 Y rhan o'r cyfnod o'i gyda'i ffordd o'r ffordd o'r ffordd i'w ffordd i'w ffordd o'r ffordd i'w'r cyfnod gwahoddau cyflwyntiaid, yn fewn i'n ffordd o'r materiol i'w hyfforddiant i'r ffordd. Cyfnodd yn ymgyrch o'r ffordd o'r cyfnod gwheilio'r ffordd o'r ffordd i'w mewn gwirionedd o'r eistedd. Ond, wrth gwrs, mae gennym ni'n teimlo fflaen iawn i'r swydd yn oed o'r pwysig o'r ffletoedd ar y dyfodol ar gyfer ar gyfer archiologi gyda i'r ffaith yn gyhoedd. Felly mae'r cymdeithasol ar hyn o'r systemau a'r rhai ddweud o'r cyfnodau o'r cyfnodau a'r gwychau o'r bach. The past decay has not favoured the conservation and study of Indian material heritage. There have been some spectacularly successful individual projects, of course, but intellectually, financially and organisation, the underlying trend has been negative. Confidants in the future health of the sectors that many of us represent, including the University Department of Artheology, continues to diminish. Provincial museums, too, are changing, not only suffering general reductions in resources as a result of the government's policy of public sector austerity, but also a concentration on their public-facing image at the expense of curatorial resources, constraining research access to collections, which I have personally experienced. The graph on the left showing a 36% decrease since 2006 in local authority conservation staff stands proxy for a wider picture of resource cuts since the financial crisis in 2017. Intellectually, the shift from progress to retrenchment followed slightly later. Marked, in my view, by the then government's decision around the end of 2008 to abandon the heritage bill that had been published in April last year. A bill, and I quit, designed to unify heritage protection regimes, allow greater public involvement in decisions and place heritage at the heart of the planning system. It shouldn't mark the transition to practical, rational reform of the legislation and policy, following a period of intense debate about what conservation of the historic environment meant and who it was for. Reflected, for example, in the English Heritage Conservation Principles. In the event of the short-lived and clumsy planning policy statement 5, planning for the historic environment, published in 2009-10, bolted the values or significance-based conservation planning approach onto the existing legislation and the terminology. This, of course, was carried over in 2012 by the abbreviated policy guidance of the National Planning Policy Framework revised last year. Through all these changes, the polluter pays principle of archaeological provision in the planning system, established by PPG 16 in 1990, since then the achievement of our late past President Jeff Wainwright has remained intact. Despite pressure to relax planning constraints to boost development, it may manifest, I think, in the after-the-2008 downturn, with a recurring theme of national planning policy ever since. But archaeological policy has been sustained through the vigilance of the sector. We contributed to a common position, adopted and endorsed across the sector, which resulted in amendments to the draft 2018 revised National Policy Planning Framework that secured in effect the status quo. However, the framework for managing archaeology within the planning system established after 1990 is under severe strain, exacerbated by winding local authority resources to maintain historic environment records as active databases and the foundation for authority's role in curating the resource. Because the cuts have been uneven, if you look at the graph on the right, this has led to inconsistent application of policy across the country, which tends to undermine the credibility of the system. And the problem of long-term curation of archaeological archives and research access continues to mount. In the absence of a clear sector or leave, we as a body, which does not have an institutional vested interest in the outcome, will shortly be setting out our vision for the future organisation of archaeological provision in England, based on our evidence from the 2016 Reeds Day of the Power of Inquiry. We are looking to rethink rather than ongoing piecemeal retrenchment to make best use of scarce resources, focused on realising the public benefit of archaeology to dissemination of knowledge revealed, generated by field work. We will be advocating historic environment records and curatorial services being set on a statutory basis, as they were with our enthusiastic support last year in Wales and are effective in Scotland. We see a concentration in larger, in effect regional hubs rather than county teams to achieve the critical mass of expertise that has begun to slip away in the present system. We see this in centres which can promote research and dissemination, the outcome of developer-funded field work, with links to regional organisations, particularly universities. Logically, there I say in this audience, one would integrate schedule monument consent case work into such a system. During the year, we have also commented on a wide range of other policy issues, including the National Lottery Heritage Fund, as we must now learn to call it, their forward strategy, the HRC Strategic Delivery Plan, the future of the National Heritage List for England, and national infrastructure projects affecting Stonehenge and Heathrow. Among our policy committee members, I must particularly thank Stephen Johnson for keeping track of the issues and for coordinating our responses. Turning now to perhaps lighter moments, highlights from our contributions to research and dissemination over the year. This year, we offered about £146,000 in research grants, including a generous ongoing donation, as I mentioned in the formal meeting by our fellow Edward Harris. Overall, this represents a significant increase over the three-year average, and as you can see from the graph, the effect of 50% increase. We continue to address in these grants a very wide range of disciplines. This is putting together figures over four years. Archaeology still needs the way, but perhaps surprisingly, fashion history comes second. That's the point is the range. Not only range of subjects, but also location of projects. We can, in fact, reasonably say, worldwide cover it