Geophysics 2024

Newtown Linford, Bradgate Park Lawns (SK 531 101) 

Daryl Garton

A community geophysics programme in Bradgate Park was centred on the Lawns west of Bradgate House and south of a leat.  The fieldwork was led by the Leicestershire Fieldworkers in collaboration with the Ice Age Journeys project and volunteers from Bradgate Park.  Previous test-pitting to locate flint artefacts had also recovered a post-Medieval drain, and Roman and Iron Age sherds (Transactions of the Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society 96, 2022, 1-12). We set out to test if there was any discernible foci of later activity by geophysical survey before embarking on any further test-pitting. 

Resistivity survey identified features also visible on LiDAR alongside new linear features: both should be easy to avoid in future test-pitting. There were no obvious signatures of foci of activity recognized from this resistivity survey.

Magnetometry surveying did not identify the linear anomalies seen in either LiDAR or resistivity survey.  We assume that this is caused by the variability in distribution and nature of the South Charnwood Diorite clasts in the subsoil and underlying deposits. 

The full report will be deposited in the Leicestershire Historic Environmental Record. It is available to read below.

Appendices 1 to 5 of this report with more detailed geophysics plots are here.