42 C O N T E X T 1 1 2 : N O V E M B E R 2 0 0 9 condition specifying recording and subsequent publication, will only rarely be granted approval’. Recording conditions need to be triggered for many classes of building, particularly where the vernacular and local industrial buildings tradition is geographically localised and poorly understood. Developing local knowledge through Policy H9.2 will be important. Recording conditions are necessary where original fabric is likely to be covered up by permitting piecemeal extensions to domestic properties. They are also important where small-scale loss can result in significant changes to vernacular buildings. If they are publicly accessible, records built up cumulatively will have value for future decision-making. In assessing the need for any building record, it is rarely possible to rely solely on the surviving pre-construction architect’s drawings, building control records, planning documents, construction design and management regulation information. It is too often assumed that these records will be accurate. In reality, they rarely include design. Minor, but often significant, modifications may be required to overcome issues that become apparent only during the construction and renovation phase of the development. Frequently, significant fabric may be revealed and lost during the construction and renovation processes. Only detailed and regular observation, and recording during intervention works, will provide a comprehensive and reliable record. With very rare exceptions, in this country we do not have the full tenement and building histories that are often available for properties in some continental cities from the medieval period onwards. In some authorities, the application of standard building recording conditions has been practiced since the 1970s. However, neighbouring authorities may have very differing approaches. Some rarely, if ever, require buildings to be recorded. The policies and guidance on investigation and recording of buildings are less consistently applied than those which concern archaeological remains (Policy HE13, Annex 2). Many of the issues addressed in the advice result from the inconsistent approach by local authorities that have very variable access to specialist historic environment advice. In many cases, authorities rely on staff to provide a broad spectrum of historic environment advice.Their professional background and training has not necessarily prepared them for this. The advice does not recognise the fact that, for most non-listed historic buildings and many listed buildings, the level of intervention can be recorded by owners and agents. This can be achieved through a simple photographic archive record. To ensure that such a record is made requires approvals to be conditioned. The archive generated is then deposited with the local record office, and details are sent to the local HER. Recording work that does not require detailed analytical interpretation could be undertaken by any number of professionals involved with buildings to a level 1 (English Heritage) standard. A note, using a nationally agreed proforma, would be provided to the local HER to update the historic building record for the property. This process has to be simple and efficient if we are to see a significant increase in buildings records and indexes being publicly available through the HER. This will ensure that hard-pressed historic environment conservation staff have a chance to assist in providing the benefits that are anticipated. An example of what can be achieved is provided by a recent uncaptioned picture in Context (March 2009, page 44). The photograph shows the south wall of the 13th century King John’s House in Romsey. The archaeological development, the visible historic changes and recent restoration work can be recognised. The changes were designed to avoid any confusion to future generations, allowing analytical and archaeological analysis to determine the correct sequence, independently of any surviving record. Paragraph 89 of English Heritage Advice is demonstrated in that image, but this may not have specifically resulted in a HER record. How many of us working in conserving the historic environment have made observations, taken pictures and mentally noted details – with all the best intentions – but failed to commit this information into a lasting record? Probably all of us, unless we have a few saints in our midst. I am not suggesting that archaeologists are saints. But they have an obsession with records and record-making, where invasive work ultimately destroys structures and contextual information. The archaeologist’s record-keeping obsession may result from insecurity: they always have to prove and demonstrate their findings, and publish material for peer-group scrutiny. However, archaeological material archives located in museum stores, on which their reports are based, are rarely easy for the public to access and scrutinise. In contrast, documentary records, including those relating to buildings, are often lodged in record offices and indexed in historic environment records. This makes this type of grey literature potentially more easily accessible. There is a worrying assumption in paragraphs 10 and 17 of English Heritage Advice that above-ground structures, with clearly visible external elevations, can be said to speak for themselves in a way that hidden-detail and below-ground features can not. The suggestion that they require a different approach is not helpful. Members of planning committees are often concerned only with aesthetics, and not with how a structure has evolved. This affects the level of detail that committees believe they need to arrive at an appropriate decision. A common assumption is that ‘as we can see it, we can understand it’. This is the downside of the view (English Heritage Advice 58) that the best source of information and understanding of our past is always the heritage asset. While this is substantially true, it denies the fact that many heritage assets are made up of complex layers of information. Some of these may be known only through earlier or past episodes of
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