46 C O N T E X T 1 3 1 : S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 3 company, which returned the digitalised information to the HER team for indexing. Most of the districts had underestimated the number of records and photographs they had, so this particular objective could not be fully completed within the lifetime of the project, although it has been completed subsequently. The steering committee was concerned about privacy issues as many of the images were taken on private land and included interiors. Consequently the decision was taken to prevent public access to the images.The images are available to conservation officers and other official users on the newly created access website but they can not be seen by the public through the Heritage Gateway (www.heritagegateway.org.uk).The Lincolnshire HER21 website is password-protected to restrict it to professional use due to these concerns about images, and because the site provides access to pre-planning application advice and other commercially sensitive material. Entry to the site is via a base map. Once an area or site has been selected, the icons at the top of the map allow the user to measure distances, adjust the area focus of the map and create a list of all heritage asset records within its parameters. On the map itself, legends indicate the presence of designated heritage assets, archaeological casework consultations, fieldwork and site visits, historic sites and finds, with the option of a 1905 historic map overlay.The user can drill down into a choice of information. This might include listed building descriptions; conservation area appraisals; images and archaeology consultation references for planning applications; and source material references for further research. The experience of the steering committee was primarily positive. Members of the group, from English Heritage, Lincolnshire County Council, West Lindsey District Council, exeGesIS and the IHBC, worked effectively together, bringing with them a useful diversity of skills and the ability to deliver the project outcomes.That is not to say there were not issues with the process. A fundamental impact was the very tight and ambitious timescales required of the project by the English Heritage funding. Given the innovative nature of our project, complexities of the technical solution and the requirement to work with external parties, this was particularly taxing. On the plus side it reinforced the focus of the project group and steering committee. However, when the inevitable hiccups happened there was no flexibility in the timescale, which meant that important elements such as the testing period had to be curtailed. The project was really complicated.At times, the more specialist details of the technical solution went over my head.This does not seem to have had an adverse impact on the overall project, thankfully. What was clear was the challenge of using two external partners for the IT – exeGesIS, the specialist team for the software, and Mouchel, the county council’s IT providers.At one point the project became very precarious when we realised that the communication of the specification for the website had not been as successful as anticipated. A fraught meeting followed, with a shortfall in funding identified. Fortuitously additional funding was forthcoming. We managed to get the project back on track thanks, in particular, to the perseverance of our steering group members from the historic environment team and to the expertise of exeGesIS. Enough time has passed since the launch of the HER21 conservation officer access website to allow meaningful reflection and critical appraisal of the success of the project. In addition to my experiences, I spoke to a number of my fellow conservation officers to find out how Lincolnshire HER21 was faring in the real world. Certainly the map default entry was as popular as envisaged, with conservation officers preferring map-based searches to text. The amount of detailed information, including planning history all in one place, was also a definite strength, providing a one-stop shop for heritage resource. Usage of the website has reached a high volume. For many officers the site is the default choice over other options for accessing evidence on the historic environment.This data reinforces my experience: my interaction with the HER has dramatically increased as a direct result of the project. Talking to the historic environment team, the one underperforming element of the site was the feedback option. The feedback facility on Lincolnshire HER21 is fairly sophisticated and unlike other systems is not restricted to an email option. Even so, officers do not appear to be taking advantage of this opportunity.Whether this is down to lack of confidence about how this function works or lack of habit is something to be explored, most likely in the Conservation Officers Group forum. As to the future of this resource, with a growing culture of agile working and paperless offices, an innovative, comprehensive and reactive HER at your fingertips is an invaluable tool. Acknowledgements Thanks to the historic environment team at Lincolnshire County Council, especially Sarah Grundy and Mark Bennett for their availability as a resource on the finer details of the project. The Lincolnshire HER21 website was constructed by exeGesIS Spatial Data Management.The HER information it contains is the copyright of Lincolnshire County Council. Sarah Harrison is senior area development officer, heritage, with West Lindsey District Council, Lincolnshire Screenshots illustrating the sequence for an investigation of some of the HER data available for 21 St Mary’s Street, Stamford.The base map is OS copyright.
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