in 2019, slightly more of our grant going outside the UK in it. Now, this has also been the first year that we've been able to offer grants from the funders sandwiched by the legacy of Beatrice de Carbi for continuing research in the region in which he was a pioneer of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East Island. We were able this year to make three awards, totaling about £35,000, out of a total of £50,000 potentially available. I think that's an encouraging response in our first year. I'm sure it will grow as we continue to raise awareness of the fund. Here, too, are some cumulative statistics for our Morris fund grants for the conservation of decorative features in churches. First, by type of object, and I'm sorry, but words are quite small on the screen. And then, by geographical area. These are limited to England, but I think, looking at the county distribution, we've got a bit of work to do to spread the word in some counties who are obviously better at attracting grants than others. Another thing of the past, our annual research showcase at which grant recipients quite literally set out their stalls in this room, to engage directly with fellows on the public. Visitors, I think, were fascinating, are fascinating, to be able to talk to archaeologists, material historians, to handle objects, and engage on an informal one-to-one basis. This again coincided with Burlington House courtyard leads, when all six societies around the courtyard invited visitors this year to explore the theme of resources. That event and our participation in Open House London in September, pictured in John's study here, were particularly successful, I think, in showing people who we are and what we do. And as one of the guides this year, I can say that we all public appetite for events of this kind. In November, we heard a paper setting out the emerging results from the 6th Year Research Programme on the 7th Century Statuture Award. We will publish the award in September in our research report series. And I hope to be able to see from the cover and sample page the quite exceptional production standard that the volume will achieve. These are proofs from it. Underwritten with many thanks to Historic England. That will be followed on the 1st of November by a colloquium on the significance of the award for future research and public understanding. And there will be a public lecture in June, helping to disseminate the results of the research to a wider audience. Since we published the first report of our research committee on excavations of Roxeter by JP Bush Fox in 1913, more than 50 volumes have been made available and reported the results of some of the most important contemporary archaeological excavation research over that period. I'm pleased to say also bottom right on the slide that in a matter of weeks we will have over a quarter of our back catalogue of these reports published online in a deeper access through the archaeological data service and the rest will follow shortly. As well as our programme awarding meetings through the year we held two highly successful day conferences. In November on the late glacial paleolithic organised by Professor Nick Barton and in February on secret spaces presenting a European perspective on medieval sacrifices, bestries treasure rooms and their contents. Both like all of our lectures and conferences are available online. We also held study days on the Winton Doomsday and our cartoons of the same class at Cewtsbury Abbey during its respiration in 1923. Our apartments of course host many other events organised by fellows and community societies. I particularly want to congratulate our fellows Claire Gaffer and Paula Henderson for organising their annual conferences on new insights into the 16th and 17th century British architecture. The next one in January will mark January 2020 will mark the 10th anniversary of an unmissable sold-out event for all of us interested in the architecture of the period. In February we heard excerpts from Mary's Hand a solo operatic performance by Claire McColving exploring the life of Mary Tudor our first queen regnant preceded by her talk from our fellow John Cooper. The visual focus was Claire in a replica of the dress she wears in our portrait by Hans Youarth which I'm sure you all know is hanging over the chimney piece. This only was a good example of the potential of our collections to stimulate contemporary creativity which would be a key theme on our account spot project if we move on later. An accompanying display of contemporary documents reminded me of the range and depth of the wondrous things that we hold objects, manuscripts, prints, drawings, photographs which alongside our library constitute probably the most important antiquarian and archaeological collection in the Anglo-Taiol world. Our problem is that apart from the library books with a few exceptions the collections are not catalogued in detail nor appear in the searchable form online. In this we lag well behind other major collections but we are about to appoint a systems manager library, museums and archives to develop a new integrated database which will additionally bring together the contents of the existing castelons. But that is only at the start of what we need to do. Once the digital platform is in place we as fellows need to contribute our particular expertise and enthusiasm to enriching the castelons which need to be illustrated. The online VM catalogue I think is in many ways a good model of what we want to achieve. The unlocking of our collection section of our website is a start. Cataloging and digitising our collections will hopefully make more of our material accessible both to the community of scholars from the wider public. On the screen a couple of examples of specific research by our staff and fellows which continues to be showcased in the line room hall. Top photographs mostly of castels taken by the auntie Lawrence cycling around France in 1907-08 which had been identified by our fellow Bill Woodburn and at the bottom autographed music from two of our manuscript collections compiled by Harriet Hanson our library assistant. The latter particularly engaged the interest of our fellow the Duke of Gloucester who visited us in November primarily to discuss our camps of projects. To encourage researchers to use our collections for the fourth year running we held a postgraduate open day attended by nearly 50 postgraduate students and early career researchers. During the year we made loans to two memorable exhibitions in Lawrence from Peterborough out of our the archtop portraits and the Loons of Salter and were very pleased to accept through our past president Maurice Howard the gift of a portrait of Charles Marsh FSA by LF Abbott dating from the 1790s as I noted in the formal meeting we have now raised the funds for its consummation necessary before we could display it here in our apartments. We are springing you up to date about our tenure here at New Wellington House on which so many of our activities depend. In unison with the four other poor chance societies we are engaged in constructive but confidential discussions about our future with our landlord the Ministry of Housing Communications and Local Government. As the successors of course the Office of Words who completed these apartments for us in 1874. Many of you will recall that we occupied rent free in 2005 when a case was brought against us by the government to settle our legal status. The action was stayed to allow for mediation following which each society was drawn to go these for 10 years or in years and 7 times. That was all the mutual understanding of the formula for calculating the rent would result in it slowly rising to market rates over those 80 years. Everyone I'm sure acted in good faith but also in haste since the court imposed a very narrow window for agreement. The government then comprehensively repaired the exterior by letting a pretty poor state and we only had the societies began to invest in our buildings and might only fit with this meeting. Our father by the nurse wrote up the events in our journal and his concluding words that the basis for valuation of rent could become contentious in the normal term have been born out perhaps rather sooner than he imagined. As the graph shows from 2011-12 the rent began to rise exponentially primarily because the market banned property in this primary of central London grew more rapidly than anyone had anticipated the influx of foreign investment as a key driver. The arbitration concluded in 2016 clarified the interpretation of the basis of calculating the rent that was containing the releases although to no advantage to the societies. I won't attempt to try to explain the formula but it is a circular self-sustaining one highly geared though I doubt anyone realized that in 2005. The arbitration also established the societies have no right to dispute the assessments of each review unless they are wholly unrealistic, negligent exercises of judgement which we agree on professional advice they are not. The interest followed the arbitration and only this month was the second 10 years and the rent demands for the years since the arbitration issued. The figures are on the screen you can read from the graph but the rent in the high and probable of 2018-19 approaches £180,000 per annum All of these demands were paid promptly up to the end of March. The completion of the 2015-24 leads by the society protects our equal status under the initial in 2015 to occupy at a rent which of a large £180,000 per annum may appear last is still in the affraction of current market rates in this location As I said earlier we are in constructive discussions with government about securing our future here although their nature must for the present remain wholly confidential but I will be failing in my duty as chair of the trustees of a charity not to set out position as it has emerged during the past few weeks and I think you will understand that until this matter is resolved our long-term aspirations to remain at and the best environment on the house to make it better fit the needs of the 21st century must remain on the cold Indeed since 2012 the uncertainty over the rent has prevented us from making strategic plans for the society's future insofar as they are dependent on our being involved in house hence our focus on public engagement a long process Turning now to fellowship we hold incomplete data on the age of fellows but there's a consensus that we are skewed to the high end myself including of course I think this is an historic rather than a current problem not least because having observed the past year of balance and admissions hydrogenated what seems to be a reasonable demographic and gender balance and in our new fellows that we can see from this diagram which covers the period from 2013 the extent of annual insurance deaths, resignations and the rules for non-payments and the number of people who are not on the left compared with admissions on the right if that isn't terribly clear then sorry that's it sorry was that one on the screen very right, okay I'm going back to that one we can see from this diagram which covers the period from 2013 the extent of annual churn deaths, resignations and non-payment on the left compared to admissions on the right and each of the block of three lines on the left in effect should be balanced against the single line on the right I think with this next graph the net position is rather clearer one can suggest on the dotted line an overall trend that is very slow increase but one might equally or better interpret the data as a steady rise to mid 2015 to the levelling off at around 3,060 fellows thereafter for some time and indeed sporadically over the past century it has been evident that the number of fellows at current subscription levels is not in itself sufficient to sustain the services, the society of us a recurrent theme in our clients even allowing for the decline since what I might call the death of optimism in 2008 the number of people employed in understanding them care of our material heritage does remain historically high but undoubtedly many potential recruits who meet our criteria of excelling in the knowledge of the antiquities of history of this and other nations but pressures on their income have probably never been greater I've urged fellows to look around their circle their workplaces and actively seek out and put forward appropriate colleagues particularly younger colleagues for election but that alone will not, I think, adequately