.

Wednesday 30 October 2013

The Possible County Council Archaeological Unit: Essex Archaeological News, Summer 1973

Essex Archaeological News Summer 1973
(later called the Essex Society for Archaeology and History)

Extracts from Newsletter No 43

THE POSSIBLE COUNTY COUNCIL ARCHAEOLOGICAL UNIT. 

In the last newsletter we reported the meeting at Fortress House on the 22nd February, called by the Department of the Environment to discuss the future control of 'regional' archaeology.

Within a month, on the 19th March, a meeting was held at County Hall, Chelmsford, of County Council Officers and various grant aided societies who carry out excavation in Essex.

The discussion of the meeting concerned the setting up of an Archaeological Unit for the area, and the representatives were asked to consider whether such a unit should be on a basis of Essex alone, or combined with Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire. At the close of the meeting the representatives went away to sound out the feelings of their various bodies, and to reply to the County Planner (within whose scope the organisation would fall), by the end of April.

It is clear that the body that the County has in mind would employ a number of professional archaeologists, providing them with both the necessary technical back-up of presumably drawing services, photography, office accommodation and staff, and providing a continuous employment prospect with a career structure.

It seems quite clear that the existence of such a body would not inhibit the activities of amateur bodies, but rather co-ordinate effort and ensure that the allocation of DOE funds was made on the right priority order. It also seemed that the management of such a unit, and inter alia the archaeology of Essex, would rest with some central committee which would be made up partly of County Council members and partly of local archaeologists.

This represents a great step forward for archaeology since we shall for the very first time, have the County Council actively engaged in the need for archaeology, instead of the role of sponsor which has been the position hitherto.

Further, the County Planning Department are in the best position to both know of likely threats, and to plan to avoid these if possible The County Archaeologist is part of the Department, and of course most of the present arrangements which are planned spring from his influence in the Department in question.

On the question of whether the Unit should be based on the County, or be regional in concept, there are of course many arguments. However the main line of thought seems to be that Essex is a special case when viewed in comparison with the other counties, There is neither the population question, the same amount of road planning, or of course a potential airport. On an administrative basis alone Essex is a big enough geographical area as it is, without coupling it with any other county.

It is also felt that things will get off the ground quicker with only one authority involved, and, of course, the County Council Committee which has to deal with the decision to inaugurate the Unit, will do this more readily if Essex rates are going to Essex people, and to Essex advantages.

These are only a few of the arguments, but the upshot of the matter is that the Society is in favour of a County Unit, as against a multi-county affair, and this feeling is shared with the Chelmsford Excavation Committee, with which we are involved.

So we can look to the future with hope. With County money and organisation behind archaeology we may be able to deal effectively with the problem of Maplin, and all the other road improvement schemes now on the drawing board, we may be able to deal with the rash of commuter dormitory estates, the gravel pits and all those other threats to our heritage of information which we should otherwise have failed to deal with adequately.

We are taking one giant step for Archaeology.

No comments: