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

1500年至1930年，不列颠群岛上的士绅和贵族阶层最清楚、最普遍地表达了土地与权力之间的联系。这些土地通常附属于乡间别墅，为所有者的社会、政治、文化和经济影响力提供了基础。它们还通过农业、圈地、工业、建筑、林业、休闲、交通、园艺、景观设计和租户关系等方案，提供了控制景观外观和安排方面的重要能力，并影响了景观的使用、管理、居住和工作方式。庄园的大小、性质、组成和寿命因其地理环境的性质及其所有者和居民的身份而有很大差异。大多数都有关于土地的获取、继承和管理以及与遗产有关的广泛活动的大量记录。这些档案构成了国家档案馆藏的重要组成部分，由县档案局、国家和大学档案馆和私人所有的数千个这样的藏品。它们提供了丰富的证据（以地契、地图、测量、租金、租约、账目、计划和通信等形式），这些证据与个别地点、景观和特征（农场、田野、林地、建筑物、工业厂房等）有关，通常可以追溯到几个世纪的所有权。然而，通常很难理解这些记录，特别是非地图记录，与它们所指的精确“地面位置”的关系。本项目将探索如何通过创建在线地理信息系统（GIS）将这些记录与景观在空间上联系起来，从而克服这一挑战。从空间和时间顺序上组合和组织来自不同收藏的记录的能力将为理解后中世纪景观开辟新的数字途径。该项目特别感兴趣的是如何将记录结合起来，揭示1500年至1930年期间庄园景观的变化程度、特征、组成、使用和外观。该项目采用了威尔士东北部的一个案例研究区域，该区域有多个不同特征、组成和寿命的庄园，并提供了大量的记录，主要由县档案馆和威尔士国家图书馆保存。该分析将以基于地理参考记录的多个GIS数据集的创建为基础，以开发“深度地籍地图”。每条记录中引用的所有地形特征都将通过创建数字边界进行多边形化。有关这些特征的进一步信息（例如地名、土地用途）将被纳入一个相连的数据库，以便从每个来源全面提取信息。只需点击一下按钮，就可以查看完整的景观历史记录及其各个特征，这些记录是通过跨越时间的记录分层建立起来的。主要输出将是一个在线门户，允许用户查询地理信息系统及其组成记录和数据集。该项目汇集了学术界和文化遗产部门以及历史、档案、数字人文和考古领域的专业知识。它将作为班戈大学威尔士地产研究研究所的一项重要倡议，与阿伯里斯特威斯大学信息研究、威尔士古代和历史古迹皇家委员会、威尔士国家图书馆以及登比郡和弗林特郡档案馆合作进行。该项目将对房地产和景观设计的知识辩论做出重大贡献。它还将创造一种方法，可以应用于英国和国际上的其他历史环境项目。

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.