CBA East Midlands Boundaries Project
Channel: Recording Archaeology
Date: 2015-03-10

Catherine Wells
Ischus Limited

CBA-EM is the Council for British Archaeology local group for the East Midlands. Covering five counties (Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, and Rutland) since the 1940s, we are an educational charity working to enable the public to be involved with archaeology and to promote the appreciation and care of the historic environment for the benefit of the present and future generations. We achieve this by holding events, such as several day conferences during the winter months and visits to sites of interest during the summer. In recent years we have been investigating the possibility for a more active involvement of CBAEM in an archaeological project, though not something that would generate a large finds based archive. After much thought, discussion and canvassing of our members, the result is the
Boundaries Project. The English countryside is a multi-layered patchwork on which each generation has left its mark and this forms the basis of the project. We intend to discover more about the countryside by looking at the ancient boundaries that define it. Ancient boundaries, marked by a vast variety of walls, ditches, banks, hedges and trees, were important and defined the landscape for centuries, some dating back into prehistory, and by studying them we intend to add a systematic record of the patterns of their individual elements to the knowledge we have of the past. Volunteers will start looking at parish boundaries marked on historic maps and then go out and record their form and condition to create a 21st century domesday GIS record with linked drawings and photographs. A CBE-EM sub committee was tasked with defining the data to be collected and designing the method by which it would be recorded and stored. Archaeological, historical, administrative, and computer related experience and skills were provided by relevant expert members of the sub committee. We conducted a pilot study during 2014 and are intending to launch the project at our AGM in March. This paper will outline the project, the technical aspects and the software development involved in achieving its realisation, along with lessons learned in the pilot study and planned future development.