Surveys

aerial survey archaeology

Welcome.

Drones make aerial imaging realistic, easy and repeatable as a primary method of understanding archaeological sites and landscapes, both in structure and in context.

This project gathers drone images to examine how they are to be handled singly and together, and to assess also how they relate to parallel possibilities, for example mapping, and images from Google Earth.

The images are freely available. Full data files (for printing) for academic use are available from the secretary.

The law concerning the majority of drones was revised in July 2018 to require that they should not be flown within 1 km of an airport nor above 120 m, anywhere, in the United Kingdom.

Previously there were no restrictions.

A hidden connection is stronger than an obvious one. Heraclitus

Notes

Look for a display prompt at the bottom of your browser screen If an image does not open,.

If you experience problems with pdf images, try an alternative browser.

If a pdf image appears blank, right-click the downloaded screen and ‘save as’ the file to a chosen location. Open in your pdf display programme (commonly Adobe Reader).

Images on this website above 120 m were acquired before the change in the law affecting drones.

Available here

www.staffordshirecountystudies.uk

www.self-built.uk

www.hobsmoat.website

Website last updated

28.01.19

Revisiions.

www.aerialsurveyarchaeology.uk

Sutton Park, on the southern edge of Staffordshire, has a long archaeological record dating back to at least Mesolithic times. A series of agricultural events is recorded in the first set of images, in a small area close to Holly Hurst and to the north of Powell’s Pool. The sequence ends with the pathways of recent visitors. The second sequence is of the north side of Powell’s Pool where a mill/blade factory was located in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Dumping of material dredged from the pool can also be seen.

Park1 Park2 Park3

The Roman town of Letocetum, modern Wall village, near Lichfield, Staffordshire, had its origins in military activity during the reign of the emperor Claudius (AD 41-54). By the time of Hadrian in the second century, Letocetum had gained public buildings, of which the mansio and public baths are known by their excavated remains; a fourth century stone burgus enclosure is also recorded as standing until recent centuries. The name Lichfield is derived from Letocetum.

Wall1 Wall2 Wall3

Bridport is a small Dorset town with origins in the late Saxon period. Noted particularly for the manufacture of rope and net, of which, by the Middle Ages, it had become the major source in England, Bridport is about one mile from the sea, but was formerly surrounded on three sides by wetland. The draining of an area to the south-east of the town was probably originally to grow hemp - producing present-day Asker Meadow. Subsequent activity on this land, but prior to modern times, is seen in these images.

Asker1 Asker2 Asker3 Video

Chartley Castle, between Stafford and Uttoxeter, beside the A518, was built around 1100 by one of the Earls of Chester. The present structure is a remodelling by the fourth earl, Ranulph de Blondeville, in around 1220. The castle passed to the Ferrers family through marriage, who were to hold it for over 200 years. It was abandoned in1485 after the Battle of Bosworth, and is a ruin. The present owners discourage visitors.

Acton Trussell is a village 4 miles south-east of Stafford - known as Actone in Domesday. In 1985 Roman remains were discovered south-east of St. James’s Church, and excavation was undertaken. This showed that a wing of a Roman villa had been found. A later watching brief when work was undertaken in the church, confirmed that the building extended to at least the tower, 43 m away. Continuing excavation outside the churchyard since has shown the remains to be 2nd to 4th century in date. Neolithic, Bronze Age and Iron Age activity has also been discovered.

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Wroxeter, Latin Viroconium Cornoviorum-Viriconium of the Cornovians, lies beside the River Severn 5 miles south-east of Shrewsbury. It was the fourth largest tribal capital in Roman Britain, and at its height had a population of about 15,000. It began life as the legionary fort of Legio XIV Gemina, in about AD 58, replaced some years later by Legio XX Valeria Victrix.. As a centre of population it survived to the end of the Roman period and beyond - considerable evidence for later activity has been shown.

Castle Ring is an Iron Age hill fort, situated on the southern edge of Cannock Chase, Staffordshire, north of Burntwood. It is thought that is was built by the Celtic Cornovii tribe, and that it was occupied until around AD 50.

It is a large earthwork, bivallate for most of its circuit. A hunting lodge was built during the Middle Ages - its foundations’ outline can clearly be seen at the north-west corner of the earthwork .

The town of Solihull was founded in the Miiddle Ages, most probably by the de Oddingselle family, associated with the large local earthwork known as Hobs Moat. The earthwork is a moated homestead site and limited archaeological excavation appears to confirm its dating and history. Surrounded by houses since the 1930s and tree-covered since the late eighteenth century, the earthwork is stranded in a hostile backdrop. Aerial images following show its plight and the difficulties in developing additional survey information by overflight.

1.6 miles south-west of Dorchester, in Dorset, is the huge Iron Age hillfort Maiden Castle. It is the largest such earthwork in Britain, perhaps in Europe, at 47 acres. Following Neolithic and Bronze Age activity on the hill top, it was begun as a more modest structure around 600 BC. Somewhat later it was expanded to the extant multivallate successor. Roman presence followed around 50 AD, and at the end of the fourth century a Romano-Celtic temple was built at the eastern end of the interior. The Iron Age history of the earthwork is detailed and complex.

Pilsdon Pen, 4.5 miles west of Beaminster, Dorset, is a multivallate Iron Age hillfort overlooking Marshwood Vale to the south. It is the second highest point in Dorset. Limited excavation has shown that the earthwork may have had a short period of occupation in the first centuries BC. Earlier, there were, possibly, Neolithic and Bronze Age burials on the site. It is suggested that a rectangular-shaped earthwork in the centre of the site may be a Mediaeval rabbit warren.

Bridport is a small Dorset town with origins in the late Saxon period. Noted particularly for the manufacture of rope and net, of which, by the Middle Ages, it had become the major source in England, Bridport is about one mile from the sea, but was formerly surrounded on three sides by wetland. The draining of an area to the south-east of the town was probably originally to grow hemp - producing present-day Asker Meadow. Subsequent activity on this land, but prior to modern times, is seen in these images.

Image Image 2 Image 3 Video

Arbor Low, Derbyshire

Wychnor, Domesday Wicenore, is a Staffordshire deserted mediaeval village to the north of Alrewas close to the Roman Ryknield Strreet (modern A38). The remains are of a deserted medieval village, a moated site, moated enclosure and fishponds. It is well preserved. The hall on the moated site was demolished by 1535, which suggests a decline for Wychnor around this time.

There has been some new building since, at around the beginning of the last century.

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