Archaeology news

Know Your Place website launched

A new website maintained by the Bristol Historic Environment Record was launched on March 16th. Over 100 people attended the event at Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery. There was a presentation by Councilor Anthony Negus. Peter Insole, Archaeological Officer and manager of Know Your Place, demonstrated the use of the site.

The Bristol Historic Web Map website project was funded by English Heritage. It was developed by the City Design Group in partnership with:

• Geographic Information Systems (GIS) team
• Bristol Museums, Galleries and Archives and
• local volunteers.

Know Your Place allows wider access to Bristol's historic maps. It also lets people upload their own information and images about Bristol.  To visit Know Your Place go to www.bristol.gov.uk/knowyourplace.

Communities and the Historic Environment Conference

The City Design Group held a conference as part of the Bristol Historic Web Map Project (see below). This was at the Pavillion on 12th November. The event promoted care for the historic environment through partnerships with community groups.

Presentations were given from:

• archaeological groups
• local history societies and
• neighbourhood partnerships.

These explored new ways of working to better understand the historic environment, and consider the localism agenda.

The development of partnerships to empower communities were also discussed. The objective is that communities will make better informed decisions about their neighbourhoods.  View or download illustrated minutes from this event (view-download-minutes).

Historic Web Map Project

The council has secured English Heritage funding to access many historic maps via a dedicated website.                                                    

The maps are held at Bristol Record Office. Funding will also allow wider access to the city’s Historic Environment Record (HER).  The HER is the primary source for all information relating to the city’s history and archaeology.

The maps will include the Tithe Maps, which date to the mid 19th century. There is also other historic mapping. Much of this project is being done by community volunteers in partnership with:

• Bristol HER staff
• Bristol Museums, Galleries and Archives
• Corporate GIS Team.

The historic maps will be linked to modern maps. This allows the public to investigate the history of their neighbourhoods. The final website will let members of the public upload their own images and information. This will contribute to the Historic Environment Record and also, through the HER:

• directly inform planning policy decisions
• help to map heritage assets across the city and
• generally assist with the management of the historic environment.

Local groups have been involved throughout the project. This will help make the city’s history available to a larger local and neighbourhood audience. It will also mean better care for valuable historic archives and the historic environment in general.

The historic map website will be launched in March 2011.

Sea Mills Community Archaeology Project

Nearly 2000 years ago, Sea Mills was a small Roman town and port called Abona.

During 2010, local volunteers and the council’s archaeological officers and museum curators, have been doing various archaeological investigations. These range from door to door surveys to small scale archaeological digs in people’s gardens.

Project finds have been displayed at two public events at Sea Mills Lane. The whole community has been invited to get involved.

The group have been doing excavations on vacant allotment plots. This is starting to provide further information about the Roman port.

The results of the project will be published through the Bristol and Avon Archaeological Society.