SNF102128 (Monograph) - Aylsham and Brampton Aerial Investigation and Mapping Project, Norfolk

North-east Norfolk has long been known as a landscape where extensive, dense, varied and complex buried archaeological remains were known to be visible as cropmarks. The propensity of the soils to form cropmarks, together with a long history of intensive archaeological and aerial reconnaissance, meant that the potential to record new sites in this area was extremely high, along with the opportunity to record new information about previously recorded sites. The area is also noted for its high density of prehistoric funerary monuments, the site of Brampton Roman town (the extent and character of which is primarily known from cropmark evidence) and the registered park and gardens associated with Blickling Hall. The Aylsham and Brampton Aerial Investigation and Mapping (AIM) survey has made a significant contribution to our knowledge and understanding of the historic environment of the project area. It has undertaken a new baseline survey of 99 sq km of the Norfolk landscape, creating 458 new records in the Norfolk Historic Environment Record (NHER), and enhancing a further 129 records. Crucially, many sites have been accurately mapped for the first time, allowing them to be both better understood and better managed. The survey has discovered, interpreted, mapped and recorded sites ranging in date from the Neolithic to the 20th century. Highlights have included numerous prehistoric funerary sites, including several of likely Neolithic date. Mapping of Brampton Roman town and the surrounding area has added significantly to our understanding of the environs of this Roman small town. A wealth of features relating to medieval and post-medieval fields, enclosures and routeways provides a fantastic resource for future research into the settlement and land use of the period. The six manorial and/or moated sites recorded by the project are an interesting group in their own right, as well as contributing to our understanding of the wider medieval and post-medieval landscape. By collating the evidence visible on the huge variety of aerial sources consulted by the project, and by making this available via the NHER – and other platforms – in the form of digital maps and records, the information contained in the aerial sources has been 'unlocked', and can now be recognised, understood, disseminated and utilised by a wide range of users. Fundamentally, it will be an important resource for those managing and making decisions about the historic environment of the project area. The questions raised by the results, and their further analysis, will hopefully form the basis of much future research in the region.