1939 and became operational on 25th August. Thecommissioners remained in post until 1945 and weremainly involved with air-raid precautions although they

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Introduction


Countryside

Character Areas

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132132132132132132132132132

Figure 1.3: Countryside Character Areas

95 Northamptonshire Uplands 128 South Hampshire Lowlands 145 Exmoor96 Dunsmore and Feldon 129 Thames Basin Heaths 146 Vale of Taunton and Quantock Fringes98 Clun and North West Herefordshire Hills 130 Hampshire Downs 147 Blackdowns99 Black Mountains and Golden Valley 131 New Forest 148 Devon Redlands100 Herefordshire Lowlands 132 Salisbury Plain and West Wiltshire Downs 149 The Culm101 Herefordshire Plateau 133 Blackmoor Vale and the Vale of Wardour 150 Dartmoor103 Malvern Hills 134 Dorset Downs and Cranborne Chase 151 South Devon104 South Herefordshire and Over Severn 135 Dorset Heaths 152 Cornish Killas105 Forest of Dean and Lower Wye 136 South Purbeck 153 Bodmin Moor106 Severn and Avon Vales 137 Isle of Portland 154 Hensbarrow107 Cotswolds 138 Weymouth Lowlands 155 Carnmenellis108 Upper Thames Clay Vales 139 Marshwood and Powerstock Vales 156 West Penwith109 Midvale Ridge 140 Yeovil Scarplands 157 The Lizard116 Berkshire and Marlborough Downs 141 Mendip Hills 158 Isles of Scilly117 Avon Vale 142 Somerset Levels and Moors 159 Lundy118 Bristol, Avon Valleys and Ridges 143 Mid-Somerset Hills127 Isle of Wight 144 Quantock Hills

would have been able to take over the full (emer-gency) powers of central government if needed. TheSouth Western region (also known as Region 7) wasgoverned from Bristol and covered the same area asDesborough’s association and the current region withthe exception of Dorset which lay in Region 6 (Camp-bell 1982; O’Brien 1955).

Three years after the system had been disman-tled it was reactivated by the Civil Defence Act 1948when it was decided that each region would havea purpose-built headquarters, a “War Room”, toprovide protected accommodation for the RegionalCommissioner and his staff. To reduce the dangerfrom bombing the buildings were constructed justoutside the cities and that for Region 7 survivesat Brislington, near Bristol. By the time all wereconstructed in the later 1950s it was apparent that

the threat from the hydrogen bomb meant thatplans to coordinate relief to civilians were no longertenable. Accordingly a new system of Regional Seatsof Government was set up in the hope that anadministrative system would survive a nuclear attack.The headquarters were moved away from populationcentres and Region 7 would have been governed froma converted Rotor project radar station, known asHope Cove but in fact situated on nearby Bolt Headin southern Devon.

During the 1960s a system of Sub-Regional Head-quarters was proposed in which the Bristol WarRoom and a former Anti-Aircraft Operations Roomat Ullenwood in Gloucestershire were included. Bythe late 1960s the system had changed again so thatonly the sub-regions were provided with headquar-ters, called Sub-Regional Controls, based at Hope

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Site locations from the council records of Cornwall, Plymouth City, D

evon, Exeter City, Somerset, D

orset, W

iltshire, N

orth Somerset, Bath & N

orth East So

merset, Bristol City, South G

loucestershire, G

loucestershire, G

loucester City

Figure 1.4: World Heritage Sites in the South West.

6

Introduction

Cove (S-RC 7.1) and Ullenwood (S-RC 7.2). It islikely that Dorset joined Region 7 in a reorganisa-tion of 1973. Civil defence was run down in the1970s but increasing tension in towards the end ofthe decade led the Conservative government of 1979to propose the creation of 17 new protected head-quarters, to be known as Regional Government Head-quarters (RGHQ). Under this plan Hope Cove andUllenwood were upgraded and remained in use until1985 when construction started on a new RGHQ atChilmark. Following the collapse of the Soviet Unionin 1992 the system of planned emergency governmentwas run down (McCamley 2002; Cocroft and Thomas2003).

