Portfolio https://www.esdm.co.uk/portfolio http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification mojoPortal Blog Module en-GB 120 no Exmoor HBSMR Web Upgrade ENPA HBSMR Web Map

Exmoor National Park Authority (ENPA) commissioned Exegesis to upgrade their existing Exegesis HER website to use the current version of HBSMR Web. The site provides information on all known archaeological sites and historic buildings within the National Park; from the earliest recorded human history to recent times. Earthworks, ruins, buildings, landscapes, industrial remains, historic boundaries and routes, military sites and find sites are all included. 

HBSMR Web sites are built within a cloudscribe Content Management System, which gave ENPA the ability to control the appearance and content of web pages within the site. The new site also provides the ability to perform powerful but simple google-like searching across all HBSMR modules. 

Visit the Website: www.exmoorher.co.uk.

Further information from Crispin Flower.


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https://www.esdm.co.uk/exmoor-hbsmr-web-upgrade https://www.esdm.co.uk/exmoor-hbsmr-web-upgrade https://www.esdm.co.uk/exmoor-hbsmr-web-upgrade Fri, 17 May 2019 13:30:00 GMT
National Historic Landscape Characterisation (NHLC) Project Historic Landscape Characterisation (HLC) is a technique that allows the classification and presentation of historic aspects of broad landscapes. HLC is regularly used to support management, enjoyment, protection and planning, or to stimulate more detailed research.

Prior to the National HLC (NHLC) project, virtually all of England had been characterised through individual HLC projects, but these were at county or sub-regional level, with each of the studies using slightly different methodologies and categorisation methods. In early 2016, Natural England appointed Exegesis to compile a national HLC dataset, drawing together the existing sub-regional HLC datasets and applying a common framework, structure and terminology to a new unified dataset. The aim of the project was to improve the awareness, understanding, appreciation and ability to manage and monitor the historic dimension of England’s landscape at a national scale, for both professional and non-professional end-users.

Extract from the 1km grid NHLCThe database containing the terminology applied to all the different sub-regional datasets was cleaned and then the original terms used were mapped to a bespoke thesaurus, created to ensure that all could be mapped to a suitable, equivalent new term. The associated spatial data was also processed so that the irregular polygons were firstly imported to a merged dataset and then generalised into a gridded dataset. The gridded approach eliminated discrepancies in polygon size or accuracy, and overcame issues where there were small amounts of missing data in the original datasets.

The final gridded dataset was produced at 500m and 1000m scale, with each grid cell having a single associated record with information about the historic landscape character types (both broad types and narrower, character types) and period information. The datasets can be viewed and interrogated in GIS software packages, and when viewed alongside other datasets, the NHLC data can act as an indicator of historic landscape character and can therefore feed in to decisions about landscape management, planning, heritage asset management or research priorities.

View the outputs.

Further information from Abby Hunt.


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https://www.esdm.co.uk/national-historic-landscape-characterisation-nhlc-project https://www.esdm.co.uk/national-historic-landscape-characterisation-nhlc-project https://www.esdm.co.uk/national-historic-landscape-characterisation-nhlc-project Mon, 07 Aug 2017 14:49:00 GMT
Historic Place Names of Wales The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales (RCAHMW) appointed Exegesis to build an accessible and bilingual website in line with the Historic Environment (Wales) Act 2016, which required Welsh Ministers to compile and maintain a list of historic place names in Wales.

Historic Place Names of Wales website

The Welsh version is accessed here: https://enwaulleoeddhanesyddol.cbhc.gov.uk/

and the English version here: https://historicplacenames.rcahmw.gov.uk/

Exegesis worked with David Parsons (Senior Fellow at the Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies) to design appropriate database structures and user interfaces, and to import and enhance around 350,000 records from existing sources including Cynefin and Cwmru 1900. 

The bilingual website allows a user to view all recorded place-names down the ages in an interactive map, or to search for names through a options including period of origin, County and Parish, and by bibliographic and archival sources.

Full details of every recorded name are included, including links to other names in the vicinity and other occurrences of the same name anywhere in Wales.

Staff at RCAHMW and CAWCS are now adding to and enhancing the online records to ensure the site continues to evolve as the most comprehensive resource for Welsh historic place-names.

The dataset is also provided as a series of OGC web services for direct access within other applications in Local Authorities and the Historic Environment Records.

Further information from Crispin Flower.


