Nottingham Caves Survey

The Nottingham Caves Survey was a research project the aim of which was to scan every accessible cave from the 700+ man-made sandstone caves that are known to be present in the city of Nottingham. It was conducted by Trent and Peak Archaeology, at the University of Nottingham. It was managed by Dr David Strange-Walker with Julia Clarke, with documentary research undertaken by Scott Lomax. The final report was compiled by Dr David Knight (York Archaeology, former Trent & Peak Archaeology), Dr Emily Stammitti (Trent & Peak Archaeology) and Gordon Young. The project was funded primarily by both the Greater Nottingham Partnership, who have an interest in utilising the caves for increasing tourism and helping grow the local economy, and English Heritage, who are motivated by an interest in preserving the remaining heritage of Nottingham.

The project built upon the data held by Nottingham City Council and that collected in the 1980s as part of the British Geological Survey (BGS), where all the known caves of Nottingham were recorded into the BGS register. Nottingham City Council's Urban Archaeological Database (UAD) was a key resource. The Nottingham Caves Survey team visited some of the caves listed in the BGS register, asked permission from the owner to view the cave, and if the conditions were suitable, scanned the cave structure using a 3D laser scanner. The laser scanner builds up a 'point cloud' by collecting billions of survey points, which make up the black and white 3D images. Fish-eye photographs were taken from exactly the same position on the tripod around 360 degrees.