Defence Areas: a national study of Second World War anti-invasion landscapes in England

The Defence Areas Project was carried out between April 2002 and June 2004. Its overall aim was to build on the results of the Defence of Britain Project (April 1995-March 2002) by examining in more detail anti-invasion defence works that form a coherent and legible grouping and survive well in landscapes largely unchanged from those of 1940/41. The purpose is to promote people's understanding and enjoyment of these defence landscapes, and to encourage them to think of World War Two archaeology at landscape scale. The aim is to ensure greater recognition of the value of these well-preserved landscapes and the need to conserve the components they include, while at the same time recognising that they represent a selection of a much larger number of such places. Some of the components surviving within the landscapes will be recommended for statutory protection. This project represents an original thematic approach to archaeological landscape survey.