Archaeology and Historic Buildings Record Help

Searching

General

AHBR on-line has several fields which can be searched. You can search on one or many of the fields by filling in the boxes. Most of these fields are controlled, which means you must select a term the database recognises in order to carry out a search. These terms are included in the pull-down lists on the search screen. If you make a mistake, or wish to run a new query, click on CLEAR at the bottom of the Screen. If you are happy with your choices click on SEARCH and all the matching records will be displayed.  

Site Name

Enter part, or all, of a site name. Site names usually contain descriptive and location elements. For example ‘Round barrow at Home Farm’ would be found by entering any or all of those words, although searching for common words such as ‘barrow’ or ‘farm’ might return several hundred matches.

Avoid using punctuation as this may not be recognised by the database and could result in some records not being returned.

Parish/District

You can search across all parishes or districts, or select an individual one from the pull down list. Only those on the list can be selected. The AHBR holds information for the administrative county of Hampshire, the unitary authorities of Southampton and Portsmouth maintain their own Historic Environment Records and enquiries for these areas must be addressed direct to them. The AHBR records for these areas have not been updated since 1997 and are no longer current.  Winchester City Council also has a Historic Environment Record and may have additional information available.

Period

Select from the list the time period you are interested in. Further information about time periods in Hampshire can be found in the Archaeology Atlas hosted on the Hantsphere website.

Site Type

This searches for different types of site but only those listed in the alphabetical list can be selected. Terms can be selected here by clicking on the letter the word begins with, e.g. ‘V’ for ‘Villa, or ‘C’ for ‘Castle’, then selecting from the pull-down list. The terms are from the English Heritage Thesaurus of Monument Types.

Search Results

If your search retrieves more than 500 records no data will be displayed. Narrow down your search by entering different, or additional, information in the search boxes. For example, if you are searching across the whole of Hampshire try selecting each district one at a time.

Once you have a list you can click on SELECT to view the more detailed record.

If no results are returned check the search boxes selected. Some combinations such as ‘Roman’ and ‘Pillbox’ will not yield any results if used together. Try using the broadest search possible and narrowing it down.

Site Number

This is the system number allocated to the site by the AHBR database. Please quote this number in any correspondence.

Additional information held

This field contains a ‘Y’ for ‘Yes’ or ‘N’ for No. Where a ‘Y’ is present further data is available in paper form in the Archaeology and the Historic Buildings Record  which may not be available on the website yet.

Grid references

The AHBR on-line only records national grid references up to six figure accuracy. If more detailed location information is required please contact the AHBR team.

Status

This includes statutory status such as Listed Building and Scheduled Monument. Sites with the status ‘Winchester City Museums SMR’ will have further information available from Winchester City Council. Whilst every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of this information, much of it is obtained from outside sources and cannot be guaranteed to be correct. For advice please contact the AHBR team.

Sources

More information, and in some cases printed copies of sources, may be available from the Archaeology and the Historic Buildings Record.

List of common abbreviations/glossary

AA	Anti aircraft
ACC No	Museum Accession Number
AHBR	Archaeology and Historic Buildings Record
AONB	Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
AP	Aerial photograph
BA	Bronze Age - period from 2,500BC to 700BC
BAR	Building at Risk
C	Century
CA	Conservation Area - areas of special character subject to planning restrictions
Celt	Axe head
CUCAP	Cambridge University collection of aerial photographs
C14	Radio-carbon dating
DoE	Department of the Environment
DOB	Defence of Britain Project
Dendro	Dendrochronology (dating by tree rings)
E	East
EH	English Heritage
ESA	Environmentally Sensitive Area
GV	Group Value - listed building forming part of a group
HA	Hampshire
Hants	Hampshire
HCC	Hampshire County Council
HRO	Hampshire Record Office
HWTMA	Hampshire and Wight Trust for Maritime Archaeology
IA	Iron Age - period from 800BC to AD43
LB	Listed Building - historic building with statutory protection
m	Metres
Med	Medieval (middle ages) - period from 1066 to 1540
Meso	Mesolithic (middle stone age) - period from 10,000BC to 4,000BC
Monuid	Monument Unique Identifier - the site number
N	North
Neo	Neolithic (new stone age) - period from 4,000BC to 2,200BC
NMR	National Monuments Record
NMP	National Mapping Programme
No	Number
OD	Ordnance Datum
OS	Ordnance Survey
Palaeo	Palaeolithic (old stone age) - period from 500,000BC to 10,000BC
PAS	Portable Antiquities Scheme
Post-Med	Post Medieval - period from 1540 to 1901
RAF	Royal Air Force
RB	Roman-British - period from 43 to 410
RCHME	Royal Commission on Historical Monuments in England
R/O	Rear of
RPG	Registered Park and Garden
PCM	Portsmouth City Museum
S	South
SAM	Scheduled Ancient Monument - archaeological site with statutory protection
SM	Scheduled Monument - same as SAM
SMR	Sites and Monuments Record
TVAT	Test Valley Archaeological Trust
W	West
WCM	Winchester City Museum
WWI	First World War - period from 1914-1918
WWII	Second World War - period from 1939-1945
VCH	Victoria County History