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https://www.esdm.co.uk/historic-place-names-of-wales https://www.esdm.co.uk/historic-place-names-of-wales https://www.esdm.co.uk/historic-place-names-of-wales Fri, 17 Mar 2017 14:00:00 GMT
Church Heritage Cymru Church Heritage Cymru is a digital database of church buildings with integrated GIS. Exegesis developed the system (which has shared development with the Church of England Church Heritage Record) in 2015 for the Church in Wales in order to capture information on all its churches.

Church Heritage Cymru contains over 1,350 records for church buildings in Wales. As well as GIS information for each record, Church Heritage Cymru contains fields for a wide range of heritage data. Examples of this include church plans, architectural information, archaeological descriptions and statutory designation information. It is also possible to add details about building fabric and other church features using terms from the FISH thesaurus. The system also gives users the ability to link people (architects, authors, etc.) and sources (articles, manuscripts, etc.) to a number of church assets. There is also the option to enter information about worship times and facilities, as well as links to local church websites. 

The information contained within has been developed and added to through desk-based research and fieldwork reports, as well as through local initiatives and thematic projects. 

Further information from Crispin Flower.

 


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https://www.esdm.co.uk/church-heritage-cymru https://www.esdm.co.uk/church-heritage-cymru https://www.esdm.co.uk/church-heritage-cymru Thu, 21 Jan 2016 14:48:00 GMT
Faculty Application System and Church Heritage Record In 2012 the Archbishops’ Council Faculty Simplification Group commissioned a working party to make recommendations for modernising and streamlining the faculty system. As part of this endeavour, and with the financial assistance of Historic England, ChurchCare - the Church of England's national resource - together with Exegesis, developed the Church Heritage Record: a digital database of church buildings integrated with a Geographic Information System (GIS), which can be used for planning and development control, but also fulfils an educational and engagement role.

Church of England Faculty Application System and Church Heritage RecordA major aim of the project was to develop an online faculty application system for the Church of England. This system is used to digitally process applications which propose changes to the fabric of church buildings, features within the church and the churchyard. The system aims to simplify the faculty application process by automatically inputting information about each asset from the Church Heritage Record (which has shared development with Church in Wales Church Heritage Record).

Exegesis have developed a number of tools to simplify and automate the faculty application process. The system allows for the creation of legal forms for each application, required by the Church of England. It also allows users to keep up to date with their workload, providing them with a dashboard showing the applications and messages relevant to their role and any cases which require their attention. Users are also notified by email if they are required to work on an application. We have added a number of other useful tools, for example the automatic production of meeting agendas for the Diocesan Advisory Committee.

Since its launch at the beginning of 2015, 21 dioceses have signed up and well over 1000 applications have been processed.

Further information from Crispin Flower or Steve Ellwood.


]]>
https://www.esdm.co.uk/faculty-application-system-and-church-heritage-record https://www.esdm.co.uk/faculty-application-system-and-church-heritage-record https://www.esdm.co.uk/faculty-application-system-and-church-heritage-record Wed, 21 Jan 2015 00:00:00 GMT
HBSMR Data Merge for Peak District National Park Authority The Peak District National Park Authority has been able to view HER records from the five constituent local authorities that use HBSMR for almost ten years. Text data was stored in separate HBSMR databases whilst the map data was merged. MapInfo Data Access Pages were used to show Monument and Event information and a facility was available to send feedback to the relevant HERs. This solution required an annual on-site data refresh. The update process was lengthy and not entirely straightforward.

Peak District National Park

PDNPA has maintained SHINE (Selected Heritage Inventory for Natural England) records for the Derbyshire part of the Park since the inception of the scheme. Once it was decided that PDNPA would maintain SHINE data for the whole of the Park, the need for a Park-wide HBSMR dataset became apparent.

In Spring 2014 exeGesIS undertook the merging of the five constituent local authority HBSMR datasets. Although the five datasets from Cheshire, Derbyshire, Greater Manchester, South Yorkshire and Staffordshire all share the same structure, the technical process of merging the data was nonetheless challenging. Specific issues that had to be overcome were different back-end database engines, different GIS software, spatial selection of records for inclusion in the merged dataset, differences in look-up table data, differences in thesaurus candidate terms, different period/date interpretations, different use of user defined-fields etc. Most importantly, the merged dataset had to provide an accurate image of the contributing datasets and, although new Peak District UIDs were generated, the original references needed to be maintained.

