Memorandum submitted by John Price
"THE PRICE OF PERMANENT PRESERVATION
IS ETERNAL VIGILANCE"
"Our built heritage is of extraordinary quality.
Too much of it, however, is fragile and vulnerable. We must take
the best care possible of it. All who have a responsibility for
its stewardship must work vigilantly and imaginatively for its
preservation and enhancement. . . ." (Arts Minister Alan
Howarth, 2 February 2000 in DCMS Press Release 21/200)
PERSONAL COMMENTS
It is gratifying that the House is considering
the possible improvement of current attitudes to our heritage
and the potential exciting benefits and developments that the
DCMS could initiate and plan for our future. There have been strong
indications in some areas that government has not been entirely
interested in the important and growing heritage sector and is
more concerned in cutting services to enable other national interests
to expand. I cite the example of the unfortunate reduction in
resources available to English Heritage—a few million pounds.
In the press I read that the plans for Government to introduce
identity cards could cost £28 billion, that it has lost £1
billion in failed IT contracts, millions of pounds elsewhere and,
as a junior health minister said on Radio 4 before the last general
election, that the overspend (or was it the underspend) of £73
million was a "small" sum in the overall costs of the
NHS. I find it hard to reconcile this with the reduction in resources
available to English Heritage.
With the national tax income (2005) of £487
billion, it would surely not be impossible to use 0.005% of this
to restore previous levels of funding to English Heritage. In
his public speeches, the Chancellor appears to favour heritage
interests. Experienced senior staff have joined English Heritage
to find themselves spending much time on planned reduction of
services rather than building them up. Is this what the public
wants?
I do not believe a word that the recent loss
of experienced and valued staff from English Heritage has made
it more "efficient". Rather the reverse. I do not understand
the Government's treatment of this sector when it is one of the
world's finest, not perfect, but making great headway over the
decades. Most people working in this sector, not altogether well
paid, whether professional or volunteer, possess a keen and dedicated
view that it is important, long-term work—for young and
old of the present generation and for many future generations.
Are English Heritage sites being maintained
as they should be? Are hours available for public viewing being
reduced and some monuments closed? Does it have sufficient resources?
The Committee should ask.
1. POINTS WHICH
THE DCMS COULD
CONSIDER NOW
AND IN
A FUTURE
WHITE PAPER
Museums
Local Government museum services should be made
mandatory as libraries have been for many years. This was suggested
by the All Parliamentary Party Archaeology Group in its first
report.
The public are ill informed as to how local
authority museums are funded. Whilst the DCMS deny that they fund
these museums (except help through the Renaissance "Hubs")
surely they are not entirely funded by local rates. Does not the
Office of the Deputy Prime Minister provide some element in its
annual grant? If so how is it calculated and by whom?
Museums seem permanently on the edge of cost
cutting and it is tiring for local residents to have to keep lobbying
councillors to retain services. Surely there should be a more
professional approach to funding these important heritage centres?
Airport Development
The Government, could, if in the unfortunate
case that historic buildings or historic villages have to be destroyed
in the enlargement of airports, provide resources or insist that
costs are absorbed in overall construction, to allow specialist
firms to remove them intact and re-site them elsewhere. The technology
exists, the experience is available from British firms (or overseas
contractors), and a compromise could be reached in obtaining the
survival of historic assets together with the future aviation
needs in the South East. Ministers should consider whether legislation
is needed.
2. REMIT AND
EFFECTIVENESS
Road shows for councillors
The DCMS, along with other heritage bodies,
should institute regular travelling "road shows" dedicated
to informing local authority councillors on all heritage and conservation
matters.
Who is the champion to government bodies?
English Heritage sets itself out to be the "Champion"
of many heritage themes such as archaeology, historic buildings
and landscapes (ie the Historic Environment). It is unclear whether
it wants to do this with excavated archaeological finds. It is
also unclear whether it maintains effective liaison with all relevant
government and professional bodies on the conservation needs and
huge storage problems of archaeological material found each year.
3. THE BALANCE
BETWEEN HERITAGE
AND DEVELOPMENT
NEEDS
Developer funding. Costs of conservation?
The fusing together of PPG 15 & 16 advice
notes should include proposals for at least a minimal level of
investigative conservation of archaeological finds for subsequent
publication paid for by the developer. If further work is undertaken
for the long-term preservation or research on this material in
public museums then funding should come from public resources.
Rescue of interesting structures
Emergency funding should be made available when
required to preserve (ie remove) examples of fine structures revealed
in excavation when complete destruction of the site is required
for development. The present policy of Record (with full archive)
and Destroy should be occasionally amended when rare and fine
structures suitable for public retention and display are found.
Local authorities generally feel unable to find finance quickly.
There should be a scheme along the lines of the "Prism"
fund for interesting archaeological structures.
4. ACCESS TO
HERITAGE
National Conservation Library
A national conservation library, open to all,
should be established. A number of institutions have small dedicated
libraries but access by all is not normally available.
Travelling exhibitions and communication
Regular travelling exhibitions on recent archaeological
work should be produced for the public on a national, regional
and local basis. Also relevant are exhibitions on the craft, scientific
and conservation techniques that are increasingly important for
heritage work. Some are presently mounted but are few and far
between.
More publications on work by the "backroom"
staff
The quality of publications provided by English
Heritage is of a high standard. It could provide more general
purpose and attractive guides to the public on the scientific,
engineering and conservation techniques used today for preserving
all categories of our heritage.
High quality replicas of our earliest art for
the public
Funding for a long-term project should be started
now to record in 3D all very early rock art which survives on
rock faces, using laser scanning techniques or by silicon rubber
moulding to enable very accurate replicas for public display.
This would be in addition to present projects of careful photography/laser
scanning and conventional illustration techniques.
The object would be to create a new museum in
the North using high grade facsimiles of our earliest "art"
which could be accessible by all. Current field sites are very
inaccessible and difficult to find and stone is subject to continuous
deterioration.
Travelling exhibitions of facsimiles (and other
material?) should be regularly mounted for the public and sent
around the UK.
The attention of the Committee could be drawn
to the great Cast Gallery at the Victoria & Albert Museum
where one can see excellent results of the first examples of inter-European
co-operation, exchanging of copies of works of art, a scheme which
was undertaken in the mid 19th century.
More practical development of modern technology
Controlled experiments should be undertaken
to assess whether laser scanning or silicon rubber techniques
for recording and making casts are the most accurate.
5. FUNDING
Re-allocation of heritage resources to 2012 Olympics.
Cause for concern?
With its state supported agencies and the great
strength and diversity of national, regional and local societies
throughout the land, it is recognised throughout the world that
England is one of the premier countries working in this sphere.
There seems widespread disquiet as to the continuing cuts of the
resources available to English Heritage and growing anger that
funding may be diverted to the Olympic Games in London.
The Government should allay these fears with
a statement.
Archaeological parks
Thought should be given to the creation of new
archaeological "parks" or the expansion of existing
open-air building museums to enable the occasional archaeological
structure, found in rescue excavations, to be saved and re-sited
rather than destroyed.
Creation of trusts to help fund conservation activities
Additional sources of finance could be considered
through tapping the huge charitable sector by the creation of
dedicated Trusts such as "for preservation of historic waterlogged
timbers", "recording and making replicas of rock art"
and for "preserving newly found fine archaeological structures
which are worthy of public display" but which would otherwise
be destroyed by the nature of new construction or mineral extraction.
6. ROLES AND
RESPONSIBILITIES
Information required on numbers of new artefacts
recovered each year
Data on the amount of new archaeological finds
should be gathered annually to try to estimate the amount of conservation
provision needed.
Information required on annual creation of posts
for renaissance in the regions scheme
Data should be made available as to the number
of practical posts being established by the "Renaissance
in the Regions" scheme by the MLA. How many archaeological
curator posts, how many archaeological conservation posts have
been created and how many are permanent? It may also be useful
to find out how many administrative and consultancy posts have
been created.
7. ADEQUATE SUPPLY
OF PROFESSIONALS
Specialised training for conservators
Funding of English Heritage must be increased
so that useful and important sectors are not closed down. Examples
are the central archaeological laboratories, originally founded
in 1951, where new, superb facilities exist to provide excellent
training and experience for conservators, science students or
interns. Staff should be increased to allow for high level training
and "in-house" specialised courses for conservators
in "mid-career".
Continuous annual loss of trained archaeological
conservators
This small sector has seen a large loss in permanent
posts in the past 15 years throughout local government, government
agencies, universities, museums and archaeological trusts. Please
see attached list. There have been conservators establishing themselves
in the private sector and some short-term contacts appearing from
the "Renaissance in the Regions" scheme but there is
concern over long-term effects as local government continues to
make yearly cuts. There should be some enquiry as to what is needed
in future years. There is obviously each year an increasing amount
of finds material for the collections of local and national museums
arising out of developer funded and research excavations.
At Durham, one of the three university training
institutions, highly regarded for post-graduate conservation,
has closed its course and it is not certain how many UK candidates
are undertaking conservation studies at Cardiff and London.
Marine archaeology and lack of conservator posts
The English Heritage Laboratories should take
on more staff dedicated to research and conservation of marine
artefacts possibly in liaison with the nearby Mary Rose Trust.
This would help Portsmouth (and the UK) to house the leading specialist
maritime and wood conservation units in Europe.
BACKGROUND NOTES
FOR INFORMATION
ON ARCHAEOLOGICAL
MATERIAL IN
THE UK: ITS
CONSERVATION AND
PRESERVATION
"On the east side of this churchyard lieth
a large field, of old time called Lollesworth, now Spitalfield,
which about the year 1576 was broken up for clay to make brick;
in the digging whereof many earthern pots, called urnae, were
found full of ashes, and burnt bones of men to wit, of the Romans
that inhabited here; . . . Moreover, there were also found the
skulls and bones of men without coffins . . . Divers great nails
of iron were there found, such as were used in the wheels of shod
carts, being each of them as big as a man's finger and a quarter
of a yard long . . . and therefore I caused some of the nails
to be reached up to me, and found under the broad heads of them,
the old wood, skant into earth, but still retaining both the grain
and proper colour. I reserved one but the nail lying dry is by
scaling greatly wasted" (John Stow in A Survey of London,
1598).
The above quotation and that on the front page
are relevant to Archaeology in the UK. For "built" insert
"archaeological" and for "1598" replace with
"2006". Archaeological material is often fragile and
vulnerable and excavated ironwork found today is also difficult
to preserve.
The problems
All categories need care and attention if they
are to survive. Some, of course, will need minimal inspection
and others will require regular investigation and treatment by
qualified and expert staff. The landscape is continually, slowly
changing and effects such as degradation and loss from natural
erosion, annual fire damage, environmental conditions such as
humidity and temperature levels, biological, animal and human
activities (of all types from war to wear and tear, tourism etc)
all need to be taken into account. With the scale of archaeological
activities, the pressures of work and the minimal resources available,
the archaeological profession in general seems not too bothered
with conservation, preferring instead to put records into paper,
book or computer based information data-bases. However, the public
are greatly interested in "artefacts" which may be viewed
by tens of thousands at exhibitions.
Archaeological collections
Year on year, large quantities of artefacts
are recovered, both in planned excavations and also by metal detectorists.
A proportion of the finds from the latter will probably end up
in museum collections either soon after discovery or on the death
of the collector. There appears to be no real data available on
numbers, condition and the total resources needed to maintain
this "national archive" for future generations. Besides
the growth of private collections (often from metal detecting),
material is housed in national, regional and local museums; English
Heritage stores; National Trust and university museums, archaeological
unit stores and sadly, it is said, an increasing reversion to
an old practice—under the bed for local unpaid archaeologists.
Archaeological collections in the UK also include
a considerable amount of foreign material, notably from Egypt,
which has survived because of extremely dry conditions. Proper
care, inevitably requiring resources is required in the damp British
Isles.
Nautical archaeology
Although the greatest archaeological conservation
project undertaken in the UK has been that of the "Mary Rose",
in general there has been very poor funding of the proper conservation
of finds from nautical archaeological sites. Material from this
group needs further resources.
Scientific advances
University and other institutional research
often produces a growing number of techniques which would be beneficial
but there can be problems in introduction, often in costs and
availability, because of the development required to make them
useful for day to day work.
The role of the archaeological conservator
There are five basic categories of work which
may involve the conservator:
1. Working on "investigative conservation"
(ie continuing excavation on a micro scale in the laboratory)
with archaeologists, finds specialists, illustrators and scientists
to treat excavated artefacts and to extract as much Information
as possible for excavation reports. Fieldwork may involve very
careful removal of fragile objects, sometimes very small and sometimes
very large. Conservators will be expected to write reports and
articles for publication.
2. Working for museums and institutions
to ensure artefacts survive long into the future. A substantial
amount of material in collections comes from abroad.
3. Working to ensure that artefacts
are safe and well displayed in exhibitions for the public.
4. Working for the private sector helping
to maintain collections.
5. Working with and advising detectorists.
Insufficient resources?
Work on cultural material is often carried out
by trained conservators, who, like other professions such as engineering,
health or archaeology, have a number of specialist sub-groups
such as painting, stone, metal, stained glass, paper, furniture,
textile etc. Archaeological conservators specialise in materials
recovered from the soil (or underwater). There remains an argument
as to whether enough resources are provided, on a countrywide
basis, to service the existing and growing collections of artefacts
now existing in the UK.
Artefact abuse and the future effect of "best
value"
The number of trained archaeological conservators
in post is not large, yet in the last decade or so a possible
10-15 local government posts have disappeared. In addition, about
27 posts (several disciplines) have disappeared from the Area
Museum Services in the past quarter of a century.
The Directorate of Ancient Monuments and Historic
Buildings (DoE), in the 1970s obtained Treasury permission to
establish 12 contract regional posts and established seven at
Durham, Doncaster, Manchester, Bristol, East London, Salisbury
and Kent together with two training posts at its central Ancient
Monuments Laboratory. Together with its permanent core staff and
the addition of short-term contract posts funded internally, together
with vacation students, the laboratory provided the largest group
of dedicated archaeological conservators in the UK, probably in
Europe. The core conservation staff in the Laboratory appears
to have shrunk to three from a previous total of seven. One contract
post remains at Durham. There is no doubt that the laboratory,
now based at Portsmouth offers some of the finest technical facilities
and could easily provide high quality experience and training
as it has for many years. No other laboratory in the country has
had so many "students" or interns gaining valuable practical
experience. It is in a prime position to evaluate and develop
new ideas and techniques to a practical stage but does not really
have sufficient staff resources.
The future for local government laboratory archaeological
conservation appears poor as councils respond to "Best Value"
and cut or abolish whatever non-mandatory services they can find.
Museums with "conservation budgets" may spend funds
on other competing but more acceptable cultural material such
as paintings, to the detriment of archaeological finds. Counties
such as Kent, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire have effectively closed
down their conservation departments and cities such as Sheffield
have lost their archaeological staff including conservators to
concentrate on "Art". Local Councillors could question
whether their role is to fund the "research" needed
to publish finds and likewise developers could object to having
to fund the full costs of specialised examination and analysis.
There is evidence that a relatively high number
of posts have been lost in recent years. Very few new permanent
posts are advertised and the training institutions have a considerable
number of foreign students on conservation courses, probably because
it is realised in the UK that available posts are now few in number
or are short-term. We have also to realise that each year the
"national" stock of recovered artefacts is continually
growing but staff to service it is shrinking.
The outlook is poor and new strategies must
be introduced for proper long-term maintenance. Should artefacts
suffer "abuse" because of political differences at local
level in funding options? Can some form of central government
aid be provided to "ring-fence" the basic resources
needed to care for the more vulnerable material which needs tender,
loving, care if it is to survive for future generations? This
material may often be of national significance. It is interesting
that counties are updating their Archive Centres often with large
grants from the Lottery Commission etc. These new £5-6 million
centres usually have up to date conservation units with at least
two paper conservators. Perhaps large county or regional archaeological
stores such as operated by London, Oxford and Hampshire County
Councils with modern conservation facilities are the answer? Or
is the long-term solution to sell finds on the open market, further
enlarging it and encouraging private ownership?
Conclusions—Outlook is unsatisfactory
Although the SE of England has probably the
greatest concentration and diversity of conservation activities
in the world, all is not well with the long-term future of archaeological
conservation (artefacts) throughout much of the UK. Financial
pressures on local government and universities will probably result
in a continuing decline in specialist posts. Even the most prestigious
conservation post in the UK, that of Keeper of Conservation at
the British Museum, has been abolished. No one really knows what
resources are really required in order to maintain our portable
heritage. Steps should be taken to audit the country's public
archaeological collections and to decide where the future lies.
SOME PERMANENT
(AS OPPOSED
TO SHORT
TERM CONTRACT)
ARCHAEOLOGICAL CONSERVATION
POSTS (ARTEFACTS
AND POSSIBLE
SOCIAL HISTORY)
ABOLISHED IN
ENGLAND SINCE
THE LATE
1980S
|
| County Services | |
|
| Berkshire (Reading Museum) | 1
|
| Buckinghamshire (Aylesbury) | 1
|
| Cheshire | 1
|
| Hertfordshire | 1-2
|
| Kent (West Malling) | 1-2
|
| Oxfordshire ? | |
| Area Museum Services | All posts
|
| Museums | |
| Birmingham | 1
|
| Bristol | 1
|
| Cirencester? | |
| Doncaster | 1
|
| Dorchester | 1
|
| Ipswich? | |
| Leicester | 1
|
| Manchester ? | |
| Northampton | 1
|
| Portsmouth | 3
|
| Sheffield | 1
|
| London (Passmore Edwards) | 2?
|
| Archaeological Trusts |
|
| Chichester | 1
|
| University | |
| Leicester | 1
|
| Oxford | 2
|
| Durham University Conservation Diploma |
|
| English Heritage | |
| (AML and three-year contracts) | 8
|
| British Museum (in 2002) | 10?
|
| Keeper of Conservation | 1
|
|
Note: A few posts have been restored at the British
Museum (January 2006)
18 January 2006
| 
