C O N T E X T 1 1 2 : N O V E M B E R 2 0 0 9 43 recording. It is not uncommon that significant features may have subsequently become obscured from view since previous campaigns of building work where recording has taken place. A significant challenge in terms of HERs and records is that the advice does not recognise the existing disparate range of records that relate to the historic built environment generated by local authorities. These are rarely if ever indexed, nor easily available to the public. Some of these records might include the following: • topic and thematic building surveys and files for farm or industrial buildings and vernacular materials such as thatch or cob, buildings at risk surveys • photographs from past site visits during openingup work, perhaps even a long-established building photographic library by parish historic building grant files with notes, images and records • general historic environment gazetteer files, from past conservation area designation and building at risk surveys, or from village or urban design work • information in planning application files, often now being scanned by external staff with little concern for long-term archiving of contents, and often weeded of original photographs, sales particulars and supporting documents seen as of little importance • building control records going back to the 1870s, often not indexed where they survive, and sometimes requiring fees to be paid to obtain access - in some local authorities, access to such records is controlled to the extent that building control offices require the current property owner’s permission to allow records to be viewed or copied • records from housing officers or environmental health services, relating to closure orders including information possibly from the 1930s onwards, often with pictures or notes of long-since demolished or radically altered historic buildings • grey literature reports and publications of an ephemeral nature by archaeologists, architects, surveyors and other professionals involved with buildings. Given this wealth of information, usually located within different local government services, I wonder how historic environment records might deal with indexing the information that already exists. How will local government develop a holistic approach to its own archives, and ultimately an accessible public record? There is a clear need to undertake a national survey of the surviving quantity and quality of these records. This must be done before it is too late, and before weeding and discarding has taken place as part of scanning files to free up space. This might be the type of joint project that the IHBC and the Association of Local Government Archaeological Officers could undertake, funded by English Heritage. A start could be made by HER officers and their professional working groups. Through dialogue with those responsible for the conservation of the historic environment, they could rapidly establish and accrue the benefits of the revised PPS15 and the supporting advice. This raises the issue of consistency and standards for HERs that English Heritage will be publishing and promoting. It also raises the issue of consistency for written schemes of investigation, so that the current variability and inconsistency are minimised by the development of professional standards. The IHBC must address the data standards for conservation work, and the potential for greater consistency in providing conservation advice. Decisions must also be made on levels of recording. How, when and where should recording take place? This can be undertaken through peer-group review of work, which requires sufficient resources, and a willingness to monitor the standards being achieved by those of us working in local government. It is clear that we should all be using reasonable and enforceable planning conditions, as outlined in the English Heritage document Understanding Historic Buildings: policy and guidance for local planning authorities. The conditions outlined in this publication have had wider historic environment sector support. Building recording, archiving and passing information to historic environment records raises the question of the role of the IHBC. Through its membership, it conducts dialogue with practitioners with both conservation and archaeological experience, who have the competence to meet the aspirations of a revised PPS15 and its supporting documentation. The objective of all involved with the historic environment should be that historic environment records will meet the agreed data standards, and thus be Heritage Protection compliant by 2016. It is recognised that these standards need to be proportionate (paragraph 6 of English Heritage Advice). Hopefully all these aspirations will be assisted by English Heritage, through continuing advice and resources to enhance the capacity of the built environment record and those records relating to the wider historic landscape. This could be in a similar way to English Heritage’s recently published strategy for historic environment research in the protected landscapes of national parks and areas of outstanding natural beauty. When I started to consider and write about this topic in late July, I was sitting by an open peat fire in the damp environment of a very wet summer in southwest County Cork. Some might say that is an ideal place quietly to read and digest the documentation. However, as with all good intentions in life, this aim foundered on the local rocks through family pressure and sheer lassitude. An earlier draft of this text, written before the issue of the draft PPS15, has mostly been left behind to light some future fire. This is because many concerns relating to building recording, records and archiving have been dealt with in the PPS and the associated documentation. At the very least, the draft PPS has us all thinking about how we will manage making and keeping building records, and how to transfer information to historic environment records and archives. Frank Green is the New Forest National Park’s archaeological officer. He is a founder member of the Institute for Archaeologists (IfA) and the IHBC, and a member of the buildings groups of the ALGAO and the IfA.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjgyMjA=