Midlands Regions
WORK CARRIED OUT IN THE WEST MIDLANDS, EAST MIDLANDS AND EAST OF ENGLAND REGION
National Mapping Programme (NMP) projects in progress
The Norfolk ALSF NMP forms part the Norfolk Aggregates Assessment Project (5241). The main impetus behind the project is the proposed alteration to patterns of future aggregate extraction within Norfolk in the next fifteen years and the consequent need to plan for the archaeological impact of this changed approach.
The Warwickshire NMP project is sampling areas within the county that have known potential for aggregate extraction and those that could have.
Completed National Mapping Programme (NMP) projects
The Essex NMP project completed the mapping and recording phase in 2003 and staff are now working on a publication to highlight the findings.
The Hertfordshire project was one of the pilot projects for the National Mapping Programme (NMP) and as a pilot survey, the methodology differed somewhat from that subsequently developed for the NMP in so far as it recorded only cropmark sites and omitted earthworks.
The Lincolnshire project examined the archaeology of most of the county of Lincolnshire from the air and the findings were published in a series of thematic articles in Lincolnshire's Archaeology from the Air R Bewley (Ed) 1998.
The aerial survey of the Malvern Hills forms part of an archaeological survey of the Malvern Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) carried out by survey staff of English Heritage, Swindon.
The Marches Uplands project was designed to support the Marches Uplands Survey (MUS), a multi-disciplinary, ground based survey carried out under the direction of the Archaeology section of Hereford and Worcestershire County Council and funded by English Heritage. It forms part of the National Mapping Programme and covers the western parts of Herefordshire and Shropshire to the Welsh border.
The National Forest Project was undertaken in 1993 to provide a high quality, reliable and accurate archaeological database for the area of the proposed National Forest. This is an area that cuts across a number of different geographical regions and landscape types including the cores of two ancient forests, low-lying rural landscapes and part of the Midland Coalfield.
Norfolk NMP is one of the most recent of English Heritage's NMP projects having only begun towards the end of 2001. In line with one of English Heritage's priorities the coastal zone of the county is the first area being mapped.
The results of the Northamptonshire NMP project are now available in a variety of digital, web-based and published formats. This was the first NMP project to operate in a totally digital environment.
The Nottinghamshire NMP project began as a post reconnaissance project designed to create a consistent standard for aerial photographic interpretation and mapping across the county in the context of on-going threats to the archaeological resource from industrial and residential development, aggregate extraction and landscape re-development.
Funded by the Aggregates Levy Sustainabilty Fund (ALSF) the Suffolk ALSF NMP project is assessing the archaeological resource in potential mineral extraction areas. The first area that the project team looked at was the sand and gravel rich Felixstowe peninsula.
- Funded by the Aggregates Levy Sustainabilty Fund (ALSF) the Suffolk ALSF NMP project is assessing the archaeological resource in potential mineral extraction areas. The first area that the project team looked at was the sand and gravel rich Felixstowe peninsula.
The Suffolk Coast project grew out of the Suffolk County Council Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment Survey of Suffolk (RCZAS) the aim of which was to assess the archaeology of the coastal zone so that information could feed into strategic coastal planning policies. The mapping phase of the project is now complete and work is under way on publication of the results.
The Witham Valley National Mapping Programme (NMP) project is part of a wider multi-disciplinary and multi-period project, Lincoln and the Witham Valley Project, designated one of a series of ‘Beacon Projects’ planned by English Heritage for 2003-2005.
Detailed Survey Work and Flying
English Heritage carries out a regular programme of flying from bases in the north of the country at York, and in the south at Kidlington, near Oxford.
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.
Useful tools
Email this to a friend