Below this regional layer, local government retaineda structure inherited from the last quarter of the19th century until the reorganisation of 1974. Thissaw the creation of a two tier structure of countiesand districts and a new county of Avon in the majorpopulation centre around Bristol and Bath. In themid-1990s it was proposed to remove the two tiersystem but, in the event, this occurred in a piece-meal fashion. New “Unitary” authorities were createdfrom the former districts within Avon, together withPlymouth, Torbay, Poole, Bournemouth and Swindon.

The regional emergency government structure wasreused when government regional offices were setup in 1994 following the Maastricht Treaty of 1992which foresaw a “Europe of the Regions”. This wasfollowed by the creation of further regional organisa-tions such as the Regional Development Agencies in1998 and the regionalisation of organisations such asEnglish Heritage. An unelected regional assembly wasintended to be followed by an elected body (and singletier local government) but the rejection of this systemby a referendum in the North East in 2004 put this onhold for the foreseeable future.

1.2.4 Historic EnvironmentDesignations

World Heritage Sites

The South West contains 4 of the 17 World HeritageSites designated by UNESCO in England: Stonehenge,Avebury and Associated Sites (1986), The City of Bath(1987), Dorset and East Devon Coast (2001) and Corn-wall and West Devon Mining Landscape (2006), shownon Figure 1.4 on the preceding page. Of these,Dorset and East Devon Coast is included for geolog-ical interest but the designation of the others is basedon their historic environment. More details of WorldHeritage Sites are available at http://whc.unesco.org/pg.cfm?cid=1

Scheduled Monuments

The South West contains over a third of all the Sched-uled Monuments in England although it covers only

about one fifth of the area (Figure 1.5 on the followingpage). According to the Record of Scheduled Monu-ments maintained by English Heritage there were 6972Monuments (on 22/07/2004) from a total of about19,000 (36.7%). Table 1.1 shows the break-down ofthese by local authority across the region.

Authority Monuments

Devon 1718Cornwall 1339Wiltshire 1299Dorset 1015Somerset 602Gloucestershire 464Isles of Scilly 238North Somerset 66Bath and North East Somerset 56Swindon 52Plymouth 36South Gloucestershire 31Bristol 24Poole 16Torbay 13Bournemouth 3

6972

Table 1.1: Numbers of Scheduled Monuments by localauthorities (22/07/2004).

Much of the disparity in numbers between localauthorities is obviously based on their vastly differingareas. The following table lists the number of monu-ments per square kilometre in each authority. Theaverage for the region is 0.29 as shown by the linein Table 1.2 on page 11. The high figure for Plymouthis due to a preference by the navy for historic buildingsto be Scheduled rather than Listed.Of these 6972 monuments, 4929 (70.7%) havebeen scheduled (or rescheduled) by the MonumentsProtection Programme. The others retain their earlier(often much earlier) documentation which in somecases amounts only to a name and an outline map.

Listed Buildings

There were 88,078 Listed Buildings in the region inJuly 2004 as shown in the distribution map (Figure 1.6on page 9). This represents 23.8% of the c. 370,000 inEngland, again above the expected value for a region ofthis size (18.3% by area). In many ways the distributioncomplements that of the Scheduled Monuments withobvious gaps on the moors and other areas wheresettlement is sparse. In other areas, for examplethe area between Exeter and Exmoor, it is less clearwhy there are fewer Listed Buildings than elsewhere.The pattern in Wiltshire is particularly clear with thebuildings clearly indicating settlement along the rivervalleys.

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Site locations from English Heritage

Key

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Figure 1.5: Scheduled Monuments in the South West (22/07/2004).

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Introduction



Key

Grade I

Grade II*

Grade II

Figure 1.6: Listed Buildings in the South West (July 2004).

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Authority Total Grade I Grade II* Grade II

Devon 30,246 392 1106 17,462Gloucestershire 12,810 257 696 11,812Cornwall 12,356 217 572 11,558Wiltshire 12,231 271 680 11,163Somerset 11,590 309 762 10,492Dorset 9661 250 480 8679Bath and North East Somerset 3034 99 128 2708Bristol 2093 52 208 1833South Gloucestershire 2030 44 119 1867North Somerset 1040 37 76 918Torbay 859 5 30 824Plymouth 738 24 90 624Swindon 642 14 27 601Bournemouth 356 3 17 219Poole 224 8 17 199Isles of Scilly 129 4 8 117

88,078 1986 4987 81,105

Table 1.3: Listed Buildings by local authority (July 2004).

