A battlefield hit by HS2 – and planning rules

It isn’t just the countryside and its residents that are suffering due to HS2 (‘It’s been beyond difficult’: earthworks of HS2 take toll on Chilterns residents, 2 October). The high-speed rail contractor has recently done considerable damage to potential archaeology on the nationally important registered battlefield at Edgcote, a Wars of the Roses battle fought in 1469.

HS2 stripped 30cm of soil from an area equivalent to around 16 football pitches to allow storage of hundreds of thousands of tons of earth dug out along the route of the new railway. The archaeology of battle sits in the topsoil and understanding its distribution is key. HS2’s contractor undertook a geophysical survey prior to work beginning. But this method is not designed to find the types of small artefacts typically found on a medieval battlefield. If it had used a systematic metal-detecting survey instead, such material would not have been lost.

This is baffling, because HS2 has an otherwise good track record on archaeological investigation, including on the Edgcote battlefield part of the route.

So why has it happened? The real villain of this piece is the current permitted development rules, which allowed HS2’s contractor to press on with work on the battlefield once it had been told by planners that an environmental-impact assessment was not necessary.

We think of permitted development allowing house owners to build extensions, but they also let major engineering works to be undertaken outside normal planning scrutiny. This prevents an assessment of the impact of development on heritage and crucially fails to require any archaeological investigations before work begins.

The Battlefields Trust does not seek to limit householder extensions or prevent development that preserves or enhances battlefield sites. But permitted development rules need to change if they are to stop damaging our heritage.
Simon Marsh
Battlefield research and threats coordinator, Battlefields Trust

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