The merged dataset was installed together with HBSMR v4 in the Bakewell offices of the PDNPA in early May 2014. The next phase of the project will be to define effective data exchange mechanisms between the Park and the other authorities that use HBSMR, so that all records benefit from the emergence of new heritage information.

Further information from Crispin Flower.


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https://www.esdm.co.uk/hbsmr-data-merge-for-peak-district-national-park-authority--1 https://www.esdm.co.uk/hbsmr-data-merge-for-peak-district-national-park-authority--1 https://www.esdm.co.uk/hbsmr-data-merge-for-peak-district-national-park-authority--1 Thu, 01 May 2014 08:00:00 GMT
Archive Transformation - Relocation to DeepStore DeepStore cross-sectionIn summer 2011 a need arose for Cambridgeshire County Council to start planning the relocation of its archaeological archives from a converted barn at Worts Farm, Landbeach. The bulk of the material that can be considered inert (pottery, stone objects, animal bone, etc) and human remains (non Human Tissue Act) along with the paper archive (context sheets, site diaries, etc) were to move to DeepStore in Cheshire; a vast, and growing, underground store in the salt workings 550m beneath Winsford and the surrounding countryside. The remainder, which requires a storage environment with tightly controlled humidity and temperature values (including conserved metalwork, preserved textiles, leather and intact pottery), were to move to a converted Cold War bunker underneath the County Council offices in Cambridge. The move would involve re-cataloguing, and in some cases re-packing, items in the existing archive.

Early in the planning phase of the project Cambridgeshire’s Historic Environment Team approached exeGesIS with a view to developing an approach that would allow the new archive catalogue to be integrated into the Cambridgeshire Historic Environment Record (CHER), thereby allowing full cross-referencing of archive items with Monument and Event records.

The solution that emerged from discussions between Cambridgeshire’s archaeologists and exeGesIS heritage data specialists, was based around the County’s existing use of the Historic Buildings, Sites and Monuments Record system. Two custom administrator functions would be developed; the first to create spreadsheets that would be populated with archive metadata during the cataloguing process and the second to read the spreadsheet information back in to HBSMR, creating a source record for each archive item.

An important feature of the development was to ensure that archive items could be quickly recovered from DeepStore and returned to Cambridge. This relied on the inclusion of the Deep Store reference within the HBSMR Source record. This was achieved by labelling each of the archive boxes with a pre-prepared DeepStore barcode label. The barcode was scanned using an inexpensive, off-the-shelf scanner and the barcode data was automatically recorded alongside the other metadata in the spreadsheet for later upload to HBSMR.

The system has now been in use since March 2013 and over 17,000 archive items have been catalogued and over 10,000 boxes have been dispatched to DeepStore. Over 230 archive boxes have been successfully recalled to Cambridge so far for involvement in PhD research and public engagement opportunities.

Further information from Crispin Flower.


]]>
https://www.esdm.co.uk/archive-transformation-relocation-to-deepstore https://www.esdm.co.uk/archive-transformation-relocation-to-deepstore https://www.esdm.co.uk/archive-transformation-relocation-to-deepstore Wed, 19 Feb 2014 08:44:00 GMT
North York Moors Mobile Buildings at Risk Survey We worked with North York Moors National Park Authority to help fulfil their Heritage At Risk Pilot project, developing a mobile “app” plus mechanisms for managing authentication and synchronising the survey data with the main Historic Environment Record database.

The development and User Acceptance Testing were undertaken rapidly to allow the volunteer surveyors to get out in the field as soon as possible - five weeks from design to deployment! The results were hugely positive with nearly 800 surveys quickly completed and all surveyors enjoying the process.

The National Park Conservation Officer concluded that this project had shown the way for future Heritage at Risk surveying, with significant advantages over previous methodologies.

In 2014 we are enhancing the app for a new round of surveying.

See also the Ordnance Survey case study. Further information from Crispin Flower.


Mike Lush]]>
https://www.esdm.co.uk/north-york-moors-mobile-buildings-at-risk-survey https://www.esdm.co.uk/north-york-moors-mobile-buildings-at-risk-survey https://www.esdm.co.uk/north-york-moors-mobile-buildings-at-risk-survey Wed, 12 Feb 2014 00:00:00 GMT
Using HBSMR to record Local Wildlife Site data In 2010 a survey of all Cheshire West and Chester Council’s locally designated nature conservation sites was undertaken by Penny Anderson Associates. Further work was undertaken by Cheshire Wildlife Trust in 2012 to rationalise its records of locally designated nature conservation sites and assess the sites for inclusion on a new register of locally designated wildlife sites.

The Council’s nature conservation officers wished to maintain this data in HBSMR, as Designation data, and required a number of customisations to allow the data to be incorporated and managed.

exeGesIS was contracted to create a custom module for HBSMR to hold data for multiple surveys for each Local Wildlife Site designation record. Summary data was displayed on a custom tab on the Designation form that is only visible for Local Wildlife Site records.

Local Wildlife Site tab on HBSMR Designation form

Custom LWS Survey pop-up form showing tab contents

A button next to each entry provides access to detailed survey information which is displayed on a custom pop-up form.

Local Wildlife Site searches can be executed from the Designations Index Form.

The customisations were successfully delivered and installed in early December 2013.

Further information from Keith Westcott


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https://www.esdm.co.uk/using-hbsmr-to-record-local-wildlife-site-data https://www.esdm.co.uk/using-hbsmr-to-record-local-wildlife-site-data https://www.esdm.co.uk/using-hbsmr-to-record-local-wildlife-site-data Sun, 01 Dec 2013 10:00:00 GMT
Extending professional access to the Lincolnshire Historic Environment Record A requirement to develop approaches to 'joined-up working' between Lincolnshire HER and the conservation officers in the county’s seven district councils was identified in 2009. A funding opportunity arose in 2010 when the initiative was taken forward as an English Heritage funded HER21 project: ‘Extending professional access to the Lincolnshire Historic Environment Record’.

The main technical aims of the project were to:

  • Implement, test and evaluate a solution to make the county’s digital HER accessible to district council conservation officers.
  • Digitise and make available information currently held only as a hard copy.

A custom website was identified as the most cost-effective technical solution.  For reasons of privacy it was decided that the website would have restricted access. exeGesIS was contracted to work with the steering committee to develop the website as an effective tool to inform planning advice and decisions.  The system was to be map-based, easy to use and was to include comprehensive, up-to-date data.

Lincolnshire County Council HER21 partners

The website that resulted provides access to data on designated heritage assets, archaeological casework, consultations, fieldwork and site visits, historic sites and finds, listed building descriptions, conservation area appraisals and primary source material references for further research.

Large quantities of photographs, mainly supplied by the district councils were scanned and passed to the HER team for inclusion in the record.

Users have reported that the map-based user interface is highly functional and popular. The system is heavily used and interactions between the county HER and the conservation officers in the district councils have increased. The system has contributed effectively to agile working and a reduction in reliance on hard-copy images and other information.

Further information from Crispin Flower.

 


]]>
https://www.esdm.co.uk/extending-professional-access-to-the-lincolnshire-historic-environment-record https://www.esdm.co.uk/extending-professional-access-to-the-lincolnshire-historic-environment-record https://www.esdm.co.uk/extending-professional-access-to-the-lincolnshire-historic-environment-record Sun, 31 Mar 2013 08:55:00 GMT
Norfolk Heritage Explorer Working closely together with Norfolk Landscape Archaeology we developed the Norfolk Heritage Explorer, a sophisticated website making Norfolk's rich Historic Environment Record data accessible to the public. Data is served up directly from HBSMR using the HBSMR Gateway, which allows a fine degree of control over which records/parts of records are published. Thematic content is created and maintained within the HBSMR Themes Module.

The Norfolk Heritage Explorer website has recently been given a facelift, becoming the first of our heritage websites to use the mojoPortal CMS. One of the many benefits of the mojoPortal CMS is the amount of control this gives the client over the content and styling of their site. The Norfolk Historic Environment Service was keen to take advantage of this and created the look and feel of their new website themselves.

Norfolk Heritage Explorer home pageThe website still includes all the functionality that is supplied as standard with any site published using HBSMR-web, namely a choice of search interfaces and a powerful interactive map (see below) which uses our Web Map Toolkit.

In addition, the clients are able to create and manage dynamic content, such as a News Feed, independently of HBSMR, using plug-in modules supplied as part of the mojoPortal CMS.

