As part of a review process, English Heritage identified the rather neglected state of prehistoric rock art in the UK. Little information was available about the extent and condition of rock art in England and no national recording system existed. In response to this English Heritage commissioned the Rock Art Pilot Project in 1998, with the remit to assess the current status of rock art in England.

The first phase of this project was carried out by Bournemouth university and UCL during 1999 and included field work and information gathering. The field work took place in two areas, Weetwood moor in Northumberland and Rombolds moor in West Yorkshire, where they were able to test the suitability of a range of survey, recording and study techniques. These included simple hand drawn and rubbing methods to more sophisticated digital photography, laser scanning and GPS survey, with all the information held in custom designed relational database.

This phase of the project has produced a substantial report describing "The current state of research, conservation, management and presentation of prehistoric rock art in England."

Chapters include..........
Rock art in England, the British and international perspective
The significance of rock art
The nature and extent of rock art in England
The condition and survival of panels and motifs
Survey recording and study methods
Monitoring and conservation
The public presentation of rock art.

The report concludes that there is an "urgent need for further work on UK rock art as it under considerable threat and is a relatively understudied and undervalued component of the historic environment."

A second phase of the project was delayed by the out break of foot and mouth in 2001 but got underway in Durham and Northumberland later that year.

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