"Deep Mapping" Estate Archives: A New Digital Methodology for Analyzing Estate Landscapes circa. 1500-1930

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Connections between land and power were most clearly and prevalently expressed through the estates of the gentry and aristocracy in the British Isles c.1500-1930. These landholdings, usually attached to a country house, provided a foundation for the owner's social, political, cultural and economic influence. They also afforded significant capacity for controlling aspects of the landscape's appearance and arrangement, and influencing how it was used, managed, inhabited and worked - through schemes of agriculture, enclosure, industry, architecture, forestry, leisure, transportation, horticulture, landscape design and tenant relations. Estates varied significantly in their size, character, composition and longevity, depending on the nature of their geographical setting and the identities of their owners and inhabitants. Most produced copious records pertaining to the acquisition, inheritance and management of land and the often wide-ranging activities associated with the estate. These archives form a major part of the nation's archival holdings, with thousands of such collections held by county record offices, national and university repositories and in private ownership. They provide abundant evidence (in the form of title deeds, maps, surveys, rentals, leases, accounts, plans and correspondence etc.) relating to individual places, landscapes and features (farms, fields, woodlands, buildings, industrial works etc.) often stretching over centuries of proprietorship. However, it is often difficult to comprehend these records, especially non-cartographic records, in relation to the precise 'places on the ground' to which they refer.This project will overcome this challenge by exploring methods of how to spatially link such records with the landscape through the creation of an online Geographical Information System (GIS). The ability to combine and structure records, from different collections, spatially and chronologically will open up new digital pathways for understanding post-medieval landscapes. The project is particularly interested in how a combination of records can reveal the changing extent, character, composition, use and appearance of estate landscapes across the period c.1500-1930. The project adopts a case study area in north-east Wales packed with multiple estates of varying character, composition and longevity and served with plentiful records, primarily held by county archives and the National Library of Wales. The analysis will be underpinned by the creation of multiple GIS datasets based on georeferenced records to develop a 'deep cadastral map'. All topographical features referenced in each record will be polygonised through the creation of digital boundaries. Further information on these features (e.g. place names, land use) will be incorporated into a linked database, allowing for the comprehensive extraction of information from each source. At the click of the button it will be possible to view a full recorded history of the landscape and its individual features, as built up through a layering of records from across time. The main output will be an online portal that will allow users to interrogate the GIS and its constituent records and datasets.The project pools expertise from academia and the cultural heritage sector, and from the fields of history, archives, digital humanities and archaeology. It will proceed as an important initiative of the Institute for the Study of Welsh Estates at Bangor University, in collaboration with Information Studies at Aberystwyth University, Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales, National Library of Wales and Denbighshire and Flintshire archives.The project will make a significant contribution to the intellectual debates on estate and designed landscapes. It will also create a methodology that can be applied to other historic environment projects across the UK and internationally.