Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the compatibility of using a substantial part of Bow Tie field for road and tunnelling purposes with the (1) protection of archaeology, and (2) grassland restoration, as specified in the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF) grant to the National Trust for that purpose.

The National Heritage Memorial Fund’s grant to the National Trust was awarded to safeguard and protect a significant number of archaeological sites and monuments, and to enable extensive grassland restoration of approximately 168 hectares of land. It was clear at the time of the award that, if the A303 Amesbury to Berwick Down scheme were to be consented to by the Secretary of State, approximately 4.54 hectares of land within Bow Tie Field would be subject to compulsory acquisition by National Highways. However, the positive impact of the grant benefits a much larger area of land containing internationally important monuments which were at risk. As a result of the National Trust taking ownership and management of this land all of these monuments have been safeguarded from destruction and, should the A303 scheme proceed, would remain unaffected.

National Highways will work with the National Trust to minimise impact to heritage (the archaeology and grassland) at Bow Tie Field which may be affected by future compulsory acquisition as part of implementation of the scheme. The scheme is currently with the Secretary of State for Transport for re-determination.

A comprehensive archaeological assessment has been undertaken on all areas affected by the scheme, including part of Bow Tie Field. An overview of the fieldwork can be found in Section 3 (from page 13) of the Detailed Archaeological Mitigation Strategy and further details of Eastern portal from 3.3.80 (page 28), which can be viewed here.