On Thursday Evening 29 May 2025 in the Franklin Hall, Spilsby, we had a talk on Aerial Archaeology by Simon Tomson and Chris Belton, Simon is the photographer and Chris flying her plane.
It was a fabulous talk that showed some of Lincolnshire from the air and revealed some of its hidden treasures. They began by saying that working the land for crops has hidden from view a lot of archaeology by the leveling of surface of the fields. When you are in the air above these fields some of this shows up in the form of soil and or crop marks, also sometimes if the light is right by shadows.
Masonry, ditches, post holes and burial mounds in the ground have an effect on the growing crop relative to the depth of soil or the nutrients in the ground. These show as stronger or weaker growth and are often visible, they also show in bare earth as the land dries out or retains water differently.
There were many slides showing these effects and explaining the hidden features by Simon with Chris operating the projector.
There was a themed cake supplied by the Artisan Baker of Firsby (which was greatly admired) cut by Simon & Chris and eagerly eaten by all.
Here are a few screen shots from the talk.
All of the aerial shots used in the talk, and many more besides, are available on:
Search by name or grid square. For the purposes of the Search engine they are all suffixed with “aerial”
Another site for Lincs aerial shots is the Facebook page: “Lincolnshire History and Archaeology from the Air”, which is run by “InnerVisions Aerial Photography”, who have a separate Facebook page under that name.
“Ian Bracegirdle Photography” is another Lincolnshire based aerial photographer. As well as a Facebook page you can find him at: https://www.aerialphotography.org.uk/Lincolnshire
The two documents by Caitlin Green referred to are as follows, in high resolution:
“Land on the Edge – The Landscape Evolution of the Lincolnshire Coastline” – https://business.visitlincolnshire.com/…/Land-on-the…
and:
“Land on the Edge – Headline Stories” – https://business.visitlincolnshire.com/…/Coastal…