address the issue the possibility of a membership or associate fellowship has been discussed intermittently in council at least as far back as the 1920s and most recently around 2005 you will recall the creation of additional classes of fellow or member was facilitated in the 2015 revised stansions council is again being discussing the possibility of a membership scheme which in part could build on the loyal following our public lectures have achieved for example but the other poor chance societies hold similar public lectures and we are planning better to integrate our public offer with them so the idea of a joint Friends of Burlington House poor chance has been floated which could be large enough quickly to become self-sustaining whatever the outcome of that debate I do think it is time for us seriously to consider an associate fellowship aimed especially at younger scholars and early career researchers and priced to match their pockets while still making a net contribution to our core costs that I emphasise is a personal view not even a view of council but I do want to see the root of fellowship being perceived across our very disciplines more as climbing a hill than scaling a fifth and to make better use of our resources and the services we provide without seeking to raise fellow subscriptions to levels that would be seen as inaccessible to many and above all to ensure that our apartments if we can stay here can further develop as a place where like-minded people want to come to meet or find the quiet place to write The fellowship will of course be consulted about any proposals which emerge from Hungarian debate in council Finally, I want to tell them to come to council an end on the matter for celebration 90% of funding is now in place for our £6m investment in council the project council and Morris past, present and future as a property where thankfully we do a lovely hold Alongside our general secretary the Kelmscott team my predecessor Gill Andrews deserves our particular thanks for the continuing personal commitment to this project not least her work on our successful application to the national lottery heritage fund As does Peter Cormack's expertise and commitment as our honorary curator of Kelmscott Recently he has been exploring the William and May's Icelandic connections and so helping us cement a long standing friendship with the Icelandic Government through their ambassador in London who with his team visited Kelmscott in October and where on the left hand picture Peter gave a talk at the Icelandic Emma's Embassy last year on the occasion of the 100th year of their independence The National Heritage Lottery Fund grants a 4.3 million is I think the largest single donation society has ever received We've raised the balance as you have heard from a wide range of donors including many fellows Particularly thanks that our view to Dominic Wallace our development officer and to the Kelmscott campaign group chaired by our fellow Martin Nevey who has done so much to raise this funding Where is more to do immediately in raising half a million to support public outreach to help Kelmscott already generates a long-standing service which will increase in the future but to ensure a place is truly self-sustaining in the long term we intend to develop a Kelmscott Futures Fund to provide for ongoing investment to meet the costs of future long cycle maintenance We are now able to proceed with the capital works which would bring the buildings and services into sound repair including addressing problems which have built up since the major repairs we undertook after the house passed to us in 1962 We also improved the visitors facilities the more brilliant cesspools provide education and exhibition spaces and space for artists in residence not released by putting a building back against this side of the farm yard one whose scarves are still visible on the wall at the west end finding permission in this building consent for the project were granted in August we have completed there that is where building will go and the scar is on that wall finding permission and this building consent were granted in August we completed a new lease of the extended car park from the church commissioners at the beginning of the month so Kelmscott can be cleared of parked cars on open days these steps paved the way at lottery fund to give us four more permission to start and so begin to draw down the grant money in anticipation our architects, architect Tom had begun working up the detailed designs which are now being finalized and cost kept we will go out to Tender in Bursal the first phase of work will start in September 2021 a house will close early this year the end of August to allow us to be camp the content prior to repair and this presents the opportunity next summer to mount a Kelmscott Marrow Trails Exhibition here at Burlington House our overriding theme in this project will be how Kelmscott influenced Morris for what he made few changes the agricultural buildings adjacent he so much appreciated were not even in his demise in future visitors will be able to participate in a practical demonstration of our own dynamic engagement with the past which takes as its starting point the very reasons why Morris himself so loved Kelmscott's unpretentious simplicity of the rural tranquillity history, art, architecture archaeology ancient landscapes and the academic disciplines of the heart of the society there Kelmscott inspired William Morris and Kelmscott in the hope will continue to inspire future and to remind them that the last fellow's day before closure will be on the 20th of June so do come learn more about the transformation that's going to take place and enjoy yourselves hopefully the weather will be good so finally I must thank our officers Steven, Chris, Heather members of council our general secretary John Lewis and all the staff and volunteers at Burlington House and Kelmscott for their unfailing hard work and for injuring me crashing around asking why do we do this and can we do that and it's been a pleasure too over the past few months to get to know the work with our colleagues from the unborn chance societies full gave as well he laid the foundation for working much more closely together in the future my thanks to you all