Sussex Heritage at Risk — an URGENT call for you to respond to the Rampion 2 Consultation
Members of the Sussex Archaeological Society and others are encouraged to respond to a consultation affecting a very significant prehistoric landscape north of Patching. The consultation closes on Monday 27th March.
Please read the draft response to the consultation, prepared by Professor Martin Bell BSc, PhD, FSA, FBA, President of The Sussex Archaeological Society.
As you are probably aware, there is a proposal to extend the Rampion 2 wind farm off the Sussex coast with an additional 90 turbines and this has already been the subject of planning consultation for the route which conveys power onto and across dry land. Following objections to an earlier route east of Burpham there is a current consultation on a 3km corridor alternative route north of Patching.
The new proposed route for this cable runs from Climping Beach, west of Littlehampton, in a north-easterly direction to Washington, Partridge Green to between Cowfold and Bolney, passing through the South Downs National Park.
The alternative route is of great concern from an archaeological perspective. It passes through the middle of the most dense concentration of Neolithic and Bronze Age archaeology on the South Downs. In this area are many sites of national and international significance. Of particular archaeological sensitivity are two proposed routes on the west side of Blackpatch Hill and between here and Harrow Hill. Adjacent are the early Neolithic flint mines of Blackpatch and Harrow Hill, and a major complex of middle and later Bronze Age settlements on New Barn Down (Curwen, SAC 63, 75), Cock Hill (Ratcliffe-Densham SAC 1961) and Blackpatch (Ratcliffe-Densham SAC 1953).
Work on the cable trench will affect a corridor 50m wide within the wider corridor on which consultation is taking place. Whilst the flint mines and some of the Bronze Age settlement sites lie just outside the corridor on which consultation is taking place, the assessment documentation acknowledges that the Bronze Age settlement and fields of the Cock Hill Bronze Age settlement are likely to be significantly impacted.
The key point is that the settlement and field system archaeology of this corridor area is so dense and significant that further archaeological finds are bound to be present within the corridor. Any impact needs to be carefully assessed in advance of any disturbance. The known settlement and field system evidence is particularly on the down spur crests and slopes, with less known evidence in the dry valley bottoms. However, a key lesson from excavations in advance of the Brighton Bypass and other excavations on the South Downs by M. Bell and M.J. Allen is that sediment sequences that accumulate in dry valleys provide some of the best evidence for buried field system traces, valley bottom settlement and evidence of the ecological history of the chalk downland. We do not, for instance, know where the people who excavated the internationally significant flint mines lived. A chance outcome of the New Barn Down Bronze Age settlement excavation was the discovery of a large early Neolithic pit contemporary with the flint mines. This highlights the potential for this area of landscape to provide important and unexpected discoveries.
The Sussex Archaeological Society’s 2022 conference on flint mines served to highlight the exceptional significance of these sites but also showed how limited is our knowledge of the Neolithic ecology of the surrounding areas. This is relevant to active debate concerning the extent to which the chalk downland in early prehistory was forested or included more open grassland areas and that is relevant to current debates about nature conservation and rewilding. The dry sediments in the assessment corridor will contain important evidence of the prehistoric environment and are likely to have some of the best preserved and buried evidence for field systems associated with the known concentration of Bronze Age settlement.
The Sussex Archaeological Society is supportive of plans for green energy generation, especially in an offshore context and where it does not impact heritage or wildlife. The dryland cable routes do involve significant ground disturbance over a 50m wide corridor. It is to be regretted that the alternative route proposed through this consultation passes through such an archaeologically significant landscape and we hope that serious consideration will be given to a more westerly route originally proposed, if that can avoid areas of such significant archaeology. If the proposed alternative route is to be adopted then the very highest priority should be given to the thorough assessment of heritage assets within the corridor, including sediment accumulations in dry valley fills and all evidence of early field systems within the affected area.
The Sussex Archaeological Society is preparing its own response to the consultation, of which this is a first draft.
Draft prepared by Professor Martin Bell BSc, PhD, FSA, FBA
President Sussex Archaeological Society
We urge you to send your own response to the consultation using this link by Monday 27th March. If you are a local resident you might also consider writing urgently to your local MP and councillors to express your concerns.