Selected projects
4.19.7 Aerial photograph monitoring
As the Monuments Protection Programme continues its work of increasing the number of scheduled monuments, English Heritage faces new challenges in approaches to monitoring the stock of protected sites - work normally carried out by means of Field Monument Warden visits. One option currently under consideration is to complement the monitoring work of the Wardens by means of a programme of aerial photographic monitoring. This approach has been successfully practised in Wales by Cadw and Royal Commission on the Archaeological and Historical Monuments of Wales for a number of years, although the numbers of scheduled monuments involved are inevitably far smaller. In 1997, a two year trial project was initiated by English Heritage in partnership with the RCHME in order to examine the applicability of such a scheme to England.
The RCHME has been carrying out programmes of aerial reconnaissance in England since 1967, and over this period has made a major contribution to the discovery and enhancement of tens of thousands of archaeological sites. Aerial survey provides a unique and cost-effective method of recording all types of archaeological sites in most landscape situations. Since 1989, the RCHME has carried out its aerial reconnaissance from two airfields: in the south, at Kidlington near Oxford, and in the north at Sherburn-in-Elmet, near York.
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For the purposes of the trial project, English Heritage supported the costs of aircraft hire and photography, and the RCHME contributed the work of aerial survey and cataloguing staff, and the cost of materials. The selection of targets for the trial was designed to reflect a wide range of monument types and land uses, in order to allow an appraisal of the effectiveness of aerial monitoring across a range of situations. Data on 652 Scheduled Ancient Monuments were provided by the English Heritage Records Office, and although the majority represented discrete sites, a significant number comprised multiple sites (especially barrow groups). During the year, over 60 hours were flown from the two bases near Oxford and York, recording over 520 monuments. The photographs were passed to English Heritage in February 1998.
Ideally the monitoring should be spread evenly throughout the year, but because of the relatively wet summer of 1997, more time was available for this programme, and the majority of targets had been photographed by early November. 1997 was generally not a good year for cropmarks, and it was surprising occasionally to record some very clear marks. In the south, 307 monuments were recorded between early June and late October, with most flown in late June, July, and early August. The two main areas targeted were East Anglia (mainly moated sites), and Hampshire and Wiltshire (predominantly barrows). 217 monuments were photographed in the north from late June to early November, in the Yorkshire Dales, the East Riding of Yorkshire, the Vale of York, and north Lincolnshire.
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Inspectors of Ancient Monuments and Field Monument Wardens in the English Heritage regional teams were involved in the selection of the project targets and will be central to assessing the value of the results on completion of the trial project. With the number of scheduled monuments in England projected to exceed 30,000 in the next decade, it is probable that aerial monitoring in selected landscapes will become an essential component of future monitoring activity and an invaluable adjunct to the work of our regional Wardens.