A Landscape Reimagined – LiDAR Mapping

These research articles have been produced by Andy Mason, who has lived and worked in Woburn Sands & Aspley Guise for many years.

Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR) is a remote sensing technique that uses a laser to measure distances and create 3D models of the Earth’s surface, removing all vegetation and other incumbrances so just the ground surface can be seen. As Historic England’s website explains, “Airborne LiDAR measures the height of the ground surface and other features in large areas of landscape with a very high resolution and accuracy. Such information was previously unavailable, except through labour-intensive field survey or photogrammetry. It provides highly detailed and accurate models of the land surface at metre and sub-metre resolution. This provides archaeologists with the capability to recognise and record otherwise hard-to-detect features.”

Andy has manipulated the modern LiDAR mapping results to explore the history of our local landscape and explains what we can learn from the insights that this new technology shows us.

His research is not a definitive guide, it is Andy’s own personal interpretation. LiDAR often leaves the researcher with more questions than answers.

Due to Andy’s generosity, his full articles are downloadable below.

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ISSUE NO.1 – Danesborough Hillfort and Woods

In 2024, Andy gave a talk to the members of Bow Brickhill History Society on the subject of Aspley Heath’s Danesborough Hillfort and its surrounding woodland. The talk was split into two parts, the first being about Danesborough itself; the what, why, who, where and when. The second part focussed on his LiDAR research and how Danesborough fits within its surroundings.  Here in the 1st issue, Andy sets the historical scene during the period in which Danesborough was possibly built.

Issues 2, 3 and 4 are still in draft but will cover the local sites of Danesborough, and Magiovinium, showing historical mapping and introduce us to his LiDAR research. These will follow in due course.

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ISSUE NO.5 – Boudicca & Woburn Golf Club

There is a rumour that Boudicca had something to do with the curved earthwork on the 7th hole of Woburn Golf Club. Andy cannot confirm any connection between this part of the Bow Brickhill Ridge with the infamous warrior Queen, but he has looked into the terrain where the rumours are supposed to originate and produced some LiDAR images to show the earthworks in question.

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ISSUE NO.6 – Magiovinium to Caldecotte Watermill

After hearing a talk by John Walford (from archaeology consultants MOLA) to the Bow Brickhill Historical Society, Andy looks into the Roman road recently discovered and subsequently preserved on the new Caldecotte South Industrial Estate and the idea that it was in fact leading to Caldecotte Watermill.

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ISSUE NO.7 – Summer Solstice & The Holloway at Edgewick

Andy put forward a hypothesis in 2023 that one of the entrances to Danesborough camp in Aspley Heath could be aligned with the rising sun at the Summer Solstice. The 1924 archaeological dig indicated that a possible North East entrance was much denuded and partially obliterated making it impossible to determine whether it existed at all. After visiting the site at the 2024 Solstice, this is what he discovered.

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ISSUE NO.8 – The Leys & Edgewick Farm

This report examines Hogsty End (old Woburn Sands) roads before the Enclosure awards of 1791. The Enclosure Awards had a long-lasting effect on the modern road layouts and field boundaries and Andy has sought out old maps in search of features that may explain the road system we see today.

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ISSUE NO.9 – Magiovinium & Watling Street

Following on from Issue No.6, Andy’s attention was drawn to some older maps which show a series of small ditched enclosures on an earlier alignment of Watling Street. These do not correspond with the modern route of the original A5 from Little Brickhill through to Fenny Stratford. Could there be other evidence to prove this earlier alignment?

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ISSUE NO.10 – The Sand Hill & Toll Road

There used to be a different road route over the sand hill between Woburn and Woburn Sands. This
road was removed and realigned when Fuller’s Earth extraction took place on the east side of the road. In this issue, Andy highlights and traces not only where that road used to run but also the original road and perhaps the pack horse road that ran before that.

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ISSUE NO.11 is still in draft.

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ISSUE NO.12 – Our Saxon Charter

There is a Saxon Charter in the British Library, dated 969 A.D., which refers to land in what we know as Aspley Guise. It is a grant of 15 hides from King Edgar (959 – 975) to Ælfwold (his faithful minister) and details the boundary of his granted land. (One ‘Hide’ is approximately 120 acres.) Andy has re-translated the Old English parts. There is no map, as they were never issued in conjunction with these charters. How could we map its details to our landscape today?

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Page last updated Jan. 2025.