A MAJOR archaeological project is underway at Ilkley Manor House and Roman Fort.

The project involving the trustees of the Ilkley Manor House Trust, All Saints’ Church and the School of Archaeological and Forensic Sciences at the University of Bradford aims to attempt to shed new light on the Roman, Early Medieval and Medieval history of the town centre and in particular the area around the Roman Fort, Church and Manor House.

A spokesperson for the project said: "Phase one of the project is to provide a detailed survey of the Manor House using state of the art laser-scanning technology. It is hoped that this will help identify various building phases identifiable in both the external and internal fabric of the house thus shedding more light on the history and development of the building.

"Laser-scanning involves detailed survey using reflected light to measure distances and angles. It is much quicker than conventional survey methods as several thousand measurements can be taken per second. This will create a detailed model of the house over which photographs can be ‘draped’ to produce a coloured 3D survey."

Work started last week with Prof Chris Gaffney of the University of Bradford and PhD student Joe Moore laser-scanning both the exterior and interior of the building with some 1700 photographs of the interior being taken by local resident and archaeologist Dr Alex Gibson.

"The project is a real opportunity to uncover more about this local historic house and the historic core of the town," said Sarah Thomas, chair of the trustees of Ilkley Manor House. "To be working with Dr Gibson and the University of Bradford in our local area and expanding what we know about the history of Ilkley makes this piece of work particularly special."

Phase two of the project will involve a geophysical survey over the area of the Roman Fort and permission to do this has now been obtained from Historic England.

Up-dates on the progress of the project will be available on the Manor House website and it is hoped that later in the year an exhibition will be put on to share this work with the community.

"We are very excited that this project and the ongoing phases will create a more comprehensive record of the historic building and provide more detail on the history of the Manor House and surrounding area," added Manor House trustee Roger Tilbrook.