14 C O N T E X T 1 4 4 : M A Y 2 0 1 6 early 20th century. The house was bought by Sir Philip Stott, who donated it for use as a Conservative party college in 1923. The college was shut by 1928 and sold again, after which it was used as a girls’ school for 50 years. After changing hands a couple of times more it came into the ownership of the NewTestament Church of God. In April 2001 a fire broke out in one of the upper bedrooms and spread through the building in a matter of hours.The fire destroyed many of the house’s prized features and spaces, leaving only the south wing and the shell and cross walls of the east wing standing.The building has remained in this perilous and structurally unsound condition, and is in constant danger of vandalism, trespassers, theft and further damage caused by the elements. Surveying the structure is dangerous as the walls are unstable, and floors and ceilings have collapsed. Underneath the property runs a series of service tunnels and cellars which are not fully recorded on the plans. Normally a careful inspection would be carried out on foot, or using scaffolding or mobile working platforms like cherry pickers. But the precariously hanging floors, walls and ceilings, and the unknown routes of the underground passageways, make using conventional methods extremely risky. Early in 2015 the conservation team at Daventry District Council was approached by BuzzPix, an aerial photography and video company which was exploring the application of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in building recording and surveying. UAVs are becoming more common in field archaeology, being used on digs to give bird’s-eye views of sites, to help visualise findings in the landscape, and to provide scaled survey data. Drones, as they are commonly called, can be fitted with high-definition cameras, sensors, video cameras and GPS units, making them highly versatile, and providing much better access than the previous methods of aerial survey such as planes, helicopters, cherry pickers, hot-air balloons, telescopic masts or kites. Historic England has used imagery from UAVs since 2008. At Overstone Hall a UAV flew above the building to allow assessment of the condition of the roofs. In some places it dipped down inside the building, providing close High-level photographs have provided a plan view of the entire property.
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