Participating in the Past: Adopt-a-Monument

4.8.3 Adopt-a-Monument

A number of organisations including English Heritage, the Council for Scottish Archaeology and the National Trust, are encouraging an ‘adopt a monument’ approach where individuals or groups carry out regular visits to earthwork sites in particular, to monitor their condition. This kind of arrangement requires effective links between visiting monitors and the responsible agents such as Scheduled Monument Wardens. In some areas the concept has been extended to unscheduled sites, which gives great scope for raising local awareness and stimulating new local arrangements for conservation of field monuments. On occasion, interest in specific monuments has been sufficient for local groups to themselves undertake conservation work, often with grant support. The achievements of some of this work has been recognised by the British Archaeological Awards.