The prehistoric timbers from Bannockburn which the local museum insists
were pitfalls emphasise the strength of ledged and the need for such
things to appear in the HER rather than the SMR. I have one legendary
event the battle of Maserfield which most authorities place in
Shropshire. Anyone else?
Thank You
David Evans
Historic Environment Record Officer
01454 863649
>>> [log in to unmask] 16/04/2004 16:48:32 >>>
I would agree that historical and legendary associations can be a very
important part of the record.
From my time with WoSAS, I remember that the most complex development
control situations often arose over such issues... associations with
William Wallace, covenanters' meeting places, sites of skirmishes, ley
lines & druids' roads, etc etc.
These were the issues that tended to generate the most public/press
involvement, usually more than the archaeological sites.
I often felt we should have been recording such things, if only to be
reasonably informed when these issues arose, whereas in fact in the the
records tended to have been purged of this material in favour of the
'objective' archaeological accounts.
I think that recording these things doesn't deviate substantially from
our usual monument recording, i.e. we are talking about landscapes or
landscape elements that embody a significant and informative
relationship with the past. The EH Monument Type thesaurus already
includes terms like "Historical Site", "Battlefield"; perhaps it could
be enhanced in this direction?
Regarding public contributions to the record, well this can also be
extremely useful, so long as the origins of any such data are properly
recorded. It is very easy to achieve, but only if the SMR/HER data is
fully available to useful numbers of people, i.e. it must be on-line,
with easy mechanisms for feeding new information back to the record
maintainers.
Still very few SMRs/HERs on-line... (Note the complete absence of
shameless plug for HBSMRv3 & HBSMR-web ;-)
Have a good weekend,
cheers
Crispin
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exeGesIS SDM Ltd.
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Talgarth
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Tel: 01874 713072/711145
Fax: 01874 711156
email: [log in to unmask]
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-----Original Message-----
From: Lee, Edmund [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 16 April 2004 09:59
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: The Legendary HER. Was: Building Records in SMR
Hello folks,
I agree with Jasons comment...
>
Indeed it is sad in this cold technological world we do not preserve
the
legends and stories that are all about us ... it is i think something
SMR's should do ... we certainly do. But we do not see the SMR has
just
a source for cold hard facts it is made up of a wealth and rich
tapestry
of material some interpretation .. some supposed.... some physical ..
some factual and some legendary.
>
One possible problem with this sort of approach is the resources to
suport
it. The cold technological world is also short of cash for SMR
development,
and, although the Legendary HER is a great idea it is perhaps difficult
to
prioritise over and above the 'cold hard facts'.
One approach might be to develop technologies that allow for direct
entry of
data by the public into our various HERs. They could, if that was
their
interest, use theor time and resources to record the legendary
associations,
the New Age interpretations etc - or indeed the perfectly valid things
that
are for reasons of economy beyond the scope of the HER (such as the
mills
records that started this thread). These could sit alongside the
accredited
professional description of the landscape and features that make up the
HE.
At Development Control time the non-specialist material could be
filtered
and assessed separately.
Edmund Lee
English Heritage (my thoughts though, not theirs!)
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