The Work of Harold Wingham, Pioneer Air Photographer, Part I: Landscape Archaeology

Harold Wingham (1924-2021) served in the Royal Air Force as a radio operator. Encouraged by esteemed archaeologist OGS Crawford, and using surplus equipment, he turned to aerial photography, recording ancient monuments, buildings and industrial sites in south-west England.

Harold Wingham wrote that aerial photography 'is an essential technique of modern archaeology.' 

His photographs record archaeological features and ancient monuments in the varied landscapes of south-west England, from stone circles to deserted medieval villages.

This selection of images from the Historic England Archive's Harold Wingham Collection illustrate Harold's exceptional skill at taking photographs of sometimes remote archaeological sites, using a hand-held camera from a fixed-wing light aircraft.

Described as 'a lonely masterpiece', The Grey Wethers are two adjacent stone circles on upland Dartmoor. Both are over thirty metres in diameter. They were excavated in 1898 and those that had fallen were re-erected. One has twenty stones, the other twenty-nine.

22 July 1959

Long barrows were built as funerary monuments in the Early and Middle Neolithic (3400-2400 BC). Belas Knap is a remarkable surviving example. It is seventy metres long and encloses four known burial chambers. It was restored by the Ministry of Works in 1929-31.

19 July 1958

The Toots is a long barrow situated on a prominent ridge at Selsley Common. It is seventy-three metres long and twenty-seven metres wide. An excavation in 1880 revealed a stone chamber and an interment. 

22 June 1961

Easily defensible, Crickley has Mesolithic activity, and fortified settlements of the Neolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age, and Post-Roman periods, with a ritual complex including a buried circle of small stones. The Iron Age wall is an arc, centred on the ritual complex.

17 May 1959

Chûn Castle is a multivallage Iron Age hillfort and iron working site. Excavations were undertaken in 1895, 1925, 1927 and 1930. Discoveries included the remains of houses, a furnace and a well. Sling stones, glass fragments and Roman pottery were also found.

23 September 1960

Cleeve Hill Camp is also known as Cleeve Cloud due its location high on the Cotswold Scarp. One side of the hillfort is protected by the steep scarp, the remainder by concentric ramparts. Harold's photograph shows the golf course built here in the 19th century.

22 April 1956

Harold's view shows the western Ring Hill section of Haresfield Hill. Investigations in 1995 concluded that the Ring Hill section is a slight univallate hillfort - an enclosure with a relatively small-scale single line of earthworks.

10 July 1958

Leckhampton Camp is another slight univallate hillfort. Artefacts found here indicate it was occupied in the Iron Age, Romano-British, Anglo-Saxon and medieval periods. The view shows the High Frequency radio station that was located here during the Second World War.

17 May 1959

Also known as Kimsbury Camp, Painswick Hill Camp is a large, multivallate hillfort. Medieval and/or post-medieval quarrying has left its mark within the enclosure. The site may also have been used as a Royalist outpost in 1643, during the English Civil War.

2 June 1951

Herefordshire Beacon Camp is also known as British Camp. The impressive Iron Age hillfort sits high in the Malvern Hills. Investigations have identified around 120 hut circles within the hillfort, and Iron Age and Roman pottery has been found in the outer ditch.

16 August 1958

Conderton Camp is a promontory hillfort overlooking the River Avon. Harold's view of the site shows trenches that were dug during 1958 and 1959. The investigations revealed evidence of around ten circular houses, and uncovered prehistoric and Roman artefacts.

16 August 1959

Courtyard houses developed in the 2nd to 4th centuries AD in south-west England. They feature open areas enclosed by a wall containing rooms and storage space. At least ten courtyard houses survive at the Chysauster settlement.

2 August 1959

The remains of Chedworth Roman Villa were discovered by accident in 1864. Excavations soon uncovered the walls and mosaics of one of the largest Roman villas in the country. The oldest part dates to the first half of the 1st century AD.

20 May 1962

Deserted Medieval Villages are settlements that were abandoned during the medieval period. Harold's photograph shows earthworks that have been interpreted as a Roman villa, Deserted Medieval Settlement and Medieval sheepcotes - buildings used for sheltering sheep.

3 July 1962