News & Projects
August 2024
With most arable land now harvested areas have opened up for surveying, although typically the weather has turned very wet.
Summer projects involved further research of early wireless sites with visits to Marconi's Lizard Wireless Station and Poldhu Wireless Station. In addition, documentary research of the Banbury Imperial Wireless Chain receiving site was carried out ahead of an article for Banbury Museum.
For anyone interested in early wireless sites, which are an ongoing research theme for us, we have a small number of signed copies of Larry Bennett's "Portishead Radio" for £10 +p&p and "The Marconi Beam Wireless Stations of Somerset" for £14 +p&p, contact us on info@archaeological-surveys.co.uk.
See Devizes Wireless Station (archaeological-surveys.co.uk) Wroughton Wireless Receiving Station (archaeological-surveys.co.uk)
Cheers, Dave Sabin
With high temperatures becoming more frequent in British summers, Archaeological Surveys Ltd consider the risks of overheating and heat exhaustion when carrying out geophysical survey.
This short article takes a look at the current state of standards and guidance for archaeological geophysics in England with particular regard to commercial practice.
Francis George Sabin passed away in September 2019 after several years of struggling with a number of degenerative illnesses. Francis provided valuable support to Archaeological Surveys Ltd after a long career in engineering.
Archaeological Surveys Ltd was commissioned by the Malmesbury History Society to undertake a ground penetrating radar (GPR) survey of accessible areas around the abbey and adjacent areas. Variable results were obtained but include anomalies relating to the northern cloister, the crossing, presbytery and transepts. Fragments of the abbey complex were also located by GPR surveying within Abbey House Gardens to the east and behind The Old Bell Hotel to the north west. The GPR survey also located fragments of St Paul's church to the south of the abbey. No significant features were identified within the churchyard to the south of the abbey, although the GPR profiles indicate the presence of a very large number of graves probably confirming the area had been used for burial by the town from the medieval up until the Victorian period. The GPR results within the abbey were poor probably as a result of the floor and shallow subsurface make-up; despite the presence of numerous memorial ledgers within the floor, there was very little evidence for graves below it, and although 19th and 20th century renovations may have removed them, it is possible that high levels of GPR absorption have restricted penetration.
Magnetometry carried out by Archaeological Surveys Ltd at Aldbourne, Wiltshire, has successfully located anomalies relating to Nissen huts used by Easy Company of the 2nd Battalion of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division of the US army preparing for D-Day. Subsequent excavation, as part of Operation Nightingale, revealed concrete pads forming the foundations of one of the huts along with finds dating to the use and occupation of the site.