Perhaps the Trust's greatest benefit to the nation comes from promoting access to our land and properties. Much of the open countryside - mountain, moor, down and heath - that we care for, is available for public exploration.

Access

But our historic environment is fragile, and this can lead to potential conflict of interests where heavily visited properties contain vulnerable archaeological elements. Over-use of a footpath which crosses the rampart of an Iron Age hill-fort will result in erosion and likely loss of archaeological evidence from the buried ground surface beneath the bank. This might include evidence for farming, vegetation and woodland cover contained in traces of seeds, pollen and animal remains, trapped during the building process.

To minimise loss of material and potential knowledge through damage, the historic environment must be conserved and managed in such a way that access is maintained, whilst our responsibility of care is answered.

Agriculture

Some modern agricultural processes, such as deep ploughing, moling and the heavy use of chemicals, are a potential source of damage to structural remains or artefacts below the ground, as has been demonstrated nationally by the English Heritage Monuments at Risk Survey (1998).

Wherever possible at Trust properties, measures are taken to avoid or mitigate threats to the archaeological survival. This may simply involve organised field walking and finds retrieval, or sometimes, in the longer term, special provision for alternative agricultural practices, such as arable reversion, with funding support from agri-environmental grant schemes.

The Trust's archaeologists contribute with other National Trust advisers and managers to the formation of Whole Farm Plans and proposals for diversification on certain National Trust farm tenancies. Sympathetic treatment of redundant vernacular farm buildings is a particular concern.

Dealing with change

The Trust promotes the study of continuity of use and change in the landscape to provide historical models for the present and future users of the countryside.

Change is inevitable, and archaeology is, in part, about understanding that process. We aim to manage this change to promote a maximum diversity of historic features on all our properties as part of the living landscape, whether they are internationally recognised monuments or small areas of local value.

Climate and coastal processes, environmental and agricultural development, and changes within rural communities already deeply influence the way in which the Trust manages its properties. The effect of all these changes may become increasingly acute in the future. It is the National Trust's responsibility to make sure that care for the historic environment remains a central part of the debate.