South East of England Designated Wrecks: Geophysical Surveys

English Heritage MRTM summaries. 2008/2009

EH Project Number:	5606MAIN
Funded Unit:	Wessex Archaeology

This project will review historical geophysical data sets held by English Heritage over a number of designated wreck sites off the south east coast of England. This data will be complemented by the acquisition of new geophysical data over wreck sites in the Goodwin Sands and Eastbourne areas. The data will be reviewed and discussed to determine what features are present, including a discussion of results from diver investigations where available.

The sites to be investigated during this project are divided into two geographic areas off the South East Coast of England: the Goodwin Sands and Eastbourne.

The sites to be investigated are
• Stirling Castle
• Restoration
• Mary
• Rooswijk
• Northumberland
• Goodwins Cannon site
• Admiral Gardener
• Holland V
• Normans Bay
• Thomas Lawrence
• unknown site West of the Thomas Lawrence

This project will aim to provide a baseline geophysical data set of site-specific sidescan sonar and magnetic data for each of the above sites. Data will be acquired over an area of at least 200m x 200m centred around each wreck at a 20m line spacing. This should enable us to identify all parts of the site and to gain an understanding of the character and nature of the wreck sites and their surrounding environment.

If any further targets are identified from the review of the historical data sets they will be held in reserve and may be surveyed in the event that time and weather conditions permit the acquisition of survey data on more sites than is anticipated.

The principal products of the project will be a Technical Report plus:

• GIS layers showing extents and interpretation of the sites;

• data that can be sent to the UKHO and NMR in digital or hardcopy  formats compatible with their systems;

• information and images that can be added to the Wessex Archaeology website and EH’s own PWA pages.

This page was published on 21/11/2008