The Magnesian Limestone in South and West Yorkshire

Archaeological Mapping and Assessment Project

Archaeological Services WYAS has been commissioned by English Heritage, funded by the Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund (ALSF), to undertake a study of the archaeology of the Magnesian Limestone belt and adjacent areas in South, West and North Yorkshire.

This project has been devised to synthesise the various forms of available mapped archaeological evidence and its relationship to past, present and future aggregates extraction sites. As well as detailing the impact that the aggregates industry has had upon the archaeology of the Magnesian Limestone belt and its margins, the project will aim to redefine baseline knowledge and so enable future aggregate extraction to be mitigated more appropriately within a considered archaeological research framework, towards informing future reviews of Minerals Local Plans and Unitary Development Plans.

Archaeologists have, for the last 30 years, been recording the rural This has occurred in a rather piecemeal way. Initially this was carried out through the air reconnaissance of cropmarks, but more lately through a combination of air photo interpretation and mapping, geophysical survey and excavation, mainly as a consequence of extensive aggregates extraction. Recent archaeological work has begun to reveal patterns and ask questions of the evidence, but these can never be answered on a site-by-site basis and require a more global synthesis to which this project hopes to contribute.

The project will run from March 2005 until December 2006. Interim results will be published on this site at regular intervals. as will the final report.

Copyright of the NMP results of the project will reside with English Heritage. Licence to use the NMP data will be extended to South Yorkshire Archaeology Service, ongoing and future research and investigations.

The GIS synthesis will also be the copyright of English Heritage. Copyright of the GIS synthesis and licence to use the data will be extended to South Yorkshire Archaeology Service, West Yorkshire Archaeology Service and North Yorkshire County Council Heritage Unit as statutory providers.

Text by Ian Roberts (Principal Archaeologist) Archaeological Services WYAS
extracted from Roberts, I. et al, (2004)

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