Padley

The three-dimensional recording and analysis of Padley Manor and Chapel is a cutting edge archaeological survey and historic buildings analysis. My primary objective on this project was to digitally survey the ruins and produce stone by stone drawings of every elevation and plan, also documenting the position of every architectural fragment which has been moved from its original context. This survey and drawn record is the most detailed and complete that has ever been undertaken on the site. Every visible stone in the fabric of the walls, the paving of the yards, floors and corridors, to the carved stones of displaced window tracery has been accurately drawn and located in 3-D. Placing every surviving element of the manor house in context.

The survey was conducted with a Leica C10 laser scanner and consisted of 27 individual scans, these were registered together to form a navigable and editable 3-D survey of the entire Medieval Manor and the surrounding landscape.

I divided up the site into specific areas and generated the detailed data I needed to create the stone by stone drawings. The final drawings were created in AutoCad and exist as vector drawings, consisting of 35 elevations and a full topographical site plan.

The 3-D data enabled me to create profiles across the site gaining a unique and valuable understanding of the topographic relationship between the structures and the surrounding landscape.

Using the laser scan data, I isolated individual moulded stones, carved window tracery, doorways and decorative carvings. Once isolated I was able to investigate and understand the individual forms of these architectural fragments. This was particularly useful in regard to understanding the tracery that had been incorporated into a travellers rest shelter. This 20th century construction contains many of the finest architectural fragments on the site. The architectural fragments incorporated into this structure have lost not only their original location but also their orientation. Having the capacity to extract the 3-D forms of these mouldings and rotate them on any axis in the digital environment provides an extremely useful tool for their analysis, aiding in the interpretation of the original form, function and position of these stones within the Medieval Manor house.

The Padley Hall and Chapel digital survey is a supreme example of how digital recording techniques can be used to enhance archaeological projects, not only by providing efficient and accurate survey data but also by enabling the archaeologist to visualise and interact with the site in an engaging and informative way whilst contributing to the overall interpretation of the site