Aerial Investigation and Mapping Report - English Heritage

INTRODUCTIONThis report describes the results of The South Downs NMP: Beachy Head to River OuseProject. This forms part of a suite of English Heritage research to enhance ourunderstanding of the archaeological remains within the area covered by the newly createdSouth Downs National Park (McOmish 2005). It is the third project in the park to useNational Mapping Programme (NMP) standards following-on from Hampshire SouthDowns (Young 2011), and The South Downs NMP Pilot Area 1: Worthing to the Weald(Carpenter 2008). These projects were carried out to characterise the archaeology onthe Downs and immediate environs and to inform future archaeological work andconservation management plans for the National Park.The project contributed to National Heritage Protection Plan (NHPP) Measure 3 Activity3A4 Identification of terrestrial assets via non-intrusive survey (RASMIS Project Number5868 NMP S Downs).All archaeological features visible on aerial photographs were surveyed and recorded. Thisincluded buried features visible as cropmarks or soilmarks, earthworks and structures witha potential date range from the Neolithic period to the mid-20th century, the lattermainly military sites.The project area originally comprised chalk downland between Lewes and Eastbourne,the Ouse and Cuckmere river valleys, and part of the Weald (Carpenter 2009). Itincluded the eroding ‘heritage coastline’ at Beachy Head and an area for proposedmanaged retreat along the lower Cuckmere river (EA 2007).The coastal strip was completed in 2010 to contribute to the South East Rapid CoastalZone Assessment Survey EH Projects No. 5698, 6102-3 (Hamel and Lambert 2011,Dickson et al 2012). The World War I camps at Seaford were subject to further analysisas part of this phase (Skinner 2011). The interim results contributed to a website on theSouth Downs http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/discover/south-downs/Due to a reduction in the team, the project was revised to target key areas ofarchaeological and geographic significance (Small and Winton 2012). The revised projectarea comprised 118 square kilometres. The reduced area, chosen by the project teamand stakeholders, included Bullock Down, part of Friston Forest, the Ouse and Cuckmerevalleys, and the areas of chalk downland east of Lewes and between Beachy Head andthe Long Man of Wilmington. The remaining parts of the revised project area werecompleted in Late 2012.The project recorded 655 previously unknown archaeological features and amendeddetails for 265 in the English Heritage National Record of the Historic Environment(NRHE AMIE database).© ENGLISH HERITAGE 1 22 - 2013