John Pickin drew attention to Sites and Monuments Records and asked how
effective are we at passing information on to them.  In the case of North
Yorkshire and the Yorkshire Dales National Park (both holders of SMRs),
since the early 1990s, most of the mining and quarrying records are from the
Northern Mine Research Society's computerised Mine Site Index.

He also asked how good are we at lobbying our councillors and other
politicians and putting in objections to planning applications which
threaten historic mining sites.  Again, the NMRS and EMRG both responded to
recent proposals to convert a mine shop into a dwelling.  Neither group took
the negative line that permission should be denied, however.  Instead, we
sought restrictions on the development which would maintain the character of
the building and its immediate environs.  There would also be a building
survey and a watching brief by an archaeologist.  This, at least, ensured
the building's survival at a fairly small cost ot the public purse.  We have
used the same approach for other sites.

Should we be working more closely with our county archaeologists?  Obviously
so.  On Tuesday, I was at a regular meeting of the Yorkshire Dales
Archaeology Group, hosted by the Yorkshire Dales National Park's
Archaeological Conservator.  Also present were the new NAMHO Secretary
(Sallie Bassham) and the new Conservation Officer (Martin Roe).  Last month,
Martin and I were at a similar meeting for the Nidderdale AONB - with the
County Archaeologist, Inspector of Ancient Monuments etc etc.

As to the recent Draft Metal Mines Strategy for Wales representing something
of a seachange - 'appen! (as we say in Yorkshire).  Could other parts of the
UK respond as effectively?  A ha' ma doots...  Well, again, NMRS responded
to specific parts of the draft, which had some highly questionable
statements, and the mining history was based on stuff published in the
1960s.  For the environmentalists, it is a start though.

Sadly, everyone's approach seems to be reactive.  Why not try forcing the
pace and head them off at the pass?  NAMHO did it with underground
Scheduling, and the Northern Mine Research Society is currently preparing
"Research Objectives for Extractive Industries in the Yorkshire Dales and
Adjacent Areas".  This will cover all aspects of extraction (e.g. metal
mining and smelting, stone quarrying, lime burning, coal mining and peat
digging) and seek to link them to transport networks and social
developments.  The document will have a number of uses.  It will help with
the identification of sites worthy of detailed survey and consolidation.  It
will go beyond the MPP reports, which concentrated on nationally important
sites, and identify sites which are of local or regional importance.  It
will also identify themes for future research, at levels ranging from
amateur to professional, in those topics (for example peat digging) where
our knowledge is thin.  We are particularly interested in encouraging
co-operation with people working in other disciplines (transport, vernacular
architecture etc) to make our work more widely relevant (the Beyond Mining
History theme of our conference).

Mike Gill