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The Dorset Historic Environment Record is a record of all known archaeological finds and features and historic buildings in the county, and relating to all periods from the earliest human activity to the present day.
We aspire to provide comprehensive coverage for all aspects of the archaeological and built environment.
The geographic county of Dorset, including Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole covers an area of 265,275 hectares or approximately 2,653 km².
Local government in Dorset comprises 2 unitary authorities:
Dorset Council has replaced the existing district and borough councils (East Dorset, North Dorset, Purbeck, West Dorset, Weymouth and Portland) and Dorset County Council, all of which will cease to exist as of April 1 2019.
Dorset Council maintains the HER for the two unitary authorities.
The Dorset HER also contains maritime records from the high water mark, or the top of the beach, to an approximate mid-Channel line (50° north), with an eastern boundary at 1° 36' west, and a western boundary of 3° 2' 30" west.
The eastern boundary of 1° 36' west overlaps the county boundary which lies at 1° 41' 30" west. Similarly, the western boundary at 3° 2' 30" west overlaps the county boundary which lies at 2° 56' 33" west. The difference allows for errors in reporting and enables records to be easily sorted. The eastern boundary overlaps with the area surveyed by the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Trust for Maritime Archaeology. The southern boundary of 50° north approximates to the mid-channel line.
The Dorset HER contains, and seeks to provide comprehensive information on:
The Dorset HER includes a database that contains more than 50,000 records with information about remains from the prehistoric period to the present day. Information on nationally-designated (conservation areas, listed buildings, registered parks and gardens and scheduled monuments), locally designated and undesignated heritage assets is recorded. As well as information on archaeological finds and features and historic buildings (all known as 'Monuments' in our technical jargon), episodes of recognition and recording (known as 'Events') and the various sources from which information about them has been drawn (known as 'Sources'), are recorded in the HER.
The database is linked to a Geographic Information System (GIS) with geographical depictions of all sites on the database, ranging from simple point locations to complex plots of extensive sites such as ancient field systems, and supplemented by material such as reports on work that has taken place as part of the planning process and photographs.
Resources available in the HER space include journals, books, reports, and some photographs and maps, which are used by the HER team, as well as being available for public consultation.