Abstract
Educating the public is widely acknowledged as a crucial component in generating public support for the protection and preservation of underwater cultural heritage. The United Kingdom (UK) public’s engagement with heritage has never been greater. The trends continue to show steady increases in the numbers of the public visiting heritage sites and of those who are directly involved as volunteers. However, despite these positives, concern remains among the archaeological community about the state of preservation of some of the UK’s protected wreck sites. This chapter examines the UK government’s policy that has proven successful at raising public interest and involvement and to what extent this success has extended to underwater cultural heritage.
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- 1.
Tourism is one of the six largest industries, with an estimated £90bn (USD$140bn) contribution, 200,000 businesses, and 4.4 % of UK jobs.
- 2.
English Heritage received funds from the Aggregate Levy Sustainability Fund in 2002–2011.
- 3.
Cutty Sark, launched in 1869, is the oldest surviving tea clipper and forms part of Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site.
- 4.
Research has revealed that the Newport Ship is a fifteenth-century medieval merchant ship.
- 5.
The National Trust is a not-for-profit organisation established in 1895. It protects and opens to the public some 350 historic houses, gardens, and ancient monuments, as well as open spaces.
- 6.
Stirling Caste is a 70-gun warship built in 1678 at Deptford, one of 20 third-rate vessels ordered by Samuel Pepys to regenerate the English Navy, found in 1979 by sport divers in the Goodwin Sands off Kent, UK.
- 7.
Heritage authorities in England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Island provide licenced access to designated sites covered by the Protection of Wrecks Act 1973. There are four types of licence: excavation, surface finds recovery, survey, and visitor. A nominated archaeologist, who often acts in a voluntary capacity, is a prerequisite for an excavation licence and for surface recovery of finds, but not necessarily for a survey or visitor licence. The role of the nominated archaeologist is to work closely with the site licensee to develop the archaeological strategy.
- 8.
The contractor relating to wrecks designated under the Protection of Wrecks Act 1973 is, at this writing, Wessex Archaeology.
- 9.
Productive Seas is chapter five of Charting Progress 2, a wide-scope document that identifies the economic potential of the marine environment including marine leisure.
- 10.
The seven remaining vessels of the German High Seas Fleet are scheduled under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979, which allows free access on a strictly “look but don’t disturb” basis.
- 11.
Coronation is a 90-gun second-rate ship, built in 1685 at Portsmouth (DCMS 2009).
- 12.
The net additional impact for the South West Region is lower than the overall impact, due to some expenditure outside of the region (Charting Progress 2).
- 13.
Coast (BBC & Open University) features the natural and social history of the British coastline, which has expanded to include Republic of Ireland, France, Low Countries, and Scandinavia.
- 14.
Rome (BBC) is a fictional drama following the lives of two ordinary Roman soldiers.
- 15.
Time Team (Channel Four) has run since 1994 and follows archaeological investigations, including several underwater, by a team of experts, presented by Tony Robinson (Monty Python).
- 16.
A Picture of Britain (BBC) features artist’s views of Britain.
- 17.
Egypt (BBC) is a drama that features some of the past’s great archaeologists and their discoveries.
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Underwood, C.J. (2014). Out of Sight, Out of Mind and at Risk: The United Kingdom Public’s Engagement with Heritage. In: Scott-Ireton, D. (eds) Between the Devil and the Deep. When the Land Meets the Sea, vol 5. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-8178-2_3
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