Further information from Crispin Flower

Norfolk Heritage Explorer map search


Sylvina Tilbury]]>
https://www.esdm.co.uk/norfolk-heritage-explorer-new https://www.esdm.co.uk/norfolk-heritage-explorer-new https://www.esdm.co.uk/norfolk-heritage-explorer-new Sun, 31 Mar 2013 00:00:00 GMT
Exegesis and the Heritage Gateway In early 2007 Exegesis was commissioned to build a web service to provide access to HER data held in HBSMR. The service is known as HBSMR Gateway and it is also used to provide data to a number of local authority heritage information websites such as Norfolk Heritage Explorer and the Exmoor HER website. Forty-five HBSMR clients make their data available to the Heritage Gateway via the HBSMR Gateway. The first three clients to use HBSMR Gateway were Cambridgeshire, Essex and Norfolk. Clients may host their own HBSMR Gateway data or it can be hosted by exeGesIS.

HBSMR Gateway is a web service API for HBSMR. When a user searches on the Heritage Gateway, the search is sent to the HBSMR Gateway web service run by each HER, or Exegesis. The HBSMR Gateway processes the search and returns the results as MIDAS XML, which is then transformed into HTML in the user's web browser.

We subsequently worked with English Heritage and ESRI UK developers to integrate mapping into the Heritage Gateway. This became available in April 2012 and map-based searching is now available for nearly 20 HER/SMRs.

We also collaborated with English Heritage to enable image publication on Heritage Gateway via a LibraryLink Web Service, as shown below.

Heritage Gateway with images

Further information from Crispin Flower


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https://www.esdm.co.uk/exegesis-and-the-heritage-gateway-1 https://www.esdm.co.uk/exegesis-and-the-heritage-gateway-1 https://www.esdm.co.uk/exegesis-and-the-heritage-gateway-1 Tue, 01 Jan 2013 11:00:00 GMT
Exmoor's Past Exegesis worked with staff from the Exmoor National Park Historic Environment Record (ENPHER) to develop an attractive and highly searchable website. A vast range information on the archaeological and historic built environment of Exmoor is now readily accessible on-line. The site provides information on all known archaeological sites and historic buildings within the National Park; from the earliest recorded human history to recent times. Earthworks, ruins, buildings, landscapes, industrial remains, historic boundaries and routes, military sites and find sites are all included. The resulting website, Exmoor's Past, is the on-line home of the Exmoor HER.

The website enables access to information from a number of National Park Authority partnered projects, including Mires-on-the-Moors and the Exmoor Moorland Landscape Partnership Scheme.

The Exmoor's Past website has delivered much improved access to the information held within the ENPHER, and the inclusion of additional, interpretive material, linked to detailed records within the HER, provides a significantly enhanced user-experience, which in turn encourages wider audiences and greater participation.

Further information from Crispin Flower.


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https://www.esdm.co.uk/exmoors-past https://www.esdm.co.uk/exmoors-past https://www.esdm.co.uk/exmoors-past Tue, 01 Jan 2013 09:00:00 GMT
Lincolnshire Heritage @ Risk Project TScreenshot of the Lincolnshire Heritage @ Risk websitehis innovative project has successfully created a network of several hundred volunteer Heritage Stewards who carry out 'Heritage at Risk' surveys on the survival and condition of Lincolnshire's heritage. The volunteers are trained to survey all types of heritage asset and feed the information into a central 'at risk' database, giving an unprecedented level of information about Lincolnshire's historic environment and informing the strategy for its management. During the first stage of the project in 2009 Exegesis developed the web site for the project, designed to allow the project staff to manage all aspects of the project in one place. As well as tools for signing up and managing volunteers and training courses, it has a news page, events calendar and other supporting functions. After the successful pilot phase, Heritage Lottery Funding plus partnership from English Heritage and Lincolnshire County Council allowed the project to run for 3 years with a dedicated team of staff. And in 2014, the project was further extended to cover North and North-East Lincolnshire Council areas.

The core of the site is the interactive map of heritage assets, including listed buildings, places of worship, historic gardens, conservation areas, and a 5% sample of the county’s archaeological sites. Map and attribute data are drawn live from the Lincolnshire County HER via the HBSMR Gateway, rather than being managed in a separate database. The map uses the OpenLayers API, with free Ordnance Survey Open Data and Bing maps.

From the map, volunteers download and print a user-friendly survey-pack for the sites/buildings they wish to survey, including everything known about the site, a location map, and a site-specific survey form. Once the fieldwork has been done, the volunteers enter the survey results back into the web site, along with digital photos. Project staff validate the surveys to ensure consistency, and can also view on-line statistics on the complete dataset as it accumulates, and download the data for further analysis.

