Calstock Parish Archive History on the Ground Project

What is GIS? GIS - Geographic Information Systems. Basically a GIS is a map which has a database of information linked to it.

What is GIS? A GIS is most often associated with a map. A map, however, is only one way you can work with geographic data in a GIS, and only one type of product generated by a GIS. A GIS can provide a great deal more problem-solving capabilities than using a simple mapping program or adding data to an online mapping tool (creating a "mash-up"). GIS allows us to view, understand, question, interpret, and visualize data in many ways that reveal relationships, patterns, and trends in the form of maps, globes, reports, and charts. A GIS helps you answer questions and solve problems by looking at your data in a way that is quickly understood and easily shared. GIS technology can be integrated into any enterprise information system framework.

Three ways of viewing a GIS A GIS can be viewed in three ways: The Database View: A GIS is a unique kind of database of the world—a geographic database (geodatabase). It is an "Information System for Geography." Fundamentally, a GIS is based on a structured database that describes the world in geographic terms

The Map View: A GIS is a set of intelligent maps and other views that show features and feature relationships on the earth's surface. Maps of the underlying geographic information can be constructed and used as "windows into the database" to support queries, analysis, and editing of the information.

The Model View: A GIS is a set of information transformation tools that derive new geographic datasets from existing datasets. These geoprocessing functions take information from existing datasets, apply analytic functions, and write results into new derived datasets. By combining data and applying some analytic rules, you can create a model that helps answer the question you have posed. In the example below, GPS and GIS were used to accurately model the expected location and distribution of debris for the Space Shuttle Columbia, which broke up upon re-entry over eastern Texas on February 1, 2003.

Calstock Parish History on the Ground Project Here at the Parish Archive we have a great deal of information collected and stored over the years. We are continuing to collect this information from the community. In this age of computers and digital information it makes sense to collect and store this information in a digital format. In March 2010 the Archive was awarded a grant by the Cornwall Community Grass Roots Fund in order to purchase a GIS.

ESRI Arcview GIS Software We have chosen to buy ESRI’s Arcview package as this is most commonly used throughout organisations such as ours for mapping and analysis. Indeed Cornwall Council who we are working closely with, use it for their mapping needs. Therefore we are able to share data with Cornwall Council’s Archaeology Department.

What will we use it for? Archaeology As you may be aware the land around us in Calstock Parish is rich in history and full of interesting archaeological sites which are not well known. We want to find these archaeological intrigues and map them so they are recorded and people can find them.

Interesting History in Calstock Parish The whole of this part of South East Cornwall was once a rich source for tin and copper. Scattered all over the Parish is evidence of ancient mines going back to medieval times. We want to go out and discover un- documented sites and make everyone aware of where they are and what they were used for.

Field names The archive holds many documents dating back to 1300 which have details of fields, ownership and field usage. We want to gradually add this information to our maps so that people can easily find out what was happening at a particular place in the past. We will start by adding field names from the 1839 Tithe map and 1815 Davis map.

Medieval mining Thanks to the work already carried out by local archaeologist, Robert Waterhouse, we’re beginning to find out more about the early mining history in the parish. Our project aims to help him in this work by looking for evidence of the mines in the landscape.

Volunteers We’re hoping that this project interests you enough to want to help out. We need two types of help: Typing in information from the written record to the GIS system Finding evidence in the landscape and recording on the GIS system