“Excellent event well run and organised.”

“Lovely venue, lovely food, very well organised.”

“Another worthwhile, informative conference, well organised by TSA.”

Holdenby House in Northamptonshire played host to TSA Members for the 2018 Conference and was the perfect venue for the theme of ‘Surveying Iconic Structures’.

Members gathered from all over the country to enjoy a welcome from Nick Hampson, TSA Vice President, who then introduced the Keynote speaker Nick Rank, a Director of Buttress Architects in Manchester.  Nick is Cathedral Architect to Lincoln, Carlisle and Southwell and formerly a member of the Cathedrals Fabric Commission for England.  His talk, entitled ‘Great expectations – what architects want from a building survey’ was very well received by members who enjoyed hearing the client perspective on projects and technology.  Many notes were made!

Nick was followed by Paul Bryan of Historic England, with a presentation asking whether iconic structures were ground-breaking, standard setting or just another survey project.  Paul talked through the different geospatial survey technologies now being applied to heritage survey, using a number of fascinating case studies including Stonehenge, Ironbridge and Fountains Abbey.

After a short comfort break, members reconvened to hear from David Tucker, South Region Manager at Ordnance Survey and a surveyor for 43 years.  David spoke on surveying prestige sites and emerging technologies, also managing to include a mini-quiz to see what iconic structures people could recognise from OS maps.

Marco Di Mauro of Leica Geosystems then had the final slot before lunch to take attendees from the Colosseum to the Shard – all in half an hour.  The surveying and monitoring challenges on iconic buildings made for a fascinating presentation – also included was the Leaning Tower of Pisa, iconic by mistake!  All was neatly wrapped by with the quote, ‘If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it’.

Lynn Hazel, a Holdenby House Guide, then provided a brief overview of the history of the Grade II listed venue for the day.  Built in 1583 for the benefit of Elizabeth I, who sadly never visited, it has attracted many colourful characters and played a part in British history.  Read more here: www.holdenby.com

TSA has been offering a Bursary to second year students at Newcastle University since 2011 – this year’s winner was Matthew Walker with his impressive essay.  The question the students were asked to answer was ‘Above or below ground, surveying of Iconic Structures requires numerous survey technologies and techniques.  What considerations would you make if chief surveyor on such a major infrastructure project?’  You can read Matthew’s essay HERE.

Matthew Walker receives his Bursary cheque from TSA Vice President Nick Hampson

A delicious two-course lunch was then served in the elegant dining room, providing the opportunity for members to network for over an hour.  The sun broke through the autumnal clouds and allowed a glimpse of the beautiful grounds.

The afternoon session kicked off on a slightly different tangent, with Ian Davie from TBAT Innovation explaining the range of funding services that are crucial to helping companies succeed with their R&D projects.

The rest of the afternoon was devoted to an open forum, attempting to answer the question ‘Should the UK have a Cadastral system?’  This was jointly lead by Nick Hampson and Tim Viney.  Written contributions were read out from David Powell and James Kavanagh, who sadly could not be with us on the day.  Tim Viney spoke of his experience abroad – as Survey Manager in Saint Lucia, Cadastral Coordinator for the Government of the State of Qatar and Senior Surveyor for the Government of Bermuda.  The floor was opened up with a healthy debate for just under an hour and, almost certainly, provided more questions than answers.  It is an aspiration of TSA to potentially look further into this issue as part of the forthcoming TSA Business Plan.

The day wrapped up on time, allowing attendees to head off down the impressive drive after a thoroughly enjoyable day.

Members can access all the presentations from the day in the Members Area of the website.  If you are not a Member and would like to find out more about the benefits of TSA Membership for your company, then please get in touch – we would love to hear from you. (office@tsa-uk.org.uk)

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TSA’s annual November Discussion Group meeting was held last week at the stunning venue of the SS Great Britain in Bristol. The topic for the day was Hydrography, rightly befitting an association whose full title is The UK Land & Hydrographic Survey Association although most people just call it TSA.

