News, updates and progress reports

last updated: November 2008

The project programme was originally conceived to take place over a 12 month period, divided into four 3-month stages. The project team reports to a Steering Group which meets quarterly. Monitoring meetings and reports to English Heritage also take place on this quarterly schedule.

It has now been decided to extend the consultation stage by one month, to the end of November 2008. The project is due for completion by April 2009.

November 2008

The third stage of the project, between August and October, includes the second part of the consultation and the compilation of the collated comments and other findings. Aside from a number of contacts and meetings with key individuals and organisations, this stage of the project also included a Historic Environment Research Seminar at the British Academy on October 2nd. A summary of the discussion at this seminar will be posted here shortly.

Given the importance placed on carrying out the broadest possible consultation it was decided to extend this stage of the project by one month to the end of November to allow opportunities for further comment before the project moves on to the identification and formal development of research priorities in December and the drafting of the research strategy text for submission to English Heritage by April 2009. 

July 2008

The second stage of the project, between May and July, included the first part of the general consultation, which was centred around a series of seminars held at the LAARC. The draft research review was compiled in advance of the seminars and made available to participants in order to prompt debate.

The seminars attracted well over 100 individuals and generated lively but thoughtful discussion.

You can view a summary of the seminar discussions by clicking here

In order to further focus on some of the topics covered in the seminars we have created a questionnaire, which can be accessed by following the link in the navigation panel on the left of this page.

April 2008

The first 3-month stage of the project, between February and April, involved the design of the project website, creation of consultee lists, initial contacts and mailshots.

The project's consultee list includes over 300 individuals and organisations, reflecting a broad range of heritage interests. Consultees include curators, archives and local studies libraries, commercial contractors, conservation and local government officers, consultants, English Heritage staff, elected individuals at the GLA and councils, museums and their staff, planning officers, local societies and community groups, archaeological specialists and university departments.

By sending us your ideas you can play an active part in developing the research strategy