Page 192 - Alderney Regional Environmental Assessment of Renewable Energy: Environmental Report

Alderney Regional Environmental Assessment of Renewable Energy:
Environmental Report
The presence of all the above finds on the island indicates the potential for prehistoric finds in
the marine environment. This includes the peat horizons which occur on land, which may
survive and contain evidence of archaeological significance.
Maritime Archaeology: The study area would have seen active maritime traffic since the
Mesolithic period, both in relation to national and international maritime trade routes and
warfare. Shipwrecks on the seabed can be used to inform the varying properties of vessels and
shipping through different periods as well as the changing usage of the marine environment.
The waters around the Bailiwick of Guernsey (which comprises Guernsey, Alderney and Sark)
contain several hundred historical wrecks. Within the archaeological search area applied for
this assessment, there are 102 identified wrecks and 32 obstructions around Alderney. The
positions for about a third of these wrecks are known with reasonable accuracy. The remaining
wrecks have either unreliable or doubtful positions, associated with particular rocks or reefs; or
have been approximately located from recorded losses in medieval or post-medieval literature
or remain unlocated (GREC, 2011).
Of the 102 wrecks and 32 obstructions located within the archaeological search area, 58
wrecks and 27 obstructions are located within the territorial limits for Alderney. From the above,
only 22 wrecks and 9 obstructions are located within the within the tidal development blocks
Figure 22. It is not known if any designated wrecks are located within the study area. There are
however wrecks that can be considered to be scheduled historic wrecks on the basis that they
have been lain wrecked for 50 years, under the Wreck and Salvage (Vessels and Aircraft)
(Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law (1986 amended 1991) (ARE, 2008). Of the dated wrecks, 35 within
the archaeological search area, 30 within the territorial limits and 10 within the tidal
development blocks can be considered to be scheduled historic wrecks.
One of the best known wrecks located outside the outside of the tidal development blocks but
within the territorial water is an Elizabethan wreck (un-named) situated in water approximately
26-30m deep 900m to the north of Alderney lighthouse and 300m west by north of the Ledge
reef. The wreck is estimated to have sunk in 1592 and is crucial evidence of maritime activity
during the Elizabethan war in Spain. Therefore, although the wreck does not have a designated
status, it does have a half mile exclusion zone, for which any unauthorised activity including
fishing, diving and anchoring is strictly prohibited. There is another exclusion zone cantered on
the Casquets islands west of Alderney, for which there is believed to be up to 300 wrecks
within the larger exclusion zone (AEA, 2007).
The wrecks located within the tidal development blocks which will form the basis of the
discussion below are set out in Table 27. Three wrecks are located within “The Race”
development block, nine within “The Casquets” block and ten wrecks within “The Ortac
Channel” block. In terms of the obstructions, five are located within “The Race”, while two are
located in each of the other two development blocks Figure 22. Only four of the above wrecks
are positioned accurately with their locations precisely known, while the positions of the
remainder are approximate, unreliable or unknown. Sixteen of the 22 wrecks located within the
blocks have a ‘Live’, status thereby indicating the presence of extant remains on the seabed.
The remaining six, have no specific status indicating these are either ‘Dead’ (indicating no
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