News in brief: Enabled Archaeology

A round-up of some of the latest archaeological stories in the UK.

Heritage at risk

Historic England has published its annual Heritage at Risk Register, revealing that 130 historic buildings and sites have been declared ‘at risk’ over the past year. They include a 17th-century cottage in West Sussex, once home to poet and artist William Blake (1757-1827), as well as one of the oldest windmills in England, Bourn Mill in Cambridgeshire, dating back at least to 1636.

PHOTO: Charlie Round-Turner.

On a more positive note, 233 sites have been removed from the register, including Battersea Power Station in London, an icon of the city’s 20th-century industrial heritage. Plumpton Rocks, an 18th-century designed landscape in Yorkshire, Lincoln Castle, and the 14th-century Cresswell Tower in Northumberland have also been declared ‘saved’.

Notable research

A new research project, ‘Beyond Notability’, will use the archives of the Society of Antiquaries of London as well as those of the Royal Archaeological Institute to re-evaluate women’s work in archaeology, history, and heritage in Britain between 1870 and 1950.

The £929,729 project will examine the archaeologists’ educational backgrounds, field careers, personal lives, and politics, and results will be released on an ongoing basis as a publicly available data set integrated with Wikipedia.

‘Beyond Notability’ is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and will be led by the Institute of Classical Studies at the University of London’s School of Advanced Study, in partnership with the Society of Antiquaries of London and the University of Southampton Digital Humanities. For more information, see www.beyondnotability.org.

Enabled Archaeology

The Enabled Archaeology Foundation, a registered charity founded ‘to empower, enable, and combat negative attitudes to dis/Abled involvement in heritage’, has launched a new website with articles and resources designed to support access to archaeology as a practice and a profession.

The new platform includes an ‘Articles and News’ section, with articles on inclusion, equality, and enabled archaeology, as well as a ‘Further Support and Resources’ section, with links to further websites, organisations, articles, projects, guides, and podcasts.

The website also features an events calendar and information for employers.

The charity is interested to hear from anyone with content or events that could be featured on the new website. Find out more at www.enabledarchaeology.com and via @EAFCharity on Twitter.