Surveying the pale, in the rain

Last Sunday we carried out our first fieldwork on the deer park at Leagram, with a training day led by Dave and Rebecca from English Heritage who showed us how to carry out earthwork surveys, the old fashioned way. No GPS for us (there's no satellite reception at Leagram!) so we turned back the clock and used poles, tapes, drawing tables and a dumpy level. The only nod to the 21st century was the wonderful invention of waterproof film - which was a lifesaver as the weather was wet, very very very wet!

We hope to carry out some more survey work soon, so please get in touch if you are interested in joining us (whatever the weather).

The afternoon training session: drawing a cross section of the bank and ditch

Inspecting the site on a drier day: the ditch and bank, the line of the pale, is quite clear on this section of the deer park boundary near to Windy Hills