NEWSLETTER 143 February 2017 220162016
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Registered Charity No. 105565 NEWSLETTER 143 February 2017 Registered220162016 Charity No. 1055654 Treryn Dinas Cliff Castle, Porthcurnow. Copyright James Kitto Photography 2016. The President’s piece from Nicholas Johnson I took the opportunity to visit the excavations at Tintagel Castle this summer. This place never ceases to amaze…the special quality of the houses that were revealed, and the extraordinarily high status of the tableware found in pieces on the floors has ensured that English Heritage will continue to support this project in 2017. It has been, and will continue to be, a great opportunity for members to get involved at an iconic site. Mentioning Tintagel reminds me of Charles Thomas, and that we are planning a conference in his honour at the AGM (8 April 2017). Speakers will talk about sites and areas of research associated with Charles. These will be published by the Society, along with other reminiscences that others may wish to contribute. One of the projects that he was associated with came to an end at the end of November. As President of the Society I was asked to host the launch of the publication of Archaeology and Landscape at the Land’s End, Cornwall at The Exchange gallery in Penzance. This was the culmination of archaeological survey work by Cornwall Archaeological Unit between 1980-2010. The Lord Lieutenant launched the book, with Mark Harold (National Trust), Dan Ratcliffe (Historic England) and author Philip Marsden also giving their thoughts and congratulations. It was a bumper weekend. The CAS Conference followed the next day. Andy Jones and Henrietta Quinnell had arranged a very full day of talks. The first two sessions were given by authors of the book and covered the chronological development of the West Penwith landscape. The last session covered other subjects in West Cornwall. All places at the conference were taken and the bookstand sold out of the new publication. All enjoyed a great day and many thanks are due to those who helped make it so successful. Like many of you I was shocked to hear that A level Archaeology was to be dropped from the curriculum. GCSE had been dropped some years ago. I wrote to both AQA and the Secretary for Education on behalf of the Society. My letter and the replies have been posted on the CAS Facebook. We now know that, whilst History of Art has been saved, Archaeology has not. It is difficult to remain optimistic when the confidence that we all felt that archaeology was at last a mainstream subject, has proved to be in vain. And yet there are other reasons to be optimistic. The number of Area Correspondents continues to grow and we welcome Linda and David Edyvean as our latest recruits. Colette Beckham with Richard Hardy of the Cornwall AONB talked at the last AR meeting about the scope, objectives and plans of the AONB. She described plans for 'scrub-busting' with the help of student volunteers, and recognised that ARs would have invaluable knowledge about Scheduled Monuments and other sites that might merit attention by carefully supervised volunteers. This is an exciting extension to the Monument Watch project and we will provide the AONB with the links to the ARs in the AONB. Not only is CAS helping to identify monuments at risk, and monitoring them, but also is now helping to take them off the Heritage at Risk Register. I have been attending the Heritage Kernow Board meetings on behalf of the Society. It was agreed that the Conservation Principles published by English Heritage in 2008 and adopted by the whole heritage sector, would also guide Heritage Kernow. The historic environment is a shared resource Everyone should be able to participate in sustaining the historic environment Understanding the significance of places is vital Significant places should be managed to sustain their values Decisions about change must be reasonable, transparent and consistent Documenting and learning from decisions is essential There was also some robust discussion around the issue of the lack of public involvement in the Scheduling process in contrast to Listing which goes through normal Local Authority consultation. The project to write a Statement of Significance for the historic environment of Cornwall is on time and will be available in 2017. This will be a great step forward in highlighting just how important is the historic environment of Cornwall. We are all worried that the Planning system is badly understaffed, and is now much more biased in favour of fewer restrictions on development than hitherto. As many of you know the Cornwall Local Plan (www.cornwall.gov.uk/localplancornwall) has at last been adopted, and perhaps it may come as a surprise that the section dealing with the historic environment is rather good! We have Dan Ratcliffe and his staff at County Hall to thank for ensuring that heritage remains a significant part of Planning policy. I think it is worth quoting what the policy on the historic environment actually says: Development proposals will be permitted where they would sustain the cultural distinctiveness and significance of Cornwall’s historic rural, urban and coastal environment by protecting, conserving and where appropriate enhancing the significance of designated and non-designated assets and their settings. Development proposals will be expected to: • sustain designated heritage assets; • take opportunities to better reveal their significance; • maintain the special character and appearance of Conservation Areas, especially those positive elements in any Conservation Area Appraisal; • conserve and, where appropriate, enhance the design, character, appearance and historic significance of historic parks and gardens; • conserve and, where appropriate, enhance other historic landscapes and townscapes, including registered battlefields, including the industrial mining heritage; • protect the historic maritime environment, including the significant ports, harbours and quays. Development within the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape World Heritage Site (WHS) and its setting should accord with the WHS Management Plan. Proposals that would result in harm to the authenticity and integrity of the Outstanding Universal Value, should be wholly exceptional. If the impact of the proposal is neutral, either on the significance or setting, then opportunities to enhance or better reveal their significance should be taken. All development proposals should be informed by proportionate historic environment assessments and evaluations (such as heritage impact assessments, desk-based appraisals, field evaluation and historic building reports) identifying the significance of all heritage assets that would be affected by the proposals and the nature and degree of any effects and demonstrating how, in order of preference, any harm will be avoided, minimised or mitigated. Great weight will be given to the conservation of the Cornwall’s heritage assets. Where development is proposed that would lead to substantial harm to assets of the highest significance, including undesignated archaeology of national importance, this will only be justified in wholly exceptional circumstances, and substantial harm to all other nationally designated assets will only be justified in exceptional circumstances. Any harm to the significance of a designated or non-designated heritage asset must be justified. Proposals causing harm will be weighed against the substantial public, not private, benefits of the proposal and whether it has been demonstrated that all reasonable efforts have been made to sustain the existing use, find new uses, or mitigate the extent of the harm to the significance of the asset; and whether the works proposed are the minimum required to secure the long term use of the asset. In those exceptional circumstances where harm to any heritage assets can be fully justified, and development would result in the partial or total loss of the asset and/or its setting, the applicant will be required to secure a programme of recording and analysis of that asset, and archaeological excavation where relevant, and ensure the publication of that record to an appropriate standard in a public archive. Proposals that will help to secure a sustainable future for the Cornwall’s heritage assets, especially those identified as being at greatest risk of loss or decay, will be supported. Of course so much depends on whether there are enough staff to advise and the willingness of Councillors to fight for our heritage, but at least the policy says the right things! It is up to us to quote these words back to Cornwall Council if we feel the need to object to any particular development. This is Adrian Rodda’s last Newsletter as editor. I would like to thank him, on behalf of all of us, for his work in editing 32 Newsletters since 2007. This is an amazing achievement, done with great style and kindness and always managing to pull together interesting and informative numbers. Editing is a difficult task at the best of times and yet he has managed to beg, encourage or cajole recalcitrant authors to submit copy in a persuasive yet kindly manner. Editors, less patient than he, might have flicked the safety catches off their revolvers long before! I hope very much that you all had a happy Christmas and I that you will enjoy the full calendar of events we have lined up for 2017. In the October Newsletter below the photograph of Tregeseal Stone Circle I reported that it was the eastern circle of a line of 3 similar to the Hurlers. Well, Cheryl Straffon has kindly and gently put me right on that misconception. It is an example of believing everything that gets into print. Now, here’s a challenge. Can you find other examples in this edition of the Newsletter of misleading assumptions, either from publications or local legends? No prizes, but there are two more. Cheryl gives you a clue to one of them.