Isle of Wight Coastal Assessment Enhancement

English Heritage summaries. 2006/2007

In 1999–2000 the Isle of Wight County Archaeology and Historic Environment Service was funded by English Heritage to carry out a rapid survey of the Island’s coast and major estuaries (Isle of Wight Coastal Audit). This survey increased the number of coastal sites recorded on the County Sites and Monuments Record by 186% and identified areas of high archaeological significance, but it also served to highlight the vulnerability of the Island’s coastal archaeology, and the range of threats which it faces.

The Coastal Audit established that almost 20% of sites, which arguably may be the most significant to the understanding of the evolution of the coast and to early human exploitation of the coastal zone, remain undated and insufficiently recorded. This was an acknowledged weakness of the Coastal Audit; it merely identified the location of archaeological sites but did not provide the means to record or date them adequately, making it difficult to assess or to justify the significance of sites. It was felt that a moderate amount of additional work with select radiocarbon dating would greatly enhance our understanding of these sites. The timing of this enhancement was extremely pertinent in view of the ongoing review the Isle of Wight Shoreline Management Plan which commenced in 2007.

The main aims of the Coastal Assessment Enhancement project were:
• To provide dating evidence for select coastal sites in order to assist in the assessment of their relative significance.
• To enable more effective and informed participation by English Heritage and the Local Authority in the forthcoming review of the Isle of Wight Shoreline Management Plan.
• To improve our understanding of the Island’s coastal archaeology so that information provided via the Isle of Wight’s Historic Environment Record in relation to future development proposals is more reliable and informed.
• To provide a re-evaluation of aspects of the archaeology recorded during the Coastal Audit five years on. This enhanced data could be used to inform longer term management strategies and to input into the shoreline management planning process.
• It was envisaged that the results of this project would contribute towards a proposed research framework for the historic environment of the Isle of Wight coast.

The Isle of Wight Coastal Audit identified sites and areas needing further recording, dating and analysis. However, this work was not within the remit of the original project, and some of the sites previously recorded are known to have been destroyed by coastal erosion. The objectives of the current project were thus:
• To recover samples for radiocarbon dating of select vulnerable sites in key areas.
• To re-evaluate key areas and assess the condition of sites and archaeological landscapes.
• To use this data to help monitor rates of erosion and predict the nature, scale and pace of coastal change in different coastal units.

Samples were collected from intertidal stake alignments and structures, hurdles, and coastal fish weirs at Newtown, Thorness, East Cowes and Springvale. Hearths and palaeoenvironmental deposits which were exposed in the eroding cliff face in Brook Bay were sampled but additional features that had been noted near Chilton Chine had been destroyed by cliff recession. 

The resulting dates covered a wide date span, ranging from early Mesolithic to sixteenth century. A summary report is in preparation.

This page was published on 06/05/2008