Authority Total Grade I Grade II* Grade II

Bristol 19.52 0.48 1.94 17.10Torbay 13.36 0.07 0.46 12.82Plymouth 9.74 0.31 1.18 8.23Bath and North East Somerset 8.64 0.28 0.36 7.71Bournemouth 7.26 0.06 0.34 4.47Isles of Scilly 5.54 0.17 0.34 5.03Gloucestershire 4.81 0.09 0.26 4.44Devon 4.63 0.06 0.16 2.67South Gloucestershire 4.19 0.09 0.24 3.86Dorset 3.78 0.09 0.18 3.39Wiltshire 3.75 0.08 0.20 3.42

Cornwall 3.51 0.06 0.16 3.28Somerset 3.37 0.09 0.22 3.05Poole 3.19 0.11 0.24 2.83North Somerset 2.88 0.10 0.21 2.54Swindon 2.84 0.06 0.11 2.66

Table 1.4: Density of Listed Buildings by local authority, ordered by total density per km2 (July 2004).

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Introduction

Authority Total per km2

Isles of Scilly 238 10.23Plymouth 36 0.76Wiltshire 1299 0.40Dorset 1015 0.40Cornwall 1339 0.38

Devon 1718 0.26Swindon 52 0.23Poole 16 0.23Bristol 24 0.22Torbay 13 0.20North Somerset 66 0.18Somerset 602 0.18Gloucestershire 464 0.17Bath and NE Somerset 56 0.16South Gloucestershire 31 0.06Bournemouth 3 0.06

6972

Table 1.2: Density of Scheduled Monuments by localauthority (22/07/2004).

The numbers of Listed Buildings in each localauthority are shown in Table 1.3 on the facing page.Although the density of the distribution map obscuresthis, the Listed Buildings are primarily urban as isshown in Table 1.4 on the preceding page where thesmall urban authorities rise up the rankings becauseof the density of buildings in their area. The averagedensity over the whole region is 3.70 buildings perkm2 as shown by the line in Table 1.4. The table isordered by the total density but examination of thedata split by grade shows some interesting anomalies,for instance the high numbers of Grade II* buildings inPlymouth and the low numbers of Grade I in Torbay,when compared to the overall density.

Registered Battlefields

There are 8 battlefields entered in the English HeritageRegister of Battlefields out of a total of 43 (18.6%)which is only marginally above the number expectedfor a region of this size (18.3% by area). All the battlesoccurred during the Civil War with the exceptionsof Tewkesbury (1471) and Sedgemoor, the last battlefought on English soil in 1685. The locations of thebattlefields are shown in Figure 1.7 on the followingpage.

Registered Parks and Gardens

The South West contains 292 (18.4%) of the 1587sites on the English Heritage Register of Parks andGardens which is very close to the expected valuefor a region of this size (18.3% by area). The locationsof the sites are shown in Figure 1.8 on page 13. Thenumbers of registered sites per authority is shown in

Authority Battlefields

Cornwall 2Gloucestershire 2Somerset 2South Gloucestershire 1Wiltshire 1

8

Table 1.5: Entries in the register of Battlefields, by localauthority (July 2004).

in Table 1.6 and the density in Table 1.7 on page 15.

Authority Total I II* II

Gloucestershire 54 7 30 17Devon 40 4 25 11Somerset 38 5 22 11Wiltshire 36 5 21 10Cornwall 36 3 21 12Dorset 31 2 14 15Bath and NE Somerset 13 1 9 3North Somerset 8 5 3Bristol 8 4 4Torbay 6 5 1South Gloucestershire 6 1 2 3Plymouth 6 5 1Poole 3 2 1Swindon 2 2Bournemouth 2 2Isles of Scilly 1 1

290 29 167 94

Table 1.6: Entries in the register of Parks and Gardens,by local authority (July 2004).

Other English Heritage National Programmes

Urban Archaeological Databases Seven of theregion’s historic towns have UADs as shownon Figure 1.9 on page 14. The current status ofthese projects is shown in Table 1.8 on page 15. Thedatabases are usually situated in the planning depart-ments of the local authority and divorced from thesurrounding HER (see below). They also cover onlya rectangular area around the “historic core” of thetown so that there is often an area around this that isless well recorded.

Extensive Urban Surveys This English Heritageproject covered the smaller urban areas and did notattempt to catalogue all urban deposits in the waythat a UAD did. The projects researched previouswork in the towns and attempted to characterisethe buried archaeology into areas, mapped by GIS.The location of the towns covered by the survey isshown on Figure 1.9 on page 14. The reports for

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Figure 1.7: Registered battlefields in the South West (July 2004).

12

Introduction



Key

Gra

de I

Gra

de II

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de II

Figure 1.8: Registered Parks and Gardens in the South West (July 2004).

13


Sou

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Key HLC

NMP

UAD

EUS

EUS (in progress)

Figure 1.9: English Heritage national projects in the South West Region.

14

Introduction

Authority per km2

Torbay 0.09Plymouth 0.08Bristol 0.07Isles of Scilly 0.04Poole 0.04Bournemouth 0.04Bath and North East Somerset 0.04North Somerset 0.02Gloucestershire 0.02South Gloucestershire 0.01

Dorset 0.01Somerset 0.01Wiltshire 0.01Cornwall 0.01Swindon 0.01Devon 0.01

Table 1.7: Density of entries in the register of Parks andGardens, by local authority (July 2004).

Town UAD status

Cirencester Paper-based record onlyGloucester Data collection completedBristol Data collection and assessment

completedBath Data collection complete to 1998,

assessment in draft, strategy nearlycomplete, Planning Guidanceadopted.

Exeter Data collection completedPlymouth Data collection completedDorchester Data collection almost completed

Table 1.8: Status of UADs in the South West

Somerset have been published on the web (http://www.somerset.gov.uk/heritage) as have thoseof the similar project in Cornwall, targeting 19 townsthat are likely to be affected by regeneration projects(http://www.historic-cornwall.org.uk). Theothers exist only as “grey literature”.

Historic Landscape Characterisation HLCprojects funded by English Heritage have beenundertaken over the northern and western partsof the region (Figure 1.9 on the preceding page).Cornwall was one of the areas used to develop themethodology and because of this, is in a slightlydifferent form to those carried out later. Each HLCproject was then modified locally, so that a there is adegree of consistency lacking across the region.

National Mapping Programme The NationalMapping Programme (NMP) grew out of RoyalCommission on the Historical Monuments of England

projects to map large areas of archaeological remainsvisible on aerial photographs. Following pilot projectsthe programme started in 1990. Some of the work iscarried out by staff in the National Monuments Recordwhilst other work is carried out by local authorities,such as Cornwall and Gloucestershire. The areascovered in the South West are shown in Figure 1.9 onthe facing page and these comprise 35% of the regionalthough work is ongoing in some areas. In additionWiltshire County Council has had a long establishedpractice of mapping aerial photographic evidence.

1.2.5 Historic Environment RecordsThe entire region is covered by local authority basedHistoric Environment Records — some retain theoriginal name of Sites and Monuments Record (orRegister in the case of Devon). For the sake ofbrevity they will usually be referred to as HERs inthe following text. Most of the HERs were set upin the 1970s and were based in the county tier oflocal authorities created in 1974. Subsequent reor-ganisation has seen this structure broken; some ofthe Unitary Authorities created in the 1990s havetaken over their part of the record whilst others haveentered service level agreements with their formercounty as shown in Table 1.9.

Authority HER

Gloucestershire HERSouth Gloucester HER (former Avon)Bristol HER (former Avon)North Somerset HER (former Avon)Bath and NE Somerset HER (former Avon)Somerset HERWiltshire HERSwindon Wiltshire HERDorset HERBournemouth Dorset HERPoole Dorset HERDevon HERTorbay HERPlymouth HERCornwall HERIsles of Scilly Joint service with Corn-

wall HER

Table 1.9: HER provision in the South West

Exeter and Gloucester maintain their own HERsbased around the Urban Archaeological Database.Dartmoor National Park has recently agreed to main-tain its own HER as part of a database hosted byDevon County Council. Exmoor’s situation is compli-cated as it is covered by the Devon and SomersetHERs and also has a database supplied by EnglishHeritage, originally populated with a copy of theNational Monuments Record data for the park.

