Hagley Historical and Field Society

I would expect that even if you do not know the technical details of how Radar works you have a rough idea of what it does and what it is used for. However, are you familiar with Lidar? The principles are similar to Radar but whereas Radar uses reflected radio waves, Lidar uses reflected laser light waves. It has many applications but specifically to our speaker this month, Adam Mindykowski it is used in archaeology.

His team have used Lidar to map the Wyre Forest area from the air. It is able to differentiate between the light reflected from the ground to that reflected by covering foliage such as trees and bushes and by using sophisticated software ‘remove’ them to reveal just the landscape beneath.

It has revealed an ancient landscape which has previously been hidden from the eye and which shows signs of management from the Mesolithic period through to the Industrial Revolution. These include Iron Age hill forts, Medieval field systems, 17^th century coal mining from ‘Bell Pits’ and 19^th century charcoal burning, all of which have later been validated by observation on the ground.

Our next meeting is on Tuesday 2^nd February when we will have a presentation by ‘Discover History’ who are a small, friendly team of professional historical interpreters, entitled ‘Romans in Worcestershire’. They have visited us on previous occasions and can be relied upon to provide both an interesting and entertaining evening suitable for all ages. Visitors are most welcome at all our events – see Home page for details and contacts.