Data copyright © Herefordshire Archaeology unless otherwise stated
This work is licensed under the ADS Terms of Use and Access.
Ian
Bapty
Senior Projects Archaeologist
Herefordshire Archaeology
Planning Services
PO BOX 144
Hereford
HR1 2YH
UK
Tel: 01432 260470
The 14 km long Lower Lugg river valley is located in central Herefordshire, and extends to the north and east of Hereford city. The valley, with its broad river flood plain, gently undulating surrounding landscape, and good agricultural land, has long been a focus of human settlement. In addition, the Lower Lugg corridor has an established strategic importance as part of the main north/south transport corridor through the Marches geographical zone. The area is also underlain by extensive reserves of sand and gravel which are of local and regional economic significance.
The Lower Lugg Valley ALSF project is divided into two distinct stages, outlined below.
The Lower Lugg Archaeology and Aggregates Resource Assessment set out an archaeological resource assessment for the Lower Lugg Valley, Herefordshire. The assessment includes specific consideration of the process of past and present sand and gravel quarrying in the Lower Lugg Valley, and the future threat this poses to the archaeology of the area. The assessment concludes by defining a research framework for future archaeological investigation in the Lower Lugg area.
In addition to the preparation of the assessment itself, the project also involved the collation and preparation of a GIS database combining archaeological, geological, geomorphological and palaeoenvironmental information relating to the Lower Lugg Valley. The GIS database was used to facilitate the assessment, and to create a practical tool to assist future archaeological management and research activity in the Lower Lugg locality.
The assessment was managed and executed for English Heritage by Herefordshire Archaeology (the archaeology service of Herefordshire Council) with funding from the Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund as administered by English Heritage for the historic environment (in accordance with English Heritage ALSF Project Design PN 3336).
The work was undertaken between April 2006 and February 2007 by a project team including Herefordshire Archaeology (Dr Keith Ray MBE, FSA, MIFA and Ian Bapty), Worcestershire County Council Historic Environment and Archaeology Service (Robin Jackson MIFA), The Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences, University of Wales, Aberystwyth (Dr Eric Johnstone and Dr Paul Brewer) and Air Photo Services (Chris Cox). Each of these organisations was responsible for particular components of the collation, analysis and report preparation work. The process of integrating those different elements within the final assessment was achieved by a series of project team meetings at key stages of the project.
The 2007/8 ALSF Stage 2 Lower Lugg Archaeology and Aggregates Project has taken forward the key recommendations of the Stage 1 Assessment in two ways. Firstly, the Stage 1 results have been publicised via an outreach programme including four local 'roadshow' events, and the preparation of leaflet, booklet and website resources. Secondly, specialist research has addressed key identified fieldwork/management problems associated with the deep burial of archaeological deposits within the Lower Lugg floodplain. This technical assessment work had the specific objective of enabling better informed archaeological input to the future minerals planning process in the Lower Lugg Valley.
The project was designed, managed and delivered by Herefordshire Archaeology (Ian Bapty and Natalie Preece), with partner involvement from Waterman CPM (Chris Cox) and the Worcestershire Historic Environment and Archaeology Service (Robin Jackson). The project was undertaken between September 2007 and March 2008.
The digital archive as held by the ADS currently consists of the following resources:
The Resource Assessment consists of three volumes:
This document sets out an archaeological resource assessment for the Lower Lugg Valley, Herefordshire. The assessment includes specific consideration of the process of past and present sand and gravel quarrying in the Lower Lugg Valley, and the future threat this poses to the archaeology of the area. The assessment concludes by defining a research framework for future archaeological investigation in the Lower Lugg area.
The Aerial Photographic analysis was undertaken by Christine Cox of Waterman CPM. National Mapping programme (EH NMP) drawing conventions were used as appropriate throughout the mapping, and all interpretations of new and additional sites were recorded to a database for accession to the Herefordshire SMR GIS and the project GIS. For a detailed discussion of methodology employed please see Volume 2 (pp143) of the Resource Assessment on the downloads page.
The online archive contains both the database (as a CSV accompanied by documentation) and the original mapping (as a DXF file), available to download here. Within the DXF file the following conventions are used:
Layer | Convention | Comment |
---|---|---|
Bank | Polyline | Stipple used over wider banks |
Ditch | Polyline | Solid fill over wider ditches |
Modern-boundaries | Polyline | Post enclosure boundaries, now removed |
Non-archaeol | Polyline | Rarely used - features which may be mistakenly identified as archaeological |
Palaeochannels | Polyline | Former streams or river channels |
Possible-archaeol | Polyline | Features which may be archaeological, but interpretation is inconclusive |
Quarry | Polygon | Visible area of former small-scale quarrying |
RF-NMP | Polygon | Second layer to use NMP convention for RF |
Ridge-furrow | Polyline | Detailed depiction of ridge and furrow |
Site-numbers | Text | Numbers assigned by the AP project |
Site polygons | Polygon | Closed polygons to define visible area of each site |
Study area | Polygon | Sinuous line defining the entire Study Area |
Water management | Polyline | Post-Medieval and modern water meadows and drains |
The project GIS was the result of the collation of archaeological, geological, geomorphological and palaeoenvironmental information relating to the Lower Lugg Valley. The GIS database was intended to facilitate the preliminary analysis of the identified resource which is presented in the report, and to create a practical tool to assist future archaeological management and research activity in the Lower Lugg locality. For a more detailed overview of how the GIS was constructed please see the methodology statements in Volume 1 of the Resource Assessment.
The original project GIS included baseline and landscape layers (such as OS Land-line data and LiDAR coverage) obtained under a third party copyright agreement, and as such is not included within the ADS archive. Users wishing to consult the original GIS should contact the the depositor. The online GIS archive is accompanied by file level documentation containing details of projections, attributes and full layer description. A shortened version is provided below:
Layer Type | File Name | File Type | Description |
---|---|---|---|
ALSF | STUDY_AREA_region | Polygon | Project study area |
BGS boreholes | Bgs_boreholes | Point | Borehole data from BGS archives |
Geomorphological Mapping | ValleyEdgeALSF | Polygon | Valley edge |
TerraceFrontALSF | Polygon | Gravel terrace edge | |
PalaeochannelALSF | Polygon | Palaeochannels | |
PondALSF | Polygon | Pond | |
AlluvialFanALSF | Polygon | Alluvial fan edge | |
AlluvialFanArrowsALSF | Polygon | Alluvial fan arrows | |
IndustrialArea | Polygon | Industrial area | |
UrbanAreaALSF | Polygon | Urban area | |
Towns | Polygon | Settlements (small) | |
LeveeALSF | Polygon | Levee | |
RiverChannelALSF | Polygon | River channel (mapped from OS land-lines) | |
WaterFeatureNoRiverChannelALSF | Polygon | Water features (mapped from OS land-lines) | |
Quarry data | 2007CurrentQuarries_region | Polygon | Working quarries as of 2007 |
Post1982DefunctQuarries_region | Polygon | Post 1982 defunct quarries | |
Post1982FailedQuarries_region | Polygon | Post 1982 failed quarries | |
Pre1982Quarries_region | Polygon | Pre 1982 quarries | |
Pre20thCenturyQuarries_region | Polygon | Pre 20th Century quarries | |
TitheMapQuarries2_region | Polygon | Quarries mapped from ?? Tithe map | |
Archaeology AP Analysis | BANK_polyline | Polygon | AP mapping: bank |
DITCH_polyline | Polygon | AP mapping: ditch | |
FILLS_polyline | Polygon | AP mapping: fills | |
MODERN_BOUNDARIES_polyline | Polygon | AP mapping: Modern boundaries | |
NON_ARCHAEOL_polyline | Polygon | AP mapping: Non archaeological lines | |
PALAEOCHANNELS_polyline | Polygon | AP mapping: palaeochannels | |
POSSIBLE_ARCHAEOL_point | Point | AP mapping: possible archaeology (point) | |
POSSIBLE_ARCHAEOL_polyline | Polygon | AP mapping: possible archaeology (line) | |
QUARRY_polyline | Polygon | AP mapping: Quarries | |
RF_NMP_polyline | Polygon | AP mapping: Ridge and Furrow (following National Mapping Programme convention) | |
RIDGE_FURROW_polyline | Polygon | AP mapping: Ridge and Furrow | |
SITE_POLYGONS_polyline | Polygon | AP mapping: Archaeological site boundaries | |
lowerluggapsiteinfoall | Point | Site information exported from AP database | |
WATER_MANAGEMENT_polyline | Polygon | AP mapping: Water management features | |
Site and Monument Record (SMR) | ALSF_Lugg_sites_from_SMR_monumentGIS | Polygon | Unfiltered SMR |
ALSF_Lugg_sites_from_SMR_point | Point | Filtered SMR |