Warwickshire assessment of archaeological resource in aggregate areas
Warwickshire County Council, 2008. https://doi.org/10.5284/1000037. How to cite using this DOI
Data copyright © Warwickshire County Council unless otherwise stated
This work is licensed under the ADS Terms of Use and Access.
Primary contact
Jonathan
Parkhouse
County Archaeologist
Warwickshire County Council
Warwickshire Museum
The Butts
Warwick
CV34 4SS
England
Tel: 01926 412276
Fax: 01926 412974
Resource identifiers
- ADS Collection: 849
- ALSF Project Number: 4681
- DOI:https://doi.org/10.5284/1000037
- How to cite using this DOI
Overview
Project background and methodology
The aim of the project was to identify, characterise and digitally map available information on Warwickshire's archaeological resource in areas of past, present and potential future aggregates extraction in order to enhance existing baseline date, to improve archaeological mitigation of future extraction proposals in the County, and to promote better public understanding of and engagement with these issues.
The report (a) defines the aggregates resource, identifying areas of past, present and future extraction, (b) summarises the extent of archaeological resource already destroyed, and that potentially threatened, (c) assesses the level of available information for the various areas, and (d) draws up a research agenda to address those areas where there is insufficient information.
The project area consists of those areas mapped by the British Geological Survey (BGS) at 1:50,000 which contain (or have in the past contained) geologies exploited for aggregates, within the present day County of Warwickshire and the area of Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council. The relevant geological deposits comprise sand and gravel drift deposits and solid rock outcrops. These geologies are complex and cover approximately one third of the County; they also occur in most geographical areas of Warwickshire.
There were six principal stages to the project:
- Definition of the aggregates resource;
- Definition of study area on the basis of the geology being exploited and the topography of the County;
- Archaeological resource assessment forming the core of the project, consisting of a summary of our understanding of the archaeological resource within aggregates areas encompassing all archaeological periods;
- Identification of research priorities within the aggregates areas, leading to the production of a research agenda;
- Identification of management prescriptions in the context of local development frameworks, planning policy and legislation, to produce a management framework;
- Dissemination of project outcomes
The digital archive
The digital archive currently contains the final project report:
- Alexander,M., Palmer,S. and Chadd,L. 2008: Archaeological Resource Assessment of the Aggregates Producing Areas of Warwickshire and Solihull. Warwickshire County Council Unpublished Report.
Section 1: provides an overview of the project including its origination, management, personnel, geographical scope and the minerals development context at the time of writing.
Section 2: details the aims of the project and provides links to those sections of the report that were written to address each of these aims.
Section 3: describes the methodology used to obtain the results detailed within the rest of the report concentrating in particular on the production of the aggregates resource base map. This section also details the data cleaning and validation undertaken, the use of aerial photogrpahs and LIDAR the collation of data to provide a simple statistical overview and produce period reports on which to base the assessment of the current state of knowledge of the archaeology of the study area, the development of a research agenda and management proposals and the intended methods of dissemination.
Section 4: summarises the geology of the study area, particularly in relation to aggregates.
Section 5: consists of period based summaries of the current state of knowledge for each of the main archaeological periods. Each begins with a short discussion of the distribution of known finds and sites across the study area and in relation to aggregates.
Section 6:: research agenda organised by period in the same way as section 5 and summarises the key research objectives for each period.
Section 7: addresses the management of the archaeological resource and begins with a discussion of the management of risk in the context of archaeology in a development context.
The report concludes with a description of the archive (Section 8), references (Section 9) and appendices (Section 10). The most significant of the appendices are Sections 10.4 and 10.5 which detail the results and methodology of the National Mapping Programme (NMP) work undertaken as part of this project.
The final part of this report, Section 11, contains the main illustrations and all the period based distribution maps.
