The value of ‘informed’ rapid identification surveys in the assessment of the heritage impact
Channel: Recording Archaeology
Date: 2016-09-27

A recent investigation into the likely impacts of the construction of a new water pipeline in West Cumbria, as part of the compilation of an Environmental Impact Assessment, utilised a variety of investigative techniques including a rapid walkover survey, geophysics and targeted evaluation through trial trenching. The walkover proved to be very cost effective and highly instructive in comparison to the other techniques deployed. It was particularly useful in the identification of the site of a previously unrecorded monastic grange. Its success was only enabled, however, by a thorough pre-existing knowledge of the landscape being investigated and by integration with a suite of other techniques primarily documentary research and the analysis of aerial survey data. Only by appropriate training in historic landscape predictive techniques and historic landscape characterisation combined with archaeological earthwork recognition can such success be assured in future.