15



Site locations from the council records of Cornwall, Plymouth City, D

evon, Exeter City, Somerset, D

orset, W

iltshire, N

orth Somerset, Bath & N

orth East So

merset, Bristol City, South G

loucestershire, G

loucestershire, G

loucester City

Figure 1.10: All sites recorded in the Historic Environment Records for the South West (2004).

16

Introduction

HER period representationas fraction of total

1

PalaeolithicMesolithicNeolithicBronze AgeIron AgeRomanEarly MedievalMedievalPost MedievalIndustrialModern

Figure 1.11: Representation of periods in HERs as a fraction of the total in each HER (2004).

As part of the SWARF project, data wascollected from the HERs, classified into periodsand by monument class (as defined in the EnglishHeritage Thesaurus of Monument Types, avail-able at http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/thesaurus/. The data returned comprised over172,000 records of sites, stray finds and buildings. Itshould be noted that multi-period sites will appearmultiple times and the number of unique locations isjust over 110,000. Using this measure, the numbers ofsites recorded by each record is shown in Table 1.10and the density of sites in Table 1.11. The averagedensity is 4.61, shown by a line on the table.

Distribution maps of HER records by periodcan be found in the summary reports preparedfollowing discussions with local authority archaeolo-gists (Webster 2004a;b;c;d;e;f;g;h;i;j). Not all HERsrecord the same information (for example the Wilt-shire HER does not record systematically sites morerecent than 1700) but Figure 1.10 on the precedingpage shows the total distribution of sites. Much ofthe detail is obscured by the large numbers but somepatterns do stand out. The high density of sites inNorth Somerset, for example, is due to an activeDefence of Britain Project and the recent survey work

HER Records

Devon 56,295Gloucestershire 35,548Cornwall 29,588Somerset 14,196Dorset 10,285South Gloucestershire 9037North Somerset 6404Wiltshire 4268Bristol 2336Plymouth 1933Bath and North East Somerset 1722Torbay 1355Exeter 900Gloucester 545

Table 1.10: Numbers of uniquely located monumentrecords in the HERs (2004).

in the Forest of Dean is also apparent. The differencein site density across the Devon/Cornwall boundary isa result of the National Mapping Programme of aerialphotography in Cornwall.The HERs also have markedly different profileswhen the number of sites per period is examined. This

17


HER period representationSites per sq km

15

PalaeolithicMesolithicNeolithicBronze AgeIron AgeRomanEarly MedievalMedievalPost MedievalIndustrialModern

Figure 1.12: Representation of periods in HERs by area (2004).

HER Records per km2

Plymouth 25.52Bristol 21.80Torbay 21.09South Gloucestershire 18.69North Somerset 17.75Gloucestershire 13.36Devon 8.63Cornwall 8.42Bath and North East Somerset 4.91

Somerset 4.13Dorset 4.02Wiltshire 1.31

Table 1.11: Density per km2 of uniquely located recordsin the HERs (2004).

is shown in Figure 1.11 on the preceding page and isa reflection of both the archaeological resource andthe recording policy of the HER. Dorset and Wilt-shire show a clear bias towards the prehistoric ascompared to the more westerly HERs and contain

very few monuments more recent than the Medievalperiod. In contrast, a city record such as Plymouth’sor Bristol’s contains almost entirely Post-Medieval toModern monument records. The same data is shownin Figure 1.12 as numbers of sites per square kilo-metre. Again the difference between urban and ruralareas is obvious.

1.2.6 Planning-related Archaeology

The amount of planning-related archaeology can beassessed from the work of the English Heritagefunded Archaeological Investigations Project (AIP) atBournemouth University which has carried out anannual count by visiting each HER and contracting unitin England. Just under 8000 records were returnedfrom the AIP for the South West which show the fastgrowth in the amount of archaeological work acrossthe region (Figure 1.1 on page 2) during the 1990s anda decrease since the turn of the millennium.

The data can also be presented as a distribution map(Figure 1.13 on the next page) showing the types ofactivity across the region. This appears to show some

18

Introduction

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Figure 1.13: Distribution of archaeological activity across the region. Note that “Environmental Statement” includes whatwould usually be called monitoring during development (or “watching brief ”). Data from the Archaeological InvestigationsProject, Bournemouth University.

