Source/Archive record SCH6414 - North West Rapid Coastal Zone assessment (NWRCZA): Final SMP2 Version

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 consequential coastal erosion. The North West Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment, or 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 Plans (SMPs). The area assessed, which extends from the Anglo-Welsh border in the Dee Estuary to the Anglo-Scottish border in the Solway Firth, falls within SMP Cell 11. At the time of writing the Phase 1 report the policy units and policy statements for SMP2 were only at a draft stage. The first phase of the SMPs was completed in the 1990s (SMP1) and the second phase study (SMP2) is currently being prepared for final publication. The policy areas and policy statements for SMP2 were finalised and published in December 2010 and have been used to compile this updated executive summary. The policy statements usually comprise either Hold The Line (HTL) or No Active Intervention (NAI), although Managed Realignment (MR) is also an option. HTL involves various mitigation strategies such as the construction of sea defences while NAI allows nature to take its course. Heritage assets may be considered to be under threat from mitigation strategies associated with HTL or MR and from coastal erosion where NAI is the adopted policy. 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. Within the context of the NWRCZA, this has been referred to as the Aerial Photograph Mapping Exercise (APM). 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 APM exercise 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. These sites are listed in Appendix I and the relevant SMP policy unit noted. Many are no longer extant. 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. A separate project design has been prepared for a Phase 2 of the NWRCZA which includes priorities for rapid field survey as required by the Phase 2 brief supplied by English Heritage which will address these issues.