Our Fieldwork

Fieldwork at Bodiam over 2010 – 2014 took three forms:

1. Buildings survey:

  • The building survey consisted of six weeks intensive survey of the castle using a Leica reflectorless Total Station, TheoLT (a programme to download data straight into AutoCAD) and AutoCAD. This setup allowed data to be visualised instantly onscreen as work progressed. The work was undertaken over all three seasons which has allowed the building to be viewed in different lighting conditions and times of year. The intention of the survey was to produce a series of floor plans (as previously only an out of date ground floor plan has existed of the building) and to explore the nature of the buildings construction and development. The results of the survey have been manipulated

    3D representation of the topography surrounding Bodiam castle

    to produce 2D plans and elevations (as can be seen above) and used to produce 3D visualisations.  Authored by Catriona Cooper, Matthew Johnson, and Penny Copeland, the survey results can be found in chapter 3 of the book.

    Bodiam Topographic Survey

2. Topographical survey:

  • The detailed topographic survey of Bodiam provides critical earthwork details and landscape context for the castle in the wider environment from the fields north of Bodiam to the river Rother.

3. Geophysical survey:

  • A variety of geophysical techniques have been deployed at Bodiam including magnetometry, ground penetrating radar (GPR), and resistivity. Preliminary results have shed light onthe multi-stage history of the site, including a Roman road as well as high degree of industrial activity surrounding the castle.

 

Bodiam Magnetometry Survey

See these links for more details and for more projects related to Bodiam: