An update on recent achievements:
Geophysics survey at Brede High Farm
We recently carried out a geophysics survey at Brede High Farm. This involved two types of survey, firstly magnetometry, which picks up variations in magnetism, and secondly resistivity which picks up differences in resistance to an electrical current. Both methods are designed to find buried archaeological features.
Although we know there are remains of the walls of buildings still surviving below ground at the farm, neither method really picked up much in the way of identifiable archaeology. The magnetometry seems to have picked up some of the buildings and trackway at the southern end of the site, and may have picked out the remains of the farmhouse at the north end of the site, but it is not particularly clear. According to David Staveley who carried out the survey, there was a lot of interference from metal objects in the soil.
The resistivity was a much slower technique, and therefore we only managed to look at two parts of the site, but it did give the volunteers a good opportunity to try it for themselves. The results were disappointing, with nothing really showing up clearly, however the outline of two buildings at the south end of the site can be made out, and a large anomaly at the north end may be the site of the farmhouse. The recent dry weather means that tree roots can have an effect of the results. However there is some correlation between the two sets of results, and a comparison with the Ordnance Survey map showing the layout of the farm helps to identify the buildings that seem to survive at the site. Below is the raw data, we will publish some interpretation once we have made more sense of it.
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