Seaham Agricultural Land Classification Survey: Detailed Soil Maps and Reports

Between 1989 and 1999, the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food conducted detailed agricultural land classification surveys for sites like Seaham. The dataset likely contains scanned original paper maps and survey reports, with soil grades subdivided into subgrades 3a and 3b. It was produced by Natural England and contains Ordnance Survey data.

Use Cases

• Analyze historical agricultural land quality based on detailed soil grading methodology.
• Map land-use suitability for specific sites based on scanned survey maps at scales from 1:5,000 to 1:50,000.
• Study soil characteristics based on unedited sample point soils data and soil pit descriptions available for some surveys.

Strengths

• Survey data collected between 1989 and 1999 provides a historical baseline.
• Maps include subdivision of Grade 3 into subgrades 3a and 3b for finer detail.
• Original survey materials like scanned maps and reports are included.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect geographic bias inherent to the specific surveyed sites.

Provenance

Source

Natural England / Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food

Collection Method

Detailed site surveys conducted between 1989 and 1999, using the grading methodology described in 'Agricultural Land Classification of England and Wales'.

Time Range

1989-1999

Geography

Seaham (Easington DLP Objectors Site), England