During the afternoon of Saturday 10th September I will be giving a short talk on the Historic Landscape of Blaenavon at the Learning Landscape Open Day at the World Heritage Centre in Blaenavon. I will be (trying) explaining the Welsh methodology for characterising the historic landscape, giving a rapid tour through the 21 historic character areas that make up the historic landscape of Blaenavon and describing how the methodology of the Assessment of the Significance of the Impact of Development on Historic Landscapes (ASIDHOL) can be used to show what is an appropriate development in a Registered Historic Landscape.
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The final part of the day has been spent sorting out minor administrative matters as it is the end of the month. Most important is ensuring that we have recorded all of the work we have done so that I can compile my monthly report to Cadw on our activities first thing Monday morning.
So that the end of my day, now for the walk home.
Since lunch I’ve been going through a draft written scheme of investigation (wsi) for a development in Chepstow. The wsi is required to meet a condition attached to the planning consent for a residential development. An archaeological evaluation (trial trenching) of the site was carried out prior to the determiantion of the planning application, but this was restricted due to there being occupied buildinsg on the site. The scheme therefore will commence with further evalaution work and then, depending on the results, could lead to an aracheological excavation on indentifed areas of the site, although it is possible that little additional work will be required, if the construction of the current buildings has destroyed all of the archaeology.
Checking a wsi can be very boring and tedious and you can feel that you are being pernickety but experience has shown that getting the wsi right can save a lot of time and trouble at a later date, as all of the archaeological work will be governed by the contents of the wsi. In general this wsi was very good, I had discussed the contents with the archaeological consultant previously, with the only major issues being the need to include the objectives of the Research Framework for the Archaeology of Wales (http://www.archaeoleg.org.uk/) and to remove the need for an OASIS record to be usedas OASIS does not cover Wales.
I have written a letter in response to a planning application for a residential development at the Caerphilly Miners Hospital. The hospital is an important feature in the local history and culture of Caerphilly. It was opened in 1923 after the local miners had collected money by means of a levy on their weekly wages in order to buy a large house, The Beeches, on the outskirts of the town and they converted it into a hospital. Some £30, 000 was collected by the miners (the mine owners contributed £3000!). Wards were added to the original building and initially there were 23 beds, but this soon increased to 84. At first the hospital was only for the miners and their families but in 1942 it became available to everybody and further expansion occurred.
The proposed development will see all of the additions to the original building demolished and it will be converted for community use with a residnetial developemnt being built around it. As such we have no objection to the proposals (the Beeches was built on a greenfield site and the extensive latter additions will have destroyed any buried archaeological features); however, the historical development of the site is of interest and in my letter I have recommended that a condition ensuring that a photographic record of the buildings is compiled before demolition commences and that the information is then placed in the HER.
The good news is that we have sorted the potential beach of condition matter. The work that is being carried out is covered by a previous planning consent so the approval of a programme of investigation is not required for the on-going work, although they are meant to have an archaeologist present carrying out a watching brief and Richard has sent one of his team to the site to do it. Hopefully the results of the watching brief will assist in the preparation of a better programme of investigation when it is produced. It is amazing how much time can be spent sorting out possible breaches of conditions, but it must be done if we are going to ensure that the archaeology is protected.
Our main method of finding out where development is going to occur is by checking the weekly planning list produced by the Local Planning authorities (LPA) each week. Two new ones, for Cardiff and Swansea, have been issued this morning so I go through them and note the applications that may have archaeological implications. Today there were 60 registered applications and I identified 11 that could have an impact on archaeological sites. I then checked those with the Historic Environment Record (HER) and also against the early editions of the Ordnance Survey (there are still a lot of post-medieval sites that are not included in the HER and sometimes we can spot these using the old maps). Three of the identified applications appear to be likely to have an impact on the archaeological resource so I enter them into our register so that detailed analysis and advice to the LPA can be prepared later.
Richard Lewis (Head of Projects) came to see me to explain that it appears that a major breach of a planning condition has occurred on a very sensitive archaeological site. I phone the relevant LPA only to find that the Officer dealing with the application and the Head of Planning are both at a meeting outside the Council’s offices. A helpful assistant promises to send me the full set of planning conditions for the development and gave me the name and direct telephone contact for the Enforcement Officer, in case I feel action is required.
Today is the Day of Archaeology 2011 and all archaeologists have been requested to write a diary charting an average day for an archaeologist. This will clearly show how diverse the work carried out by different archaeologists is. You can follow all of the entries for the day on http://www.dayofarchaeology.com/ and entries made by the Glamorgan-Gwent Archaeological Trust staff on www.ggat.org.uk.
I started my working day circa 7.30am. As part of my job I am responsible for the Trust’s IT network and e-mails, so my first job is to check the e-mails thta have come in overnight, delete the vast number of spam messages that are sent to our open e-mail accounts and redirect any messages that have been wrongly addressed or sent to the open accounts and need to be answered by a specific member of staff.
I also check my own e-mails received over night, fortunately few today and read the weekly newsletter from the Institute for Archaeologists (IfA) Maritime Affairs Group, which always has some fascinating informationon an area of archaeology I really don’t know enough about.
Many people do not realise that archaeology is part of the planning system; however changes to planning guidance now means that the majority of professional archaeologists are carrying out work connected to development and the requirements to mitigate the impact of construction on the historic environment. In Wales the relevant guidance is given in Planning Policy Wales 2011 chapter 6 (especially section 6.5) and the more detailed guidance given in Welsh Office Circular 60/96. The recent announcement by Huw Lewis, the Welsh Governments Minister for Housing Regeneration and Heritage, that a Heritage Bill will be introduced in Wales inside the next 5 years along with new guidance for protecting the historic environment in the planning system means that the next few years will see major debates on the way we look after the historic environment, which some of us look forward to being part of.
