Personally, I agree with the approach recommended by John Wood, and would
argue that by providing information to the public we should be increasing
awareness about sites and the need for protection and conservation, not
least from ignorance and neglect. In any case, who are we protecting them
for? If we are doing this for the public, how can we then deny access to
information?
Paul Gilman
Heritage Information and Records Manager
Essex County Council
> -----Original Message-----
> From: BR Hopkins [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: 10 October 2000 04:30
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: RE(2): HLF, NGRs etc
>
> I am still of the old fashioned minority who think that our role as
> curators includes being 'protective' towards vulnerable archaeological
> sites. Here in Cumbria we have many important sites which as yet have not
> benefitted from MPP and therefore have no statutory protection. We give
> out 8 figure grid references where people require them but initially would
> not be happy to supply more than a 4 figure grid reference for Web users
> (we do not have a Web site as yet). People who have a genuine need of
> more accurate information could contact us directly as now and then we
> could also offer guidelines on 'the sensible and responsible use of
> arcaheological information' to quote John Wood. At a later date when MPP
> is finished in Cumbria (estimated to take 10 years plus!) we may be in a
> better position to offer totally free access to to grid references and
> digitised mapping to Web users, but I personally would not like to see
> this happen just yet.
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