SNN117168 - The Northamptonshire National Mapping Programme

The Northamptonshire National Mapping Programme Project is operated and supported by Northamptonshire County Council (NCC) and funded through the English Heritage Archaeology Commissions Programme (and previously the Royal Commission on the Historic Monuments of England). The project started in 1994 on the well-established foundations of skills and data developed by NCC since the mid-1970s. The Northamptonshire Project was the first NMP project to be implemented in a entirely digital environment and is the first to be completed with full GIS functionality. It is part of the continuing development of a broader historic digital data set for the county which includes Historic Landscape Characterisation and the Rockingham Forest Project. This Management Report charts the progress, development and methodology of the project's mapping and interpretation stage, which ended in August 2001. It is also a springboard for the discussion of the future management and processing of air photograph data. The project of 130 quarter sheets mapped and recorded over 14,000 archaeological sites of which 15% were new to the SMR and more than 57% were new to the NMR. This data and the results of research and analysis will be disseminated through both formal and internet publication, the latter via the Archaeology Data Service. The data will also be available through the channels of the NCC and National Monuments Record.