Important aspects of the National Landscape’s cultural heritage can be put at risk through the lack of targeted research designed to fill in gaps in our existing knowledge, and through the loss of existing knowledge.
Current gaps in knowledge
Acknowledgement that our knowledge of cultural heritage is limited, means that we should be both supporting more research (archaeological and documentary) and constantly reassessing our priorities as new information comes to light.
The North Pennines has a thriving community archaeology group - Altogether Archaeology - which arose as a legacy of a project of the North Pennines National Landscape team.
There is an active group transcribing 17th to 19th century documents focussing on lead mining - Dukesfield Documents – which arose from a lottery funded project, and the Land of Lead and Silver project (also National Lottery Heritage Funded and led by the North Pennines National Landscape team) includes support for community archival research.
Altogether Archaeology has produced an overarching Historic Environment Research Framework for the North Pennines and this offers direction for future research projects, alongside the regional research frameworks for the historic environment.
Altogether Archaeology Research Framework
North East Regional Research Framework for the Historic Environment
North West Regional Research Framework for the Historic Environment
The existence of full LIDAR cover for the North Pennines provides an opportunity, in terms of the amount of potential data available to us, but also a challenge in dealing with that volume of information for interpretation, storage and dissemination, especially for local authorities managing Historic Environment Records (HERs).
Risk of losing knowledge
A significant risk of losing local knowledge comes from the increasing rate of demographic change in the North Pennines. Fifty years ago North Pennines’ communities were fairly static and shared a common heritage, a common culture and had knowledge and understanding of their histories and their place in those histories. Now the demographic has changed very considerably. The population is more mobile, more transient and the links with local knowledge and shared experience are fragmenting. As the indigenous population dies or moves away a huge reservoir of untapped and unrecorded local knowledge is disappearing.
A few examples of this local knowledge would include the experience of social life based on the chapels, local food and drink, local sports and pastimes, field names, dialect and accent, knowledge of previous shops, pubs and other services - the whole range of shared experience that made up the texture of intangible heritage. Many ‘new’ residents are keen to learn about the roots of the places they have moved to, but lack information because it hasn’t been captured and therefore isn’t readily accessible. With increased access there may even be an appetite to revive elements of this intangible heritage.
Elements of our existing knowledge base is also at risk through a potential decline in trained and qualified heritage skills practitioners in the region and from the non-replacement of an aging cohort of cultural heritage experts. However the number of active cultural heritage projects which are engaging new and younger audiences, alongside the existence of groups like the North Pennines National Landscape’s Historic Environment Working Group, does provide an opportunity to seek ways in which future experts can be encouraged, supported and mentored.
Linked to this are threats posed by the current state of available archive material from past cultural heritage projects. This is often dispersed, currently inaccessible or disparate in its present formatting. Clearly there is a need for more integration of the existing knowledge resource into a compatible and readily accessible format. Clarification of the extent of the existing knowledge base should be a high priority in the National Landscape area.
By the same token a lot of important research relating to all aspects of the cultural heritage has been produced through the work of non-professional groups in the area. The results of this work runs the risk of suffering from narrow circulation and potential loss over time. Efforts should be made to identify and preserve the results of such work, and where possible data should be incorporated into the relevant regional Historic Environment Records.
A further, potentially significant , threat to the intangible heritage might come through a lack of any widely agreed methodology within the National Landscape area, for its recording and transmission to a wider audience. Again, steps should be taken, as a matter of some priority to rectify this situation.