C O N T E X T 1 3 3 : M A R C H 2 0 1 4 33 CARL JUKES Worcester’s HER21 project Worcester City Historic Environment Record (HER) has been created to support informed and intelligent plan-making and development management. In 2010Worcester City Council’s development management service obtained funding from English Heritage towards the Worcester City Historic Buildings Data Project. The project aimed to digitally capture historic building application records forWorcester, dating from 1865–1948, and assimilate them into theWorcester City Historic Environment Record (HER).This was to enable fully searchable, geographic-information-system-based access to an important but under-used dataset to be provided to a broad spectrum of users. The aim was to allow local authority conservation, archaeological and planning officers to develop an enhanced understanding of Worcester’s historic built fabric, further enabling its informed and intelligent management through plan-making and development management.Three thousand groups of records, many of them very fragile, were digitally preserved, removing the need to use the original documents. Project officers now had access to high-resolution images of the original architects’ drawings: plans, elevations and sections all in colour and fully annotated. These were usually accompanied with specifications for materials to be used, quantities and how they were to be employed, and information relating to ownership, building use and the names of the architects themselves. The advantages of having these missing pieces of the jigsaw to study are self-evident and numerous. Prior to the inception of HER21, the city council had its own HER.The records consisted of historic Ordnance Survey and tithe maps; historic photos dating from the late 19th century (Board of Health Survey) to early 20th century; inter-war aerial photos (vertical and oblique); miscellaneous documents; and mapped records of find locations, archaeological interventions and scheduled ancient monuments.These, geographically searchable via GIS, highlighted listed buildings, buildings at risk, buildings of local significance and conservation areas. Given the HER’s evolution from a tool purely for recording archaeological information, there were significant gaps in terms of robust information on historic buildings, a fact that this project had to address. Sometimes a degree of uncertainty and supposition may have to be employed with conservation and history. With supposition can come confusion and with confusion The plans and elevations forWoodside, a suburban gentleman’s residence of around 1820, raise some tricky questions.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjgyMjA=