About
Chase & Chalke
What is the Chase & Chalke Landscape Partnership Scheme?
The Cranborne Chase & Chalke Valley Landscape Partnership, or Chase & Chalke for short, is a group of organisations working together to improve habitats, develop woodland skills, uncover new archaeology, protect ancient monuments, capture stories for future generations and foster volunteering across the area. A key aim of this Landscape Partnership is to connect the people that live within it and on the doorstep, to the landscape and inspire them to play a role in caring for it.
With Cranborne Chase National Landscape (formerly known as Cranborne Chase Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty) as the lead partner, and with support and funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, this 5-year partnership (2019-2024) is working with local communities to better connect people to the landscape through twenty different projects.
Find out more about Chase & Chalke projects …
One of these projects is called Champions of the Past, and it is through this project that the Cranborne Chase LiDAR portal has been developed in partnership with Pushing the Sensors.
Get involved
Watch the video below to find out how to join our team of citizen scientists!
The Champions of the Past project
Champions of the Past is a major archaeological project that aims to provide opportunities for all communities around and within the Chase & Chalke area to learn about and engage with the archaeology beneath their feet in a variety of ways. By raising awareness and inspiring new volunteers through a range of free training opportunities and hands-one surveying together we will identify, explore and investigate new archaeological sites and features, put in place better management and help improve the condition of many sites in the area.
The Cranborne Chase LiDAR Portal has been developed as part of this project and has been designed so that volunteers can navigate the area and discover new archaeological sites in an accessible way.
Through this project, the Cranborne Chase LiDAR Portal, and with the help of volunteers we hope to identify new archaeological evidence and features across the Cranborne Chase landscape.
The National Lottery Heritage Fund is the largest funder for the UK’s heritage. Using money raised by National Lottery players we support projects that connect people and communities to heritage. Our vision is for heritage to be valued, cared for and sustained for everyone, now and in the future. From historic buildings, our industrial legacy and the natural environment, to collections, traditions, stories and more. Heritage can be anything from the past that people value and want to pass on to future generations. We believe in the power of heritage to ignite the imagination, offer joy and inspiration, and to build pride in place and connection to the past.
Using money raised by National Lottery players, The National Lottery Heritage Fund supports projects that connect people and communities with the UK’s heritage. The Cranborne Chase LiDAR is made possible with The National Lottery Heritage Fund. Thanks to National Lottery players, we have been able to connect volunteers and archaeologists to the tools that enable them to discover the history beneath the ground on Cranborne Chase National Landscape.
Why is it
important?
Rapidly increasing vegetation cover is obscuring recorded and unrecorded sites. This project helps us to identify, monitor the condition and better manage new and existing archaeological remains. The archaeology of ancient fields and settlements can be hard to appreciate on the ground. LiDAR can really help in our understanding and appreciation of this archaeology through incredible levels of detail and robust, innovative 3D modelling.
Get involved
The Cranborne Chase LiDAR portal was developed as part of the Chase & Chalke project ‘Champions of the Past’, a major archaeological project which aims to provide opportunities for people to learn about and engage with archaeology.
To find out more about the project and Chase & Chalke, click below.