The title for the meeting was appropriately “A life on the ocean waves” and included presentations on modern hydrography, education, flood protection and offshore engineering. With a slightly less watery theme, there were also presentations on accountancy and auto enrolment. TSA really appreciates the time given up by the speakers at these events.

The SS Great Britain offers a real insight into days gone by and the lunch, held in the saloon of the ship, was accompanied by a short talk on the ship by a member of staff. The ship is now used as a wedding venue and it must be a fantastic setting for such an event.

Each year, for the last four at least, the meeting has included the presentation of the bursary prize to a student from Newcastle University. This monetary prize is awarded following the submission of a relevant (to the venue and topic) paper by the students and judged by four TSA Council members. This year the recipient was Edward Caltieri whose brother also won it three years ago. Hereditary surveyors perhaps? The winner’s cheque was presented by Graham Mills (TSA President) although Edward will have to write a mid-term report to receive the rest of the bursary. We do like to make the students earn their money.

In addition to the TSA members, a few special guests were also invited to the event. These included Bill Pryke and Steven Lailey from Chartered ICES and ex TSA Council member Matt French. It was great to see him again.

The day was efficiently and amusingly chaired by Adam Bradley and, judging by the feedback received to date, everyone seems to have had a good time. These events are great for networking and we are currently looking at how best to increase this element of the meeting.

Plans are already being pulled together for next year’s event which will concentrate on BIM. We hope you will all find time to attend.

Feedback received:

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“Thanks TSA – Great Day.”

“Another informative and entertaining TSA event that was worth booking the day off for.”

“I really appreciated the honesty from the speakers and the complete and full knowledge they have.” 

TSA’s Discussion Group meeting was held on 30th October, with the inspirational and historic Imperial War Museum at Duxford as the venue.  The skies were blue and the view over the airfield was breath taking.  Over 50 members benefitted from a programme packed with thought-provoking and relevant topics.  After tea, coffee and bacon rolls, the day kicked off with a superb talk from Ivor Warne from the Museum.  We learned that film crews did more damage to the airfield than the Germans ever managed!

This was followed by a presentation from Charlotte Hill from English Heritage on the national archive of aerial photography, with some stunning examples.  Trevor Burton from Fugro-BKS followed up with 30 minutes on Aerial LiDAR surveying and Mark Hudson of Coastway completed the morning session with his presentation on commercial applications of SUA (Small Unmanned Aircraft) surveying.  Lunch beckoned, as did the chance to explore the museum with all the historic aircraft.

The afternoon session began with the presentation of the TSA Bursary award to two successful students from Newcastle University, Emmanuel Lawal and Adam Miller.  Adam Bradley from Jacobs then spoke about Geomatics as a global business.  Mat Kellett from Topcon was next up, with a talk on Mobile Mapping and how data collection and management is changing.  Barry Mudie from Met Police gave a very entertaining and illuminating talk on recovering stolen equipment, which is of huge relevance to members.  Finally, Nick Hampson of MHLS spoke about the trials and tribulations of running a survey company which was both thought and discussion provoking.

We were delighted to welcome Mike Gladwell, formerly of Survey Three and a past Council Member of the Association, as a guest for the day.  Not even a fire evacuation (a first for a TSA meeting!) could prevent the meeting finishing on time, with attendees sent off with plenty to think about.

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The offer was for students specifically studying geomatics and was to the value of £2000. In the event, only Newcastle submitted any applications so it is only from that University that applications are now accepted.

Each applicant is invited to submit a paper on a topic prescribed by TSA and the papers are then judged by a panel consisting of three TSA Council members, the TSA President and the TSA Secretary General. The recipients of the prize are then invited to attend the annual TSA autumn meeting and receive the first part of their bursary payment.

In the first year it was decided to award two bursaries and this has occurred in each subsequent year.

The topics to date have included the future of surveying, BIM and this year the impact of SUAs on the surveying industry.

The two recipients this year were Emmanuel Lawal and Adam Miller who are pictured below with TSA President Graham Mills.

Both their papers were viewed as being excellent by the judging panel – read Emmanuel Lawal’s paper HERE and Adam Miller’s paper HERE.

Well done to them both and TSA hopes they have a successful and enjoyable career in the world of surveying.

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