A day in the life of a SWPP Historic Environment Officer

We caught up with Dr Martin Gillard recently to talk all things restoration planning, pollen records and peat passes. Involved in peatland restoration sector on Exmoor since 2017, Martin now works as a Historic Environment Officer with a focus on preserving and enhancing Dartmoor’s historic and archaeological landscape as part of SWPP restoration approaches.

What does a typical day look like to you in your role as a Historic Environment Officer with the SWPP?

Happily for me, there’s no such thing as a typical day at work. It could be said that my job is as varied as the landscape of Dartmoor itself! First and foremost, my role is to make sure that the peatland restoration works carried out by the SWPP have as little a negative impact upon the archaeology of Dartmoor as possible. Ideally, the works can actually enhance and protect the historic features around which we work. To ensure that is the case, my days are often spent working closely with the officers who design the restoration plans from the very start.

When restoration sites have been selected, I carry out a desk-based study so we can understand all the known archaeology in the area. I look at the information held on the historic environment record, as well as historic maps, aerial photographs and LiDAR surveys. (LiDAR is a fantastic technique for creating a 3-D survey of large areas; carried out by flying an aircraft over the countryside and bouncing lasers off the ground). At this stage, I will identify issues that need to be checked on site, such as previously unidentified features or known archaeology that seem to vary from the existing records. I also look for areas of erosion to examine when I head out on site, in case anything has been revealed beneath or within the peat.

Lone hawthorn amongst the remains of Ringleshutes Tin Mine on Holne Moor, Dartmoor

I’m lucky to be part of a three-person strong team of Historic Environment Officers employed by the South West Peatland Partnership. To have this knowledge and expertise in house is unusual in the peatland restoration sector, and a fantastic win for the South West. This extra resource allows us to spend our time both in the office planning and out on sites themselves to really understand the context of each area, and how best we can work to ensure the historic environment is an integral part of restoration. We work closely with the restoration officers, monitoring team, education and communications officers to share the work we do and keep local communities up to date on our plans. I’m available to meet with groups and interested parties who might like to learn more about our work, feel free to contact us if you would like to arrange this.

Do you get to go out on site much? Is that important to do?

After desk-based research, the next step is to visit the prospective restoration site. If possible, I do this in the company of the restoration officer who is planning the works. It helps for both of us to get a feel of the site together. Sometimes I have to disappoint them when I point out a historic feature on their sites (and tell them that they have to keep their grubby mitts off it), but better to change plans at these early stages than later on in the process.

It is also at this point that I sometimes identify previously unrecognised features. I have come across eroded prehistoric cists (burial sites), possible standing stones, and tinners’ buildings (places where those involved in tin streaming may have lived or worked) that have not yet made their way into the archaeological record. Also, I sometimes note that the records of known features can be improved and enhanced.

Phil, Historic Environment Officer, out on Dartmoor by a Bronze Age boundary and scheduled monument. Peatland restoration would aim to lessen further damage to this feature’s historic fabric caused by the erosive power of water channels.

“I’m often thankful to those surveyors who did their job operating in open moorland without the benefit of modern GPS to locate their finds. As ever in archaeology, I am standing on the shoulders of giants.”

As a result of the desk-based and on-site surveys I make recommendations regarding the restoration plans. Commonly, areas around archaeological features are excluded from the works, with no digging or vehicle movements allowed. In some cases, where historic features are suffering from erosion, I will allow works to stop this damage, blocking scoured out channels or reprofiling and vegetating crumbling peat faces. It may be the case sometimes that works cannot proceed until additional archaeological survey and research has been carried out. The recommendations that are added to the restoration plans are always run past the Dartmoor National Park archaeologist, and Historic England, to ensure everything is to their satisfaction.

Have you ever found any artefacts out on peatlands? How to you mitigate against any damage to these?

When the restoration is about to start, I always brief all contractors on site about the archaeology that is present and about the possibility of making new discoveries as they shift the peat around. A photograph of a bog body tends to get their attention (though none found in our neck of the woods, so far!) To date, contractors have only come across modern features and artefacts such as pottery and military debris during their works but have always brought these things to my attention. If I think an area is particularly sensitive, I have been known to spend a few days watching the excavators myself to be on the safe side.

Sometimes, crossing archaeological features is unavoidable such as this prehistoric boundary (reave) on Buckfastleigh Moor. Heavy-duty mats, the careful manoeuvring of low ground-pressure vehicles, frequent changing of routes and regular monitoring all ensure that any impact was kept to an absolute minimum.

At the beginning of the restoration, I also mark up the excluded areas with canes and coloured flags so there is no mistaking them. Nowadays, digger drivers tend to have access to GPS within their cabs, either through their mobiles or tablets, so I supply them with all the relevant information in digital form as well. After the groundworks start, I will continue to visit the sites regularly, and continue to go back to check on the condition of historic features and the impact of the restoration.

“‘My job is as varied as the landscape of Dartmoor itself.’”

Taking samples of prehistoric peat, Bodmin Moor. The base of this core dated back to the end of the last glacial period (starting c. 12,600 years ago). An unbroken sequence of this date is of regional, if not national importance.

What are you planning for the coming months, alongside restoration works?

My role recognises that peatland restoration has a wider impact on the historic landscape than the individual sites themselves. That’s why I’m working on identifying gaps in our knowledge, and research that needs to be done to better understand Dartmoor and its archaeology. In the coming months, we’re aiming to commission experts to carry out deeper studies of how people have interacted with the land. From examinations of the environment from prehistory onwards by looking at pollen preserved within the peat, to recording the Phillpotts peat passes (cut-throughs in the landscape originally created to ease access for hunting and livestock movement; some are still used for the latter to this day) that were created in the early twentieth century.

There’s so much we can do to further collective knowledge and understanding of the incredible past of Dartmoor.