ABSTRACT
Interest in sites of antiquity can be traced back at least 450 years, for it is recorded that John Leland was appointed Antiquary to Henry VIII in 1533 with a commission to search the length and breadth of England and Wales for surviving antiquities and monuments of all types.1 However, just over 100 years ago, in 1882, archaeology became the first of what we would now call the ‘environmental’ disciplines to have the backing of Government legislation, with the Ancient Monuments Protection Act. The scholarly amateurs and writers of the time, following their interest of recording prehistoric
monuments, laid down the foundations of what was to become in later years a thorough approach of research, recording and conservation.
