Wendling Beck and Fransham, Norfolk: Aerial Investigation and Mapping Project
Author(s): Jack Powell, Sophie Tremlett
The aerial investigation and mapping (AI&M) survey for Wendling Beck and Fransham (Historic England Project 8500) was developed to investigate a 116 sq km area of central Norfolk, covering the Wendling Beck nature recovery scheme and the parish of Fransham. The Wendling Beck scheme is a 2,000-acre nature recovery project, creating habitats and supporting nature-driven processes on a large scale within the Wendling Beck catchment. Prior to the project, AI&M data existed only for the northern half of the scheme, and this was out of date, having been completed in 2008, prior to the availability of Google Earth aerial imagery and Environment Agency airborne laser scanning (lidar) data. The parish of Fransham, a short distance to the south-west, has been the subject of systematic fieldwalking and documentary study (Rogerson 2022). This provides a uniquely detailed record of the parish, but there had not previously been any comprehensive survey using aerial sources. The project used a wide range of aerial sources to investigate the project area and identify, map, record, interpret and analyse visible archaeological features and sites. It also incorporated a 'citizen science' project, which trained and equipped volunteers to update the record for the northern half of the Wendling Beck nature recovery area and its environs using Google Earth and Environment Agency lidar data. The project was highly successful, recording significant numbers of new and previously recorded archaeological sites, potentially ranging in date from the Neolithic to the Second World War. The large numbers of sites relating to dispersed medieval to post-medieval settlement and agriculture recorded as earthworks visible on 1940s aerial photographs was an unexpected highlight. While the nature and density of the settlement pattern was itself predictable, the survey has been the first to identify the degree to which earthwork elements still survived as late as 1946.
- Report Number:
- 99/2024
- Series:
- Research Report
- Pages:
- 128
- Keywords:
- Medieval Aerial Photograph Interpretation Aerial Photography Lidar Survey Archaeology Aerial Investigation and Mapping
