The Southern Regions : The Regional Picture : Aerial Survey : Archaeology & Buildings : Research & Conservation : English Heritage

National Mapping Programme (NMP) projects in progress

Exmoor National Park NMP

The Exmoor National Park NMP project is designed to enhance the quality of archaeological information available to the National Park’s Countryside Archaeology Advisor (CAA) to inform her responses to a variety of land management consultations as well as providing general information on the remains within the park.
Gloucestershire NMP

Mapping and recording has been completed for the Forest of Dean, which is part of the broader Gloucestershire NMP project and data is in the process of being passed to the Gloucestershire SMR. Work has now moved onto the second part of the Gloucestershire Project on the Cotswolds.
Mendip Hills AONB NMP

The Mendip Hills AONB NMP project is part of a multi-disciplinary landscape based research project being carried out by various teams from within English Heritage, also including Archaeological Survey and Investigation and Architectural Investigation. The aim of the project is to enhance understanding of the historic environment of the Mendip Hills AONB.
Savernake Forest NMP

The Savernake Forest NMP project is designed to examine aerial photographs of the Forest together with an analysis of lidar data provided by the Forestry Commission so as to record the archaeological remains within the woodland and in the surrounding farmland.
Severn Estuary RCZAS NMP

As part of a wider project an NMP project has been set up to record all archaeological features visible on aerial photographs within the inter-tidal zone of the English side of the Severn estuary and to set this within the context of known archaeology in the immediately adjacent hinterland.
Somerset ALSF NMP

The Somerset ALSF Project has been designed to look at the effects of aggregate extraction on the archaeology of the areas where it takes place. The results of the aerial survey will feed into a wider project carried out by Somerset County Council, looking at a number of different aggregate extraction areas in the county.
South Downs NMP

This National Mapping Programme (NMP) project is part of a wider multi-disciplinary programme of work being undertaken by English Heritage Landscape Investigation Team, Aerial Survey Team and the Centre for Archaeology designed to characterise the archaeology and historic buildings of the South Downs.

Completed National Mapping Programme (NMP) Projects

Avebury WHS NMP

An aerial survey of the area around the World Heritage Site incorporating the Neolithic Henge at Avebury carried out as part of English Heritage's National Mapping Programme.
Brendon Hills NMP

The Brendon Hills project was carried out in support of an extensive programme of field survey across Exmoor. The results of the project have been incorporated in the publication on The Field Archaeology of Exmoor.
Dartmoor NMP

The Dartmoor project was one of the first large areas surveyed using aerial photographs.
Frampton on Severn ALSF NMP

The Frampton on Severn ALSF project is being carried out as part of the National Mapping Programme (NMP) funded by the Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund (ALSF). The overall aim of the project is to enhance the archaeological record of this area, which is rich in archaeological material but an area which has also seen extensive aggregate extraction.
Lambourn Downs NMP

This project was designed to examine a distinct landscape block in the west of Berkshire, investigating both the upland of the Downs and its relationship with low lying sites in the Vale of the White Horse.
Kent NMP

The Kent project was one of the four pilot projects for the National Mapping Programme (NMP).
Quantocks Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty NMP

The Quantocks project is part of a broader project being carried out by English Heritage staff working closely with Somerset County Council, the AONB officer and the National Trust.
Salisbury Plain Training Area NMP

The Salisbury Plain Training Area (SPTA) Mapping Project was designed to examine the landscape of Salisbury Plain, a landscape that had been actively managed by the army for about 100 years. During this time most of the surrounding chalk upland had been subject to major agricultural activity that had levelled most archaeological remains. On Salisbury Plain in contrast remains from earliest prehistory survive as well preserved earthworks and the NMP project aimed to record not only the well known isolated features, but the landscapes in between.
Stonehenge World Heritage Site NMP

The Stonehenge World Heritage Site (WHS) is one of the most heavily investigated landscapes in the world. In spite of this it was felt that there was still a lot to learn and it was necessary to have an accurate record of all archaeological activity within the WHS in advance of any works to be carried out with regard to a new visitor centre or changes to the roads in the area.
The Thames Valley NMP

The Thames Valley project was one of the four pilot projects for the National Mapping Programme (NMP). The Thames Valley was chosen because of the density of cropmark landscape and also the ongoing threat posed by aggregate extraction.

Detailed Survey Work and Flying

Reconnaissance South

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.
Flint Farm, Danebury

An aerial photographic survey was undertaken in conjunction with excavations by Professor Barry Cunliffe of Oxford University on the sites of two presumed Iron Age/Romano-British settlement enclosures (Rowbury Farm and Flint Farm) lying 3.5km to the northeast of Danebury, Hampshire as part of the Danebury Environs Programme. The survey was designed to set these excavations and preparatory geophysical prospection of the enclosure sites into a broader landscape context.
Hungerford Common

The Hungerford Common project involved the interpretation, transcription and recording of all archaeological features visible on aerial photographs for two areas of common land in Hungerford - Hungerford Common and Freeman’s Marsh.
Knowlton Circles, Dorset

The archaeological features around the Knowlton Circles henge complex were mapped from aerial photographs. A multi-period landscape was recorded, including Neolithic ceremonial and funerary monuments, Bronze Age round barrows, Iron Age or Roman boundaries and field systems and the ruins of a Medieval church.
Richborough Environs Project

The Richborough Environs Project is part of a multi-disciplinary research project initiated by the English Heritage Centre for Archaeology at Portsmouth under Tony Wilmott.
Scotland Lodge enclosure

Just west of Winterbourne Stoke, in the small area of ground between the village of Winterbourne Stoke and the SSSI and Nature reserve of Parsonage Down, is a large enclosure of uncertain date. The site was investigated first by the aerial survey team of English Heritage and then Wessex Archaeology.
Toddington Manor, Gloucestershire

Toddington Manor is located about 5 km to the north of Winchcombe, on the northern foothills of the Cotswolds, above the Vale of Evesham. The estate, founded before the Norman Conquest, remained in the hands of the Tracy family until the early 20th century. Today the core of the estate survives as a landscape park of 195 hectares, with a magnificent Gothic Revival mansion at its heart. Recent aerial photographic interpretation and mapping by the National Mapping Programme has recorded not only features associated with the Victorian development, but also traces of both earlier and later periods of Toddington’s history.

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.

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