Quote:Is there anyone out there into this new fangled landscape archaeology? I am doing research into Luentinum/Dolaucothi in Mid Wales (gold mine) and the maps I can source are only as far back as 1800 or so (admittedly this is only via the internet) and frankly not much use as they don't have any heights on them.
Hmmm, you are wanting two different things. Maps before the Ordnance Survey First Edition 6-inch series (mostly surveyed in the 1850s) are very unlikely to have heights – you are principally dealing with enclosure and tithe maps for the 18th and 19th centuries and these were not surveyed in the same way or with the same detail as the OS coverage. You can get heights from the present-day OS coverage (their open data policy has worked wonders) and it hasn't changed much in the past 150 years, other than in the degree of accuracy.
You can get the OS 1st edition from old-maps.co.uk but the interface is clunky, restrictive, and their maps are costly (and I have had issues with non-download). Better to go to the appropriate record office and get photocopies. The First Edition is well and truly out of copyright, but record offices can be funny about making copies sometimes as they are all scared of the OS's draconian copyright death-ray.
I thought Dolaucothi had been resurveyed recently and
the National Trust website has some information on this and it may be worth approaching them - the NT have their own archaeologists on staff so you should get a sympathetic response.
You can also get lidar data for much of the country – especially in areas that are a flood risk – and it is worth exploring what the Environment Agency have to offer (although I'm not sure if they cover Wales) and that will give you sub-metre-resolution height data and it is
very accurate (makes a hand-held GPS look like an old hoover by comparison). Software can then be used to strip vegetation from the height data (removing trees and so on). Failing that, you can download Shuttle Radar Topography Mission data for free, although it is only in 90m tiles outside the USA so not much use for accurate survey work (it is one of the principal sources for Google Earth's relief data).
However you proceed, a visit to the appropriate record office (and probably the local authority Heritage Environment Record for good measure) will be a must.
Mike Bishop
