Issue 81

March/April 2005

Contents

news

Unique art in conservation dilemma

The tsunami that hit Britain

Is this the world's first snowshoe?

The digger's lot

First historic cockfighting pit found

Archaeology on-line

In Brief

features

A-hunting we will go - the extreme sport of hedge-laying
Jonathan Finch runs with hounds and finds more than foxes

The great stone circles project
New project has already made surprising discoveries

letters

Views and responses

CBA news

Headlines from the CBA office.

ISSN 1357-4442

Editor Mike Pitts

CBA news

Lobbying for archaeology

The new CBA stratgy identifies advocacy and campaigning for archaeology as a key role for the organisation. In the last few months CBA staff have participated in political events and lobbying meetings with national politicians at Westminster.

In mid November CBA director Mike Heyworth and education officer Don Henson met heritage minister Lord Mcintosh at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). We discussed issues particularly relating to participation in archaeology The minister was interested to hear about the CBA's views on widening participation in archaeology, particularly at a community level, although inevitably he was not able to promise extra funding to facilitate this. He was disappointed to hear that there were fewer opportunities for archaeology to thrive through extramural classes and continuing education. This is an area the CBA will be following up with the Department for Education and Skills as the shift to more vocational training has lead to a reduction in "liberal arts" subjects such as archaeology, despite their popularity.

York MP Hugh Bayley visited the CBA's new office in late November to be briefed on current issues. He was very sympathetic to points made on the need for more "joined-up thinking" within government on the benefits of archaeology across all policies. He promised to try and get a slot for the CBA to make representations to the parliamentary Labour party culture, media and sport committee, perhaps with Tony Robinson (until recently a member of the Labour party national executive committee) who has been a strong advocate for archaeology following up knowledge gained filming Time Team.

Mike Heyworth was also part of a small delegation from the Historic Environment Forum which met conservative party shadow culture minister John Whittingdale and shadow arts minister Hugo Swire in early December. Both MPs had only recently taken up these portfolios and so the wide-ranging meeting was useful background briefing for them. This was especially apparent at Heritage Link's national heritage debate a few days later when Lord McIntosh (Labour), John Whittingdale (Conservative) and Don Foster (Liberal Democrat) each spoke on the importance of heritage to their respective parties.

We were reminded how much more work is left to do, when the government's spending plans for 2005-08 were announced in mid-December. It was depressing to note that the historic environment fared particularly badly in comparison to sport and the arts in the DCMS plans. The one bright note was the announcement of continuing financial support for the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS), championed by the CBA and others, which will be funded through the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council once the current Heritage Lottery Fund grant runs out. The PAS and its staff now cover the whole of England and Wales. Further lobbying is now required to persuade the Scottish executive to adopt the scheme for Scotland (a move rejected by the executive in a recent report).

New CBA books

The CBA has published two new titles: a landscape-based overview of Welsh mining sites, and a comparative European study of underwater archaeology of the North Sea basin, diverse subjects reflecting the breadth of our research reports.

In Submarine Prehistoric Archaeology of the North Sea (ed NC Flemming), the proceedings of a conference organised by English Heritage, international specialists focus on important prehistoric sites and potential research and cooperative ventures with industry (Research Report 141 2004 ISBN 190277146X, £25).

Mountains & Orefie1ds (by Nigeljones, Mark Walters & Pat Frost) is the first archaeology book to focus on the fascinating study of the significant impact of mining on the Welsh landscape, and is well illustrated with maps and photos. The results will inform general mining studies as well as the historical archaeology of Wales (Research Report 142 2004 ISBN 1902771478, £19.95).

Whose heritage is it anyway?

The CBA is organising a two-day workshop for local community groups who wish to run their own heritage projects, at Castleford Trinity Methodist Church, West Yorkshire, on 11-12 March.

Archaeologists and heritage managers will be present to explore how community groups can more effectively support local heritage, and groups can showcase what they have achieved. There will be a few invited speakers, with most of the workshops based around activities to encourage participation. Attendance is free. The workshop is supported by the Countryside Agency and the Yorkshire Museums, Libraries and Archives Council, with funding from the English Heritage Yorkshire region. If successful, the CBA hopes to find funding to run a similar event in other parts of the country as part of our increasing focus on encouraging public participation in archaeology. Further details from Don Henson in the CBA office or at education@britarch.ac.uk.

New conservation co-ordinator

Gill Chitty is the CBA's new conservation coordinator, a post created following the reorganisation of the CBA's senior staff team after the appointment of Mike Heyworth as director.

Gill has specialised in research and evaluation of the historic environment, mostly for public organisations, and was previously the principal consultant with Hawkshead Conservation Associates. Her doctoral research at Lancaster University was on John Ruskin and conservation thinking. Gill discovered archaeology through the CBA when she was 14. "What impresses me", she says, "is that the CBA has managed all along to stay firmly engaged with people who want to take part in archaeology, especially young people". She will be taking up the post full-time in March.

Education conference

The biennial CBA archaeology and education conference will be held at the York St John College, York, from 1-4 September 2005. Planning is at a preliminary stage, but anyone interested in offering a session or paper please contact our education officer Don Henson, in the CBA office or at education@britarch.ac.uk. Further details were circulated with issue 82.

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