Recent Military Heritage

Surveys

Much valuable and innovative work is undertaken by the archaeologists of English Heritage's Landscape Investigation team in identifying, interpreting and recording in detail the relics of England's military past. This includes studies of isolated military installations like the forts at Dover Western Heights (Kent), Landguard Fort, Harwich (Essex), and the well preserved World War II fighter station at RAF Perranporth (Cornwall), along with militarised landscapes such as the area occupied by Defence Estates on western Dartmoor, the ranges at Spadeadam (Cumbria), and the coastline at Dunstanburgh (Northumberland). The team has published a book presenting the findings of field investigations on Salisbury Plain (Wiltshire) and another based on aerial photography of the Suffolk Coast). Military features also appear in less obviously military locations such as a searchlight battery surviving as earthworks at Buildwas Abbey (Shropshire), or the weapons pits surrounding the airfield of the glider club within the prehistoric hillfort at Sutton Bank Hillfort (North Yorkshire). A thematic study of the manufacture of military explosives - Dangerous Energy (2000) - is a definitive work on the subject. Some of these publications are available from www.english-heritage.org.uk/shop.