EDO7872 - English Heritage Aerial Reconnaissance (South): 2001-2002

Each year English Heritage undertake a programme of aerial reconnaissance covering the whole of England. The reconnaissance is undertaken by the two Aerial Survey teams based in the Swindon and York offices. The Swindon office staff cover the southern counties (Shropshire, West Midlands, Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Herefordshire, Gloucestershire, Avon, Wiltshire, Berkshire, Surrey, Greater London, Kent, West Sussex, East Sussex, Hampshire, Dorset, Somerset, Devon and Cornwall).In April flights were undertaken to complete the recording of the major monuments in Wiltshire on digital video as part of the Timescape Wiltshire project in partnership with Wiltshire County Council¿s Archaeology Service. In May opportunities for reconnaissance were limited to three flights which concentrated on recording sites on the EH Parks and Gardens register in Kent and Gloucestershire to assist in the updating of the register. The Quantocks were also targeted to improve the aerial photography coverage in advance of NMP and fieldwork (see Event 1352747). Five days of flying in late June found signs of reasonable cropmarks on soils on limestone, gravels and Fens, but the previous wet winter had not helped the development of cropmarks on chalk soils. Having said this a new enclosure was discovered in the West Kennet area.In early July conditions were looking promising on the limestone, gravels and fens for a good cropmark season, but two weeks of bad weather in the middle of the month prevented the development of good marks. By the time flying resumed in late July the barley was being harvested, but there were reasonable number of new sites photographed on the Cotwolds, Fens and Kent Chalk, especially in peas. New long barrows were photographed on the Dorset chalk and a substantial number of new round barrows were discovered in the Avon valley between Salisbury and Chichester.In late June and early August, and when weather conditions allowed, aerial photography was carried out at each phase of the survey and repair work at Silbury Hill following the collapse of the 1777 excavation shaft in 2000.Again opportunities for reconnaissance from October to December were limited to only five flights. The Westbury white horse was photographed after the cleaning had been completed and the ropeworks in Bridport and surrounding villages were photographed for EH architectural surveyors. Other flights targeted the Quantocks and the Cotswolds in advance of the NMP and scheduled monuments in Leicestershire and Northamptonshire to help monitor monument condition.Poor weather in January meant only two flights were possible, concentrating on photographing scheduled monuments in Northamptonshire. Again poor weather conditions in February limited flying to just one day, but this was dedicated to photographing targets for the Manchester Sports Project.The weather at the beginning of March only allowed one flight to take place, but in the last week a spell of good weather allowed 20 hours of flying over four days. On one flight video footage was taken for Exmoor National Park to be used in a visitor centre. The good weather coincided with some of the lowest tides of the year, so the Somerset and Suffolk coasts were prioritised to coincide with current NMP projects. No new sites were apparent on the Somerset coast, but a number of wooden structures, including a known circular feature, were photographed in the Suffolk inter-tidal zone. A reasonably dry March and a warm winter generally, encouraged the development of cropmarks in certain areas. The chalk on the Cambridgeshire/Hertfordshire border produced a mass of cropmarks and the Avebury area revealed more cropmarks (all known sites) at this stage of the year than any other year since at least 1998.To summarise, for the financial year 2001/2, 47 flights were undertaken (a total of 188 flight hours) and 1459 targets were photographed.The photographs resulting from this reconnaissance are available through NMR Enquiry and Research Services. Also, new archaeological information is in the process of being entered onto the NMR database (see monument records linked to this record).