Further information is available from Crispin Flower, Liz Bates at the Heritage Trust of Lincolnshire on 01529 461499 or www.lincshar.org.


Mike Lush]]>
https://www.esdm.co.uk/lincolnshire-heritage-at-risk-project https://www.esdm.co.uk/lincolnshire-heritage-at-risk-project https://www.esdm.co.uk/lincolnshire-heritage-at-risk-project Mon, 31 Dec 2012 00:00:00 GMT
Bedford Borough Council Scanning/LibraryLink Project In order to address physical storage capacity issues and as a step towards making the hard-copy content of the Historic Environment Record (HER) available on-line - supplementing the digital data that are already available - Bedford Borough Council commissioned the scanning of the paper files, photos and plans that comprise a substantial proportion of the HER.

The project included the scanning of approximately 90 archive storage boxes containing paper HER Monument records and oblique aerial photographs, 9 archive storage boxes containing c400 Event reports in the process of being added into the HER, c1,000 plans of A3 size and upwards, Conservation Area files, Parish Survey files, c1,600 Historic Buildings and Buildings at Risk photographs and c7,500 slide photographs. In all some 13,000 images were scanned. Historic vertical aerial photographs from the 1940’s through to 1996 were also scanned and geo-referenced in order to enable viewing within GIS software.

Bedford Borough HER LibraryLinkAll scans were of archival quality, documents were scanned as PDF/As using OCR, so as to make them searchable.

The scanned images and documents were linked to HBSMR records using our LibraryLink package. Links were created at the database level by exeGesIS, thereby avoiding a very drawn out manual process. This approach was made possible by adherance to a strict file/folder naming convention on the part of the scanning contractor. It has enabled available documents and images associated with a particular record to be displayed on screen at the touch of a button.

Further information from Crispin Flower.


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https://www.esdm.co.uk/bedford-borough-council-scanning-librarylink-project https://www.esdm.co.uk/bedford-borough-council-scanning-librarylink-project https://www.esdm.co.uk/bedford-borough-council-scanning-librarylink-project Sat, 01 Dec 2012 08:43:00 GMT
Exploring Kent's Past Kent County Council maintains a wide range of publicly accessible information resources on the County’s heritage, in particular the Historic Environment Record (HER). The HER contains information on over 40,000 archaeological discoveries and listed buildings. The collection also includes more than 4,000 archaeological reports and numerous photographs and maps.

The Exploring Kent’s Past project sought to make these resources as widely available as possible. Previously, the only way to see this information was to make an appointment at County Hall in Maidstone. Now users can access the Historic Environment Record from the comfort of their own homes. The project was supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund and the website was built by exeGesIS using HBSMR Gateway and HBSMR-web.

An important part of the project was to encourage the use of heritage information within education. To help meet this aim three educational packs, for use by school children as part of the national curriculum, were created.

An interactive map with search tools is provided.

Further information from Crispin Flower.


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https://www.esdm.co.uk/exploring-kents-past https://www.esdm.co.uk/exploring-kents-past https://www.esdm.co.uk/exploring-kents-past Wed, 11 Jul 2012 11:55:00 GMT
Highland HER Online In early 2008 we were commissioned by The Highland Council to migrate their existing Historic Environment Record (HER) systems onto our HBSMR application platform. With a local authority area the size of a small country, an important part of this work was to make the HER more accessible to Highland residents, and fellow heritage professionals, by publishing its collections online.

The Highland Council Historic Environment team (which at the time included one of our current HBSMR Consultants) had already made preparations for this by having their entire paper archive scanned and catalogued. As part of the data migration we were then able to link these files (tens of thousands of them) to the HER database records via our LibraryLink product. In turn the records and the associated images and files were then published online using the HBSMR Gateway and HBSMR-web.

The online Highland HER was launched in August 2008 and has since gone from strength to strength. The site is updated every couple of months and community groups are encouraged to submit information about their own projects. Thematic content, such as the Community Projects section of the site, featured New Additions, and a range of other resources, is created using the HBSMR Themes module.

As with our newer HBSMR-web product, based on the mojoPortal CMS, the original version of HBSMR-web used by The Highland Council has allowed them to customise many areas of the site to better suit their users. A survey of website users reported high levels of satisfaction with the resource.

Further information from Crispin Flower.


