Abstract
IN a period of economic transition such as the present, the future of many monuments of antiquity, now in private ownership, even when under the protection of the Office of Works, must continue to be precarious, owing to the breaking up of large estates. Private benefaction and public response to appeal in cases of urgent necessity have been generous in recent years; but they cannot be expected to shoulder the burden indefinitely. The strongest safeguard for the less widely known, but often none the less important antiquities, which necessarily must run the greater risk, is a vigilant educated public opinion, backed by an enlightened authority. An example of the effective application of existing legislation in such conditions is afforded by the recent public inquiry at Worthing on a proposal to develop Highdown Hill between Worthing and Littledown as a building estate (The. Times, May 13). On account of the natural, archseological and historical interest of the site, this inquiry, held by order of the Ministry of Health, is to be regarded as of considerable importance. The Hill, a southern outlier of the South Downs, rises to a height of two hundred and sixty-nine feet, and is an important feature in the maritime level tract, which is visible from far along the coast. On the summit is an earthwork, of at present uncertain age, in which was discovered in 1892 an important sixth century Anglo-Saxon cemetery. In it were eighty-six burials lying east and west in rows. The contents of the graves, of which the ornamentation suggested Frankish affinities, made this one of the most important finds of its kind in Britain. Yet the site was not scheduled under the Ancient Monuments Acts until 1930, and then only as the result of public protest, when the estate was offered for sale. The present inquiry was held on an appeal from the owner against a refusal of the Worthing Rural District Council to grant an interim development order. It was opposed by the Worthing Rural and Town Councils, the West Sussex County Council and four adjacent owners. A public-spirited offer has been made by the local authorities to accept any financial responsibility involved in the preservation of the site.
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Preservation of Monuments of Antiquity. Nature 139, 875 (1937). https://doi.org/10.1038/139875b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/139875b0