Dorset Historic Environment Record Forward Plan 2021-25: Introduction

Introduction

The historic environment is all aspects of the environment resulting from the interaction between people and places through time, including all surviving physical remains of past human activity, whether visible, buried or submerged, and landscaped and planted or managed flora.

Historic Environment Records (HERs) are information services that seek to provide access to comprehensive and dynamic resources relating to the historic environment of a defined geographic area for public benefit and use.

The Dorset Historic Environment Record is a record of historic buildings and archaeological finds and features in the County. Records range from isolated finds of coins or fragments of pottery to massive earthwork features covering many hectares; from the earliest prehistoric periods to industrial sites and World War Two defences. Wrecks and underwater sites are recorded, as are sites with special designations such as scheduled monuments and listed buildings.

The Dorset HER is an integral part of the environmental advice service maintained by Dorset Council provided to Bournemouth Christchurch and Poole Council. The HER is the core reference tool for the historic environment in these unitary authorities, underpinning both conservation work and public information provision for the councils. It is a public record and consulted by national and local government, landowners, householders, developers, utilities, professional and amateur archaeologists, students, and anyone with an interest in the history and archaeology of Dorset.

This forward plan details the objectives, tasks and resources that will be required over the next 5 years to continue the development of the HER as a fully integrated record supporting the work of the service and in relation to performance measures laid out in A Guide to Historic Environment Records in England (Historic England 2019).

This plan has been developed and reviewed with input and involvement of a wide range of stakeholders. In working to achieve these objectives we are determined to continue to develop the record as an accurate and comprehensive information resource and provide a relevant and useful service to the area.