National Monuments Record (NMR) Swindon

Unable to find previous posts relating to NMR I started a specific thread. I have only used NMR via post and email and the following is based on my experiences.

• Firstly you can only request a search on one area at a time. A bit of a pain but understandable.
• Selectect the centre of the area of interest and note the OS Grid reference.
• On the internet open www.english-heritage.org.uk/forms/update...riginals/nmr-enquiry and fill in the details required noting the radius you require. For airfields this may not be enough but coverege overlaps in many frames
• Wait until NMR email you an Excel list of Vertical and Oblique frames on file. This can be a week or a month depending on workload.
• Normally there will be quite a few to choose from and each will give the NGR of the centre point. Using this and the height the frame was taken at you can get a rough idea of coverage by frame.
• You should have been sent PDF order forms and I strongly recommend ordering photocopies first as they are cheap and ordering 40 or more is not too expensive.
• Photocopies can be ordered as A3 or A4 and are generally acceptable for identification purposes.
• If you want nice shiny photographic quality ones complete the photo order from for the best frames from your photocopies. If you want enlargements send a copy of the frame with a clear mark outlining the area required plus a margin for error.
• Be careful as sometimes the photocopies, especially A4 ones, don't give a true impression of the sharpness of the original photo so enlargements may not be of good quality.
• There is an option to order high resolution scans instead of prints, that is down to personal preference and deepness of pocket.

The airfields I have ordered have been very good quality and if you widsh to use them in publications this can be arranged at the time of ordering prints. I would recommend phoning to make sure this is possible as some frames may not be cleared for publishing. I'm not 100% sure but I did find there was no charge for licensing some USAAF 7thPG frames. You still have to gety the licence but my suspicion is that as they are US property (?) they may be public domain.

Another method I use to order copies is to note down photo frame references as I find them in searches or publications, Pastscape being a very good source but others include EH publications online. I then send an email to NMR requesting copies of the frames I have listed either as A4 or A3 (no price difference). The majority of my aerial photos were ordered in this way. One problem with thisd method is that sources may not be correct so I always leave out any that can't be found as it saves a phone call or email, which slows things down.

I have no experience of personal visits so I will leave that up to someone else to post (or copy from wherever it was originally).

The Scottish aerial photographs are at the RCAHMS Search Room in Edinburgh - book a place in advance. You order the aerial images you want and they bring them up from the store room every hour or so. You are not allowed to just photocopy them but can order scans which are EMailed to you - they are not very high resolution unfortunately. The RCAHMS also have many of these online and for a subscription of about £18 you can zoom in for more detail. Still quite a lot of areas that do not have the postwar images online but new additions appear periodically. There is complete coverage of the 1988 survey though never found it very useful. Also an interesting 1965 US Navy coastal survey, the image quality is not marvellous but they are are all low level oblique so often show sites by the coast very well.

MB