Client: HS2 Ltd

PCA Heritage designed, developed and continues to maintain the heritage asset database used by HS2 and its Phase 2B heritage teams. The database manages data on nearly 20,000 heritage assets present along the two legs of the Phase 2b route (Crewe to Manchester and West Midlands to Leeds).

The database answered the challenge of how to standardise the many thousands of records available so that data could be compared and assessed. The heart of this issue lay in the fact that heritage data has not been recorded and collated to a set standard and terminology over the years. This means a record can be anything from an anecdotal account of an interesting find to the results of a modern research excavation. Essentially, the data from two areas cannot be directly compared and assessed without a process of standardisation being undertaken as part of an impact assessment.

By being developed in-house and using readily available software (Microsoft Access) costly third-party service providers and their associated additional development, maintenance, licensing and hosting fees have been avoided.

One of the aims of the database was to channel how people inputted data so that the terminology used for different heritage assets could be standardised. Standardisation allowed queries, both simple and complex, to be run without the risk of missing or double-counting assets. Standardisation also allowed the database to output information within bespoke tables which could be used in the scheme’s environmental statement and the technical documents that supported it. In total, 140 supporting documents and maps were produced directly from the database. The advantages of the database and the standardisation of data that it required are numerous. It provides synthesised data for a range of audiences including technical specialists undertaking analysis. At its simplest it produces simple queries which can calculate the numbers of listed buildings within the scheme’s study areas, for example, or the numbers of heritage assets in specific parishes.

More information on HS2 Phase 2b historic environment heritage asset database can be found on HS2 Learning Legacy portal