South Dorset Ridgeway NMP

This ongoing NMP project aims to define, characterise and analyse the historic environment of the South Dorset Ridgeway. It will help to improve understanding and inform decisions regarding strategic planning, management and preservation of the historic environment.

The results will assist with the implementation of the Dorset AONB Management Plan and with the formulation of wider research objectives and strategies for the South Dorset Ridgeway.

The view looking towards the sea from the Hardy Monument on the South Dorset Ridgeway on 15-JUN-2004 (NMR 23570/20). © English Heritage. NMR

Archaeological survey of the South Dorset Ridgeway

The South Dorset Ridgeway NMP project is an archaeological survey of the South Dorset Ridgeway based on a review of all available aerial photographs and Environment Agency lidar derived imagery. It began in September 2008 and is being carried out by the Historic Environment Service of Cornwall County Council funded by the Historic Environment Enabling Programme (project number 5583). Data resulting from the survey will be incorporated into the National Monuments Record and Dorset Historic Environment Record and will provide a valuable resource for Dorset AONB Partnership’s South Dorset Ridgeway Heritage Project which is running concurrently.

Extensive archaeological remains

The project area contains extensive archaeological remains and has been likened to the Avebury and Stonehenge World Heritage Site in terms of its importance as a historic landscape. The landscape of the Dorset Downs consists of open mainly arable downland in amongst which are the earthwork remains of significant archaeological features such as the complex of prehistoric funerary monuments at Broadmayne (below).

A barrow cemetery at Broadmayne photographed on 6th October 2000. Visible on the photograph are a number of Bronze Age round barrows extant as earthwork mounds, together with a probable Neolithic bank barrow. In the foreground are the ploughed out remains of another probable Bronze Age round barrow. © English Heritage.NMR.

Traditional aerial photographs and new data

The Environment Agency lidar jpeg images have proved very useful for accurately locating features not visible on the Ordnance Survey base maps and particularly in areas off the main ridge of the Downs, for example, when mapping the extensive networks of post medieval water meadows. However, comparison of lidar images with traditional aerial photographs has shown that in this case the historic photographs hold more information, especially for areas where the meadows have been removed or significantly reduced.

A lidar derived image showing extensive post medieval water meadows just east of Dorchester on the River Frome. These systems of channels were used to distribute an even flow of water across the grass to raise the temperature of the ground and provide an early bite of grass for young animals.© Environment Agency copyright 2008. All rights reserved.

The images used on this page are copyright English Heritage unless specified otherwise. For further details of any photographs or other images and for copies of these, or the plans and reports related to the project please contact the English Heritage Archive.

For further information on a project or any other aspect of the work of the Aerial Survey team please contact us at: AerialSurvey@english-heritage.org.uk.