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Numbers per year230

19881989199019911992199319941995199619971998199920002001200220032004

Figure 1.14: Archaeological activity through time across local authorities. Note that the authorities in the former Avonarea, Plymouth and Torbay did not come into being until the mid 1990s. Data from the Archaeological Investigations Project,Bournemouth University.

sharp differences in curatorial practice, for examplethe relatively low numbers of “Environmental State-ments” (which appears to include “watching briefs”in AIP terminology) in Devon compared to adja-cent areas. Whereas “post-determination and non-planning” appears to show the opposite. It is possiblethat this is due to differences in recording practice (thesame AIP recorder tended to go to each HER) butthis seems less likely than differences in approach bythe local authority archaeologists. Curiously a similarpattern is observable in Swindon which (apart from ashort period) is covered by Wiltshire County Counciland might be expected to show an identical pattern tothe surrounding area.

Otherwise the distribution across local authoritiesis similar to others presented here; there is morework in the urban authorities because of the concen-tration of archaeological deposits and the amount ofdevelopment. The breakdown is shown in Table 1.12

on the facing page and is shown as density inTable 1.13. The average density for the region is 0.33per km2 and shown as a dotted line in the figure.The final illustration (Figure 1.14) shows the numberof activities through time in the various local author-ities which again shows some interesting differences,presumably reflecting development pressures.

1.2.7 Museums

There are 88 archaeological collections in the SouthWest containing over 6.3 million items. For histor-ical reasons, the major collections – those that wouldalmost certainly comprise the dispersed national arch-aeological collection in the South West – are heldin the county, city and town museums founded byphilosophical, archaeological and natural history soci-eties in the early to mid-19th century. They comprisethe Royal Institution of Cornwall (Truro), PlymouthCity Museum, the Museum of Barnstaple and North

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Introduction

Total BuildingSurvey

Assess-ment

Environ-mentalStatement

EstatePlan

Evaluation Geo-physicalSurvey

Other

Gloucestershire 1933 13 262 886 21 638 37 76Somerset 1246 18 80 683 19 373 29 44Wiltshire 1105 20 102 384 4 502 35 58Cornwall 884 73 233 303 122 90 32 31Devon 839 64 264 22 29 142 23 295Dorset 832 10 151 282 6 328 24 31Bristol 462 51 170 116 1 98 8 18Plymouth 174 16 38 6 63 51BaNES 162 28 29 56 5 37 3 4S Gloucestershire 153 14 38 10 2 46 10 33North Somerset 94 4 30 1 4 29 3 23Torbay 31 5 11 5 10

Table 1.12: Numbers of archaeological activities recorded by the Archaeological Investigations Project (to the end of 2004).“Other” includes post-determination and non-planning work.

Total BuildingSurvey

Assess-ment

Environ-mentalStatement

EstatePlan

Evaluation Geo-physicalSurvey

Other

Bristol 4.32 0.48 1.59 1.08 0.01 0.92 0.07 0.17Plymouth 2.29 0.21 0.50 0.08 0.83 0.67Gloucestershire 0.72 0.10 0.33 0.01 0.24 0.01 0.03Torbay 0.48 0.08 0.17 0.08 0.16BaNES 0.45 0.08 0.08 0.15 0.01 0.10 0.01 0.01Somerset 0.36 0.01 0.02 0.20 0.01 0.11 0.01 0.01

Wiltshire 0.32 0.01 0.03 0.11 0.14 0.01 0.02S Gloucestershire 0.32 0.03 0.08 0.02 0.09 0.02 0.07Dorset 0.31 0.06 0.11 0.12 0.01 0.01North Somerset 0.26 0.01 0.08 0.01 0.08 0.01 0.06Cornwall 0.25 0.02 0.07 0.09 0.03 0.03 0.01 0.01Devon 0.13 0.01 0.04 0.02 0.05

Table 1.13: Density of archaeological activities per km2 recorded by the Archaeological Investigations Project (to the end of2004).

Devon, Torquay Museum, Exeter City Museum,Dorset County Museum (Dorchester), SomersetCounty Museum (Taunton), Bristol City Museum,Gloucester City Museum, Wiltshire Heritage Museum(Devizes) and Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum.Other significant excavated collections are held atthe Corinium Museum (Cirencester), Roman BathsMuseum (Bath), University of Bristol SpelaeologicalSociety, Glastonbury Abbey, Wells Cathedral andWells Museum with smaller collections of local signif-icance held by a scatter of local museums all over theregion.

