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

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.

Collaboration is at the heart of this proposal. It pools knowledge, expertise and interests from across and beyond academia to design and deliver a project which addresses important research questions which link into objectives, priorities and opportunities in the cultural heritage, archive, environmental, planning and tourism sectors. The central involvement in the project of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales (RC) and National Library of Wales (NLW) are primary facilitators of pathways to impact; the project aligns with their core strategic objectives. Both organisations are sponsored by Welsh Government and imbued with longstanding policy-driven responsibilities for national cultural heritage strategy. RC has a leading role as an originator, curator and supplier of authoritative information on the archaeological, built, landscape and maritime heritage of Wales (Operational Plan 2018-19); NLW's overarching purpose is to make the documentary heritage of Wales accessible to all for learning, research and enjoyment (The Nation's Memory: Informing the Future - Strategic Plan 2017-21). Over the last two decades both organisations have developed sector-leading reputations for technological innovation in the sphere of digital heritage. Their engagement with the project continues this trajectory. Furthermore, they will play an integral role in cascading the significance, reuse and reapplication of the project, its findings, datasets and methodology across Welsh Government and the international digital heritage, information management and archives sectors in which they are embedded.

Pathways to impact will be developed across the following areas:

-Historic environment: The information incorporated into the GIS will enhance existing historic environment datasets and resources, including RC's National Monuments Record and List of Historic Place Names, Cadw's database of scheduled monuments, listed buildings and landscapes and the Historic Environment Record for north east Wales. The completed GIS will be delivered via a web portal and the methodology packaged and shared as a toolkit to allow for exploration and reapplication by historic environment bodies across the UK and internationally.

-Archives: The project will contribute to the sector's agenda to make collections more accessible, discoverable and usable. Partnerships with two local record offices and NLW will focus on their public engagement and collections advocacy priorities. The project also has in-built conservation and digitisation benefits. The collaboration with NLW will be critical to establishing the groundwork for the long-term potential of a map-based search function for archives (as derived from the project methodology).

-Environmental and Planning: Much of the information generated by the GIS will have contemporary uses and applications. Opportunities will be explored for feeding the project's data on historic land use and management into existing datasets used by environmental and planning agencies such as Natural Resources Wales, local authorities and the AONB.

-Tourism: Connections will be made with regional tourism agencies to explore how historical information relating to places and sites in the project area can be utilised in marketing and visitor experience initiatives to promote the area as an attractive visitor designation.

-Local History: The project will include public events and activities (with local partners) to share information, promote active public participation with the project and enhanced engagement with local history, culture and landscapes, with a view to contributing towards an enhanced 'sense of place'.