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

土地和权力之间的联系在1500 -1930年的不列颠群岛的士绅和贵族阶层中得到了最清晰和最明显的表达。这些土地通常附属于乡村住宅，为所有者的社会、政治、文化和经济影响力提供了基础。它们还提供了控制景观外观和布局方面的重要能力，并通过农业、圈地、工业、建筑、林业、休闲、交通、园艺、景观设计和租户关系等计划影响景观的使用、管理、居住和工作方式。庄园的大小、特点、组成和寿命各不相同，这取决于其地理环境的性质及其所有者和居民的身份。大多数人都提供了大量关于土地的获得、继承和管理以及与地产有关的往往范围广泛的活动的记录。这些档案构成了国家档案馆的主要部分，有数千件此类收藏品由县档案局、国家和大学档案馆以及私人所有。他们提供了大量证据（以地契、地图、测量、租金、租约、账目、计划和信件等形式）。与个别地方、景观和特征有关的（农场、田野、林地、建筑物、工业工程等）往往延续了几个世纪的所有权。然而，通常很难理解这些记录，特别是非制图记录，与它们所指的确切“地面地点”的关系，本项目将通过探索如何通过创建在线地理信息系统（GIS）将这些记录与景观空间联系起来的方法来克服这一挑战。从不同的收藏品中，按空间和时间顺序联合收割机和结构化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结合记录可以揭示整个时期c.1500-1930年房地产景观的变化程度，性质，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地区，该地区拥有不同性质、组成和寿命的多个庄园，并提供了大量记录，主要由郡档案馆和威尔士国家图书馆保存。分析的基础将是根据地理参考记录创建多个地理信息系统数据集，以绘制“深层地籍图”。每个记录中引用的所有地形特征都将通过创建数字边界来识别。关于这些特征的进一步信息（例如地名、土地使用）将被纳入一个链接数据库，以便从每一来源全面提取信息。在点击按钮，将有可能查看完整的记录历史的景观及其个别功能，作为建立了通过分层的记录，从不同的时间。主要产出将是一个在线门户，使用户能够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、数字人文和考古学领域的专门知识。该项目将作为班戈尔大学威尔士遗产研究所的一项重要举措，与阿伯里斯特威斯大学的信息研究、威尔士古代和历史古迹皇家委员会、威尔士国家图书馆、登比郡和弗林特郡档案馆合作进行，该项目将对遗产和设计景观的知识辩论作出重大贡献。它还将创建一种方法，可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.