Archaeology Data Service
ADS ONLINE - ISSUE 12 - From Discovery to Delivery - ISSN 1368-0560 | Front Page | Contents

National Trust Sites and Monuments Record goes online

Image of Avebury.

Avebury, one of the many National Trust properties included in the NTSMR. Picture courtesy of Prof Clive Ruggles, Copyright reserved.

In addition to technological changes, the last few months have also seen the online launch of new and important data sets. Index Sites and Monuments Records, which previously could only be searched collectively can now be searched individually. In this article, Jason Siddall of the National Trust describes a new data set available from the ADS catalogue: the National Trust Sites and Monuments Record.

The National Trust has long conducted a programme of comprehensive Historic Landscape surveys on its properties. These surveys provide basic archives and information that are used for management, understanding and interpretation of National Trust properties. To maintain and use this information in an effective manner the National Trust has been developing a sites and monuments record (SMR) since the 1980's. Many agencies maintain such records but because of its particular needs, the National Trust's record has an extensive and unique geographical coverage, including England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

It is one of the most comprehensive records of its kind in the UK. The computerised SMR has a significant supporting archive that includes all manner of primary and secondary images, as well as detailed surveys and reports.

The NTSMR includes recording of the Historic Landscape with its scope including Monuments, Landscape Furniture, Finds, Boundaries, Air Craft Crash Sites, Parks & Gardens, Battlefields and Buildings. This record ranges across all periods from prehistoric to the present day. The record also includes internationally important monuments such as Hadrian's Wall and Fountains Abbey. Also it includes nationally important monuments such as Listed Building and Scheduled Monuments, and locally distinctive monuments.

This wealth of information has been accessible within the National Trust through its archaeologists for some years. The NTSMR Officer has for some years now been developing ways to enable wider access to the resource internally and externally. So over the last 2 years the ADS and the National Trust have been working together to enable wider public access to the information held within the NTSMR.

The first part of this project came to an end in August 2002 with the uploading of a home page, a Memorandum of Understanding and a number of key fields from the NTSMR onto the new Archaeology Data Service main metadata catalogue or as it is commonly called Archsearch II. This is not the end of the partnership; the next phases of this project will see digital lists of reports and survey archives available through Archsearch II.

The advice and work of the ADS has been instrumental in the success of the first phase of the project. ArchSearch II is a truly exemplary model of integration of information from all kinds of sources and is seen by the National Trust as a key tool and resource to supply information to wider external audiences.

Jason Siddall, The National Trust
For more details on the National Trust SMR, see http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue and follow the links to National Trust SMR

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