C O N T E X T 1 2 2 : N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 1 7 Periodically Back in September 2009, your reviewer had occasion to remark about a disappointing trend of a dumbing-down of content by some heritage publications, presumably to provide more bite-sized, information-lite material for a more general readership. Unfortunately, this is decreasingly informative to heritage practitioners. It is therefore pleasing to be able to welcome to the roster of reviews here The Historic Environment: policy and practice periodical, which is likely to be essential reading for heritage professionals. This refereed journal, initiated in 2010, is issued twice a year.The publisher, Maney Publishing, has been kind enough to supply the first three issues. Members of the IfA receive a copy as part of their annual subscription. IHBC members can obtain it at a 20 per cent discount. A number of articles are worth highlighting, and I hope to devote more space to the content of individual issues in future. The new journal takes perhaps a more holistic view of the historic environment than two other leading journals in the field, the Journal of Architectural Conservation and the Bulletin of the Association of Preservation Technology, both of which are more oriented to architectural conservation. All three provide a valuable international as well as a domestic perspective on best practice. Consequently The Historic Environment has more of a mix of archaeological and building conservation content. As might be expected, and is indeed welcome, there is also some inter-disciplinary overlap. The June 2010 issue (Vol 1, No 1) gives a particularly interesting and detailed overview of urban characterisation in the Black Country, as part of English Heritage’s Historic Landscape Characterisation programme. This subject, presenting particular challenges in a large industrial conurbation, provides the necessary evidence in support of local character and distinctiveness. This may prove to be essential as background to underpinning the concept of localism and managing the sort of change anticipated in the radical restructuring of the planning system. International perspectives are provided by articles on the archaeological challenges associated with the construction of an immersed road tunnel across the inner harbour in Oslo (not the scale of public works project one can currently readily anticipate being undertaken in the UK any time soon); and an evaluation of the main threats to the MoenjodaroWorld Heritage Site (2350–1800BC) in the Indus flood plain of Sindh, Pakistan. Another very sobering article, ‘Footprints in the Concrete’, deals with the difficult issue of the identification, heritage significance and management of the sites of camps in northern France used by Jewish slave labour while building part of the Atlantic Wall for the Nazis during the second world war. In the November 2010 issue (Vol 1, No 2), Dennis Rodwell examines the comparative approaches to the theory and practice of urban conservation in central and eastern Europe, using Zamość in Poland and Sibiu in Romania as examples. The former became a world heritage site in 1992; the latter was unsuccessful in its bid to become one in 2007. Rodwell notes the role of strong mayoral leadership about a decade ago in identifying the importance of the historic core of both cities as essential to city-wide strategies of sustainable urban development. In the same issue, Malcolm Cooper’s deliberations about the impact of cuts to public expenditure and regulatory reform in England and Scotland in the context of the change in political philosophy at the heart of government will be of particular concern to those readers in the public sector. Cooper was writing in 2010 at Historic Scotland, from which he has since retired. Although the debate about the role of the state and regulatory bodies has moved relentlessly onward since, the questions he poses about the balance between the constraint of the behaviour of individuals and the reduction of individual rights for the broader environmental benefit of society, now and in the future, remains germane to the continuing argument. The issue also looks at the international management of marine aggregates in relation to the impact on the marine historic environment. It also addresses concern about the underappreciation of, and lack of analysis of, historic urban areas and vernacular buildings in Portugal, with a particular focus on Coimbra in central Portugal. An area occupied since the 11th century is under threat from highway works, which would bisect it. The article presses the case for a better understanding of the area’s evolution, and of what this process could mean for urban buildings archaeology and historic area management in Portugal as a whole. The final item in that issue is a short but important one in which Harriet Devlin reviews recent online or DVD guidance for British home owners on undertaking preventive maintenance. Having looked at advice from English Heritage, Historic Scotland, Cadw and SPAB, Devlin asks: are they useful and instructive? She concludes: instructive, yes; useful, no. ‘A paper checklist and a calendar to act as a visual aid on your pinboard is probably the best and cheapest option, for in the end it is the manual doing rather than the intellectual viewing that will keep buildings going.’ It is worth drawing attention to David Dunworth’s long and highly informative
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