English Heritage and aviation archaeology – Report in FlyPast this month!

The following news item has appeared in the current (April) issue of FlyPast.

‘English Heritage considers crash sites as monuments

ENGLISH HERITAGE issued guidance on the significance and future management of military aircraft crash sites in late January. These look set at last to help prioritise crash sites and the way in which they should be regarded, either in terms of the overall heritage of a region or nationally. The move may have major ramifications on the future of aviation archaeology ‘digs’ and how they will be regarded.

EH is the Government’s adviser on all aspects of the historic environment in England. Entitled Military Aircraft Crash Sites, the leaflet provides a useful background to such sites and their importance, along with contacts for further information.

Since 1986 EH has been undertaking a national review of England’s archaeological resources with the aim of securing their future management via the Monuments Protection Programme. As of the MPP work and following on from earlier work on 20th-century military remains in England, EH carried out a survey of crash sites in consultation with the Ministry of Defence.

All crashed aircraft in the UK or its coastal waters are deemed Crown property. All Luftwaffe crash sites are considered captured property surrendered to the Crown. For US aircraft, the UK MoD acts as the representative of the US Government.

Under the 1986 Protection of Military Remains Act anyone wishing to excavate or recover a military aircraft is first required to apply for a licence. This is administered by the Central Casualty Section of the RAF Personnel Management Agency, based at Innsworth, Glos.
The MoD oversees such recoveries for two main reasons. It seeks to minimise potential risks to excavators from live ordnance and other hazards, and has a moral obligation to the families of dead servicemen to protect human remains from disturbance.

EH fully supports the MoD in its aims, but also recognises the historic importance of aircraft remains. It has compiled a list of 21 ‘extinct’ military aircraft in use over the UK in the late 1930s and 1940s that can be found in crash sites.

Using this survey, EH has developed criteria for the selection of important crash sites and “would wish to minimise unnecessary disturbance” to examples that meet a combination of bench marks:

1) The site includes components of rare or ‘extinct’ type.
2) Where the site includes well preserved and extensive remains of a well-documented aircraft.
3) The aircraft is associated with significant operations or notable individuals.
4) Where there is potential for display or interpretation within the landscape.

EH considers that, in general terms, sites meeting any three of these criteria are sufficiently rare in England to be considered of national importance. This could well bring many sites under Scheduled Monument Consent procedures.
In the majority of cases, EH points out that even for nationally important sites, excavation and recording will probably be the most appropriate response, subject, of course, to MoD and next-of-kin approval.

In such cases, excavation should be undertaken in accordance with the Institute of Field Archaeologists’ code of conduct, with additional guidance available from the British Aviation Archaeological Council.’

I’ve looked on the English Heritage website, but can’t find any ‘guidance’ on the subject issued in ‘late January’ as reported above.

There is a downloadable pdf EH report ‘Military Aircraft Crash sites – archaeological guidance on their significance and future management’, but this is dated 2002!

I was just wondering if any of our fellow aviation archaeology museums represented on here had any further information on the new ‘guidance’ from EH reported by FlyPast?

Geoff.

P.S. Only another two Sundays to go, and we’ll be opening for the 2005 season on Easter Sunday (27th).