SITES – Investigating evidence for past occupation of land to the west of Chippenham, Wiltshire
The area of the Sites project is along the A4 between McDonald’s roundabout and the Pheasant public house and includes land as far north as Bailey’s Field, just below the A420, and west as far as the A350. Aerial photographs depicting crop marks in the landscape are juxtaposed with contemporary photographs of the sites of the crop marks, taken at ground level.
Photographs taken from the air from 1946 onwards reveal archaeological features; Historic England’s maps confirm their whereabouts, though they are now mostly not present. Crop marks, appearing in particularly dry summers, show on the photographs as, usually, darker lines or circles on the bleached ground. Early black and white photographs taken by RAF or Ordnance Survey photographers also recorded the first post-war housing west of Hungerdown Lane, with more houses appearing, in the 1960s. Wiltshire Council and Historic England also commissioned aerial photographs. From the 1980s colour photographs show the development of Sainsbury’s supermarket, Cepen Park and the A350. There were two sites which did not have crop marks, these were the sites of a Saxon grubenhaus and a 19th century outfarm.
By summer 2024 I had a selection of aerial photographs showing crop marks. Some of the pictures had been purchased from the Historic England archive and I had also been allowed to use some of those which had been commissioned by Wiltshire Council.
I compared the photographs to contemporary aerial maps and calculated the positions of the crop marks. Where necessary I asked permission to enter the fields. I made several visits to each site, looking for the best place to attempt to frame the bits of landscape, which had once contained structures of some kind, but now, despite all the evidence of the aerial photographs; the clear lines, the curves, the circles; from ground level, apart from one instance, there was not a trace.
Acknowledgements
Wiltshire Council and Historic England for granting permission to publish the photographs
Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre, especially Julie Davis, Carol Lewis, Jacqui Ramsay, Tim Havard, Charlotte Godsiff, Helen Taylor, Ian Hicks, Tom Plant
Faresaver Buses
References
Historic England Aerial Photo Explorer
https://historicengland.org.uk/images-books/archive/collections/aerial-photos/
Historic England Aerial Archaeology Mapping Explorer
https://historicengland.org.uk/research/results/aerial-archaeology-mapping-explorer/