Our Archaeology Gallery

Farmstead, Lavenham 29817_004

Late medieval farmstead in Lavenham, Suffolk. This 2015 aerial photograph shows the buried remains of a late medieval farmstead revealed as cropmarks. You can see some of the farma€™s field boundaries and a trackway which linked this farm to its neighbours. They are reminders of the generations of families who lived and worked the land here. These farms were abandoned after changes in farming practice and illustrate the widespread changes that have affected the rural landscape of Suffolk over the last 500 years. This is a good example of the many Suffolk farmsteads Historic England has discovered from the air in recent years. It looks similar to prehistoric settlements found in Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire but is more typical of late medieval farmsteads still in use elsewhere on the Suffolk clay lands.

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Enclosures, Stoke Hammond 26957_027

Neolithic long mortuary enclosures in Stoke Hammond, Buckinghamshire
Features below the plough soil that cause cropmarks can be man-made or natural. In this case it's both. The man-made features are two elongated, capsule shaped enclosures, a circular enclosure and a few large pits. The rest are marks in the gravel, created naturally during the Ice Age. The capsule shaped enclosures are examples of one of the oldest types of monument in Britain called Neolithic Long Mortuary Enclosures. They're thought to be areas where dead bodies were placed before burial although there's debate within the archaeological community about what really went on in these enigmatic places!

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Roman camp, Bradford Abbas 26650_004

Roman camp in Bradford Abbas, Dorset
Roman camps are temporary enclosures dug by Roman troops when on manoeuvres and have a very distinctive shape. The line of the buried ditch of a camp shows on this photo as different colours in the crops across several fields. This 'playing card' shaped enclosure on a slope looking over the river Yeo fits the pattern of size, shape and location of a Roman camp. They're common in some areas of Britain, such as along the line of Hadrian's Wall, indicating militarised zones. However, they are relatively rare in the south west of England and the camp at Bradford Abbas is only the fourth to be discovered in the area. Evidence for Roman military activity is known nearby at Ham Hill, South Cadbury and the probable early Roman fort, and later town, at Ilchester. The discovery poses the question of whether the camp at Bradford Abbas could be a survival of an early Roman military campaign against the local population.

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