Sylvina Tilbury]]>
https://www.esdm.co.uk/highland-her-online https://www.esdm.co.uk/highland-her-online https://www.esdm.co.uk/highland-her-online Tue, 03 Jul 2012 12:55:00 GMT
Revealing Cheshire's Past The main aims of the Revealing Cheshire's Past project were to enhance appreciation and care of the local historic environment whilst facilitating community involvement. The HLF’s Unlocking Britain’s Past initiative provided the opportunity to develop existing outreach activities by funding an advanced information access project. The project was set up to:

  • To promote the understanding, study and awareness of Cheshire’s heritage to a wide community audience, by providing information in readily accessible formats
  • To reach wider audiences by targeting community venues
  • To improve the quality of the information provided to existing users
  • To deliver educational benefits to the wider community of all ages, through increasing access to information about archaeology in Cheshire

A significant part of the project was the development of the Revealing Cheshire's Past website. Data curated in HBSMR was published to the web using HBSMR Gateway and HBSMR Web.

The Revealing Cheshire's Past website is an online version of the Cheshire Historic Environment Record. It is provided for general, non-commercial, HER enquiries from members of the public, students, researchers etc. The Cheshire HER contains over 10,000 records on a wide variety of buildings and sites, from finds of prehistoric flint tools to medieval castles and Second World War pillboxes, within the County of Cheshire (the area covered by Cheshire West & Chester, Cheshire East, Halton and Warrington Councils).

Users can access the site as 'Guests' or they can register and log-in, which provides a greater variety of search options, images and more detailed records.

Further information from Crispin Flower.


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https://www.esdm.co.uk/revealing-cheshires-past https://www.esdm.co.uk/revealing-cheshires-past https://www.esdm.co.uk/revealing-cheshires-past Sun, 01 Jan 2012 12:00:00 GMT
SHINE Selected Heritage Inventory for England Shine websiteSelected Heritage Inventory for Natural England (SHINE) is an on-line system for ensuring that high quality historic environment advice is included in Entry and Higher Level Stewardship agri-environment schemes.

Following an initial consultation and options appraisal carried out by Exegesis for Historic England, we developed a system that went beyond initial expectations. First the system manages the baseline SHINE dataset, determining which sites are eligible for management. The SHINE data is created and maintained by the regional/local Historic Environment Records, who can update the dataset for their geographical area at any time. A strict rule checker ensures that all SHINE data is fit for purpose on uploading. The system also includes various statutory designations from Historic England.

Then the website manages the workflow of consultations with Historic Environment Records (HERs) to deliver asset inventories to farmers and land managers, and to include mandatory Farm Environment Plan HER Responses during the HLS application process. The website manages several thousand consultations each year.

Since its launch in 2014, the SHINE system has been updated on an annual basis. It continues to play a pivotal role in ensuring that the historic environment is considered in agri-environment scheme applications.

Further information from Crispin Flower.


Mike Lush]]>
https://www.esdm.co.uk/shine https://www.esdm.co.uk/shine https://www.esdm.co.uk/shine Sat, 06 Aug 2011 23:00:00 GMT
Unlocking Buckinghamshire's Past As part of a Heritage Lottery Funded project Buckinghamshire County Archaeological Service commissioned exeGesIS to develop the first HER website built with HBSMRWeb back in 2005. The site featured interactive mapping using OpenLayers base-mapping and MapServer as the GIS engine. Support was also provided by the Chilterns AONB Conservation Board, the Buckinghamshire Archaeological Society and the Council for British Archaeology.

The database contains over 17,000 records - not only of traditional archaeological sites like excavations, earthworks and stray artefacts but also historic buildings and landscapes, and covers periods from the emergence of the earliest humans to the twentieth century.

The website may be explored using text searches or by searching the digital map, as shown below. It also provides access to a timeline with links to period overview essays and interactive content including a number of games.

Map window and search results

The project was also conceived to deliver dedicated educational material, specifically for use at Key Stages 2 and 3. The HBSMR Themes module was used to create and publish the new educational content. The site also provides guidance on how to start researching the past and getting involved in archaeology.

In mid-2010 the site received a significant facelift and further developments are planned.

Further information from Crispin Flower.


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https://www.esdm.co.uk/unlocking-buckinghamshires-past https://www.esdm.co.uk/unlocking-buckinghamshires-past https://www.esdm.co.uk/unlocking-buckinghamshires-past Sat, 01 Jan 2011 16:00:00 GMT