Site Event/Activity record ECH6212 - North West Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment (NWRCZA): Desk Based Assessment and AP Mapping (Phase 1)

Between August 2007 and September 2009 Archaeological Research Services Ltd carried out, on behalf of English Heritage, a desk based rapid coastal zone assessment of the threat posed to heritage assets on the North West coast by rising sea level and coastal erosion. The North West Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment (NWRCZA) is one of a series of projects initiated by English Heritage around the coasts of England. The brief specifically required that the assessment be undertaken with reference to Defra’s Shoreline Management Plan 2 (SMP 2). The area assessed, extends from the Anglo-Welsh border in the Dee Estuary to the Anglo-Scottish border in the Solway Firth. The NWRCZA study area consists of almost 900km of coastline between the Lowest Astronomical Tide (LAT) and 1km inland from Mean High Water Springs (MHWS). The review of the heritage assets has been based on a consideration of two data sets. The first consists of the Historic Environment Records (HERs) maintained by or for the Local Authorities with curatorial responsibilities for this section of the coast, namely Cheshire Archaeology Planning Advisory Service, Merseyside Archaeological Service, Lancashire County Council, Cumbria County Council and the Lake District National Park Authority. The second data set consists of the aerial photograph coverage of the study area from which all archaeological features visible have been mapped to the standards of English Heritage’s National Mapping Programme. In assessing the threat to heritage assets posed by sea level rise, major sites and groups of sites are discussed individually and the threats they face evaluated. Categories of more numerous types of site are also discussed but the issue of threat is dealt with in a series of tables in which the SMP policy unit is noted along with the importance of individual sites and the degree of threat are rated as high, medium or low. Nearly 75% of the sites recorded in the desk-based assessment date from the Second World War and consist of numerous categories of site such as pillboxes or anti-tank obstacles or ephemeral features such as minefields. The NWRCZA study has established that many heritage assets in the coastal zone are under threat from rising sea level and also that a number of categories of asset are as yet poorly understood making an evaluation of the threat difficult. The desk-based assessment formed Phase 1 of the project, Phase 2, undertaken between 2009-2011, comprised field checking of a selection of the sites recorded (Phase 2 recorded as a separate event - see ECH6531). Archive relating to the project resides in the Historic England's Archive, Swindon. (1-4)