Source/Archive record SEM8115 - Exmoor National Park National Mapping Programme (NMP) Management and Summary Report

Aerial photographic interpretation was undertaken using National Mapping Programme (NMP) methodology for the area of Exmoor National Park. This report outlines the methods used and provides highlights from the results of the survey phase. Work began in March 2007 and was completed in July 2009. The Exmoor National Park National mapping Programme (NMP) survey was conducted by Exmoor National Park Authority staff based at the English Heritage offices in Exeter. The project was funded through the Historic Environment Enabling Programme (HEEP) (Project number 5107 PD). The aerial survey project began in April 2007 and the main interpretation and mapping phase completed in summer 2009. The survey's focus is Exmoor National Park, an area crossing the county boundary between Devon and Somerset. The survey area comprises twenty five full Ordnance Survey quarter map sheets and eleven partial map sheets (equating to 7.4 quarter map sheets), or 809 square kilometres in total. This equals roughly 75% of the total area of Exmoor National Park. This excludes those areas surveyed by previous NMP projects such as the Brendon Hills NMP (SEM7355) and the Severn Estuary Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment survey (SEM6848), but including a small contextual area within the two counties. It also excludes areas covered by previous RCHME air photo projects carried out as part of the West Exmoor (EMO6590) and East Exmoor (EMO6759) multi-disciplinary project but additional detail was added in these areas where appropriate. In the past Exmoor National Park's historic environment has received sporadic attention, particularly in comparison with Dartmoor. However, increasing economic pressures for diversification are resulting in changes to traditional farming practices and mounting demands being placed upon Exmoor's historic environment. These include, for example, the growth of commercial shoots and the planting of associated cover crops, spreading scrub growth on the moors and the break up traditional family ownership and land management due to rising property speculation. The NMP survey will both enhance the existing data held by the ENPA Historic Environment Record (HER) and complement currently available management resources, such as those provided by Historic Landscape Characterisation (HLC). A core aim of the NMP survey is to enhance the quality of information available to the National Park's Countryside Archaeology Advisor (CAA), to inform responses to a variety of land management consultations, particularly agri-environment schemes known as Higher Level Stewardship schemes. By improving both the quantity and quality of data about the historic environment available to the CAA, the NMP project should also increase the scope for its conservation. The survey will also improve the value of National Park initiatives such as the Exmoor Schedule, a list of locally important archaeological sites, historic buildings and landscapes, and inform responses to major landscape management and restoration programmes which will impact on the historic environment, such as the rewetting of Exmoor's Blanket Bogs. The project will be conducted to NMP standards and guidelines. The aim of the project is to interpret and transcribe, at a scale of 1:2500, all archaeological features visible on aerial photographs, dating from prehistory to the twentieth century, including industrial and military sites. The main sources of photography are expected to be the specialist collection held at the NMRC Swindon and the Cambridge University Unit for Landscape Modelling (ULM), although cover held by Exmoor National Park Authority and Devon County Council will also be consulted. The mapping, using computerised plotting (AERIAL 5 and Autodesk Map 2007), produces digital files and overlays to the 1:2500 OS map base. Accompanying monument records are input to English Heritage's National Monuments Record database, AMIE. All data and documentation relating to the project, including digital copies of the mapping are deposited in the English Heritage Archive.For further details on the project please contact Helen Winton at Aerial Survey, English Heritage, Swindon.