Project K: Creating SHINE Date for Low Sensitivity Areas in England - County Durham & Darlington 2026

In 2025-26 Durham County Council Archaeology Section (DCCAS) took part in a SHINE dataset enhancement project (Project K) in partnership with and funded through the Forestry Commission. The project involved the creation of new records and the enhancement of existing records within the SHINE dataset on land defined by the Forestry Commission as being within Low Sensitivity Areas. The data enhancement phase of the project ran from May 2025 to February 2026 and resulted in 4751 HER Heritage Feature records being assessed for their suitability for SHINE record creation representing all the HER Heritage Feature records present within the Low Sensitivity Areas. HER Heritage Feature records were assessed at a rate of 82.6 records per day (on average roughly 11 records per hour). In total 521 new SHINE records were created as part of the project at a rate of roughly 9 new SHINE records per day. This essentially doubled the number of SHINE records in County Durham and Darlington. On average roughly 1 in 9 or 11% of the HER Heritage Feature records assessed met the criteria for SHINE record creation. The project met all its aims and objectives and was successfully completed within the budget and the timescale set at the start. The project also generated a number of additional benefits. One of the principal additional benefits was that Project K highlighted the need for further SHINE dataset enhancement across County Durham and Darlington and the benefits and extra protection for heritage assets which this could provide. As a result of the project DCCAS will aim to introduce an ongoing programme of SHINE dataset enhancement within normal working patterns. The data enhancement work undertaken as part of Project K also allowed time for the checking and improvement of the HER Heritage Features dataset itself, allowing features which had been imported on to the database through recent national programmes to be checked for accuracy and improved. During the project K data enhancement phase 239 new and previously unrecorded heritage features were identified and added to the HER database including several potentially important new sites. Finally, the funding provided by Project K allowed the extension of the Senior Archaeologist post within DCCAS to be extend from 2.5 days per week, to 4 days per week a time when Local Authority budgets are stretched. This also served to highlight the need for additional resource within the team which has led to a permanent increase in this post for the next financial year.