Museum Celebrates Lottery Win!
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The Museum has been awarded £10,000 to carry out an aerial survey of part of the land of the Bradford Hundred that stretches from the town towards Winsley and Monkton Farleigh. The Ancient Landscapes of the Bradford Hundred survey will use LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) technology which maps features on the ground using scanning by millions of laser pulses. It can show up quite small differences in the land surface and can even penetrate to the ground through the canopy of trees, giving details that could be impossible to see otherwise.
The survey will provide us with huge amounts of information and an awful lot to digest. We expect to gain a new insight into features of the geology and natural history of the area, as well as of the archaeology and historical land use. We are fully expecting to discover at least one new Roman villa!
The photograph shows a lynchet (a bank that has built up on the boundary of an ancient field) that is hidden in woodland. This is just the sort of thing the LiDAR survey should show up.
Keep an eye on the Museum website for more information on this exciting project.
Bradford on Avon Museum has previously twice been awarded similar amounts of Lottery grants which provided a touch-screen computer for use by Museum visitors and content that runs on on it.