SDO16740 - Lower Dorset Stour, East Dorset, Dorset. Dorset Stour River Catchment Aerial Investigation and Mapping Project

'Outside of the large conurbations of Poole, Christchurch and Bournemouth, the landscape of East Dorset is predominantly rural, comprising areas of distinct and contrasting landscape character; from the chalk downlands of Cranborne Chase, through rolling woodland pastures to the acid heathlands in the southeast of the county. The rich archaeology of the area has a long time-depth that reflects the human story of the place as well as its fragility and vulnerability to external factors such as modern farming regimes and expanding urban development. Modern farming regimes have proved to have particularly destructive impacts in areas with thin topsoils, such as the chalk downland. The Cranborne Chase AONB, for example, has heritage assets that are already considered by Historic England to be vulnerable or ‘at Risk’. This report presents the results of a systematic survey of a range of archaeological sites visible as earthworks, cropmarks and structures on aerial photographs and lidar imagery within a 293 square kilometre area of East Dorset and the Hampshire border. It includes the Moors valley, lower portion of the Stour valley as well as the western side of the Avon valley. The project has provided significant enhancement to existing baseline data through the mapping, interpretation and recording of 2675 archaeological sites, of which 2193 were entirely new sites previously unrecorded in the county or national databases. The results will be available for use by local communities, researchers, policy makers and managers of the historic and natural environment.'