Exciting things are happening at MSDS Marine! This week has seen the launch of our new department, MSDS Heritage. In this blog we explain why now is the time for us to develop our capacity in new areas. We also introduce our newest team member, Dr Michael Lobb, who will be helping develop, manage, and deliver these new areas of work.
Over recent years MSDS Marine have grown rapidly as an organisation, with new staff bringing wide ranging and varied skills to the business. Increasingly, our work is developing outside of the marine zone, and we have delivered projects outside of our traditional intertidal and offshore focus. Examples include the delivery of OASIS V rollout support training across the archaeological sector, Conservation Management Plans for the NMRN Coastal Forces vessels and work to help combat and reduce both marine and terrestrial Heritage Crime.
To reflect MSDS Marine’s widening work across the heritage sector we have launched MSDS Heritage to better present the breadth of work that we undertake. MSDS Marine have become a well recognisable and trusted contributor to the marine historic environment and are instantly recognisable with our black and yellow branding. We don’t want to lose this so for now MSDS Marine and MSDS Heritage will work alongside each other, but it might be that over time you will see a lot more of MSDS Heritage as MSDS Marine starts to be faded out.
MSDS Heritage will provide a full range of techniques for the archaeological investigation and recording of buildings and sites, whether they are standing, below ground, intertidal or underwater. Services we are able to offer include building analysis, metric survey (laser scanning, total station survey, etc.), heritage statements and impact assessments, historic area assessments and setting studies.
In February 2022 Dr Michael Lobb joined the team as Head of Historic Buildings and Geomatics. Michael brings a wealth of knowledge to the team and will be helping MSDS Heritage become as instantly recognisable as MSDS Marine in coming years.
I’ve been working as a buildings archaeologist for over fifteen years, occasionally getting side-lined along the way into working with historic ships and intertidal structures.
I’ve been fortunate to work on a wide range of historic buildings and structures from buried Roman houses below the streets of Rome, to historic ships such as HMS Victory, to intertidal fishing structures around the British and French coasts, to 19th-century farms and Second World War air raid shelters in the Midlands. I’ve worked extensively across the UK, and in particular on historic buildings and landscapes in the Midlands, including working within the nearby Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site and Peak District National Park.
A large part of my work has involved the use of measured survey to help record, analyse and manage the conservation of archaeological sites, landscapes and structures, and I’m keen to help integrate these techniques with MSDS Heritage’s existing marine survey specialisms.
As the newest member of MSDS Heritage, I’m looking forward to working with historic buildings, ships and landscapes from the heights of the nearby Peak District all the way down to the intertidal zone and beyond’
Dr Michael Lobb, Head of Buildings and Geomatics