Many, those with dedicated archaeological staff,were designated archaeological repositories underthe late-lamented, English Heritage/Museums andGalleries Commission scheme. Only the archaeo-logical collections per se of the Roman Baths Museumand the two Wiltshire museums designated as of

national significance in the Museums, Libraries andArchives Council (MLA) scheme. All are still collectingand are participating in the Portable AntiquitiesRecording Scheme.

Taken together, they care for a major archaeologicalresource which has limitless potential for informingfuture research:

• cited archives of previous fieldwork and excava-tion are important points of reference• unpublished material also has enormous poten-tial both for publication in its own right and forselective publication and reference.

The kinds of outcome can be seen in:

1. informing interpretation and publication of newfieldwork (see Coleman-Smith and Pearson1988)

2. reinterpreting former fieldwork (see Coles andMinnitt 1995 and Shell 2000 as a good examples,

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widely different in scope and scale, of the elucida-tion derived from reinterpreting old data and theassemblages of artefacts preserved in a museumcollection)

3. the publication of corpuses of key referencematerial (see Annable and Simpson 1964 or Saun-ders 2001, one of the recent series published bythe Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum)

4. continuing research programmes such as that ofthe SouthWest Implement Petrology Committeewith its contributions to stone axe studies

5. the foundation of a strategy for regional studies(see Mellor 1994)

6. the exhibition and other interpretation of arch-aeological assemblages and reference material forthe immediate benefit of the publicCollections also exist outside museums. Some arein the care of other types of heritage organisationand, as such, in many cases adhere to the minimumstandards of care and accessibility of the Accred-itation Scheme of the MLA. Others are awaitingpossible transfer to museums. The value of museumcollections is highly dependent on continuing publicfunding, general support and use by the archaeo-logical community as well as adherence to the guid-ance, subscribed to by all archaeological organisations,which is intended to ensure archives are preservedand made accessible to the public for study, educationand enjoyment.To illustrate these points in further detail, thesignificance of this resource to the Post-Medieval andModern periods can be summarised as follows:

Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery contains signif-icant Post-Medieval and Modern, particularly indus-trial and maritime, collections. The three other majorarchaeological Post-Medieval and numismatic collec-tions of both excavated assemblages and type refer-ence material are held by the Royal Albert MemorialMuseum, Exeter, Somerset County Museums Service,Taunton, and the Museum of North Devon, Barn-staple. There are smaller but significant collectionsin Plymouth and all the main county and a number ofsmaller museums such as Glastonbury Abbey, PooleMuseum andWells Museum. Whilst there is significantamount of material published (see Section 14.1 onpage 214), there is a substantial amount that remainseither unprocessed or only partially processed andunpublished. A particular embarrassment of inter-national proportions is the material excavated frompottery production sites in North Devon where sofar only one, at Great Torrington, is being addressed.For the Modern period, material is scattered overthe region although there are relatively few systematiccollections such as the Pitt-Rivers collection at Salis-bury, the Devon life collections at Torquay and theindustrial and maritime collections at Bristol. Mili-tary history and technology is well represented by

a network of museums across the region of whichthe Tank Museum at Bovington and the Fleet AirArm Museum are quasi-national institutions. Again,apart from military hardware, relatively few systematicstudies have been published. For this period, there isa number of assemblages of artefacts that have beenconsciously preserved in situ. Most are domestic incharacter – almost all associated with the great housesof the wealthy in the care of a number of organisations,principally the National Trust. Some are working envi-ronments such as Geevor Mine in Cornwall and Stick-lepath Foundry in Devon where not only machinerybut the paraphernalia of working life have been kept.Whilst for both periods publication is rare – PeterBrears’ study of the Devon life collections at Torquayis an outstanding exception – the development of theinternet offers greater scope for publication, bothin terms of checklists of excavation and fieldworkarchives and in provision of listings of type referencecollections, such as the Barton collection of Europeanvernacular pottery (Brears 1998; Dawson 2005).

Acknowledgements Section 1.2.7 on museumswas prepared by David Dawson and draws upon infor-mation from SWMC (2000) and SWMC (2002).

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