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ACA are returning to Clare to lead a nine day public programme of community archaeological excavations. Visitors are welcome to see the trenches and finds excavated in Clare Country Park during excavation hours (9:30am-4pm). We will be offering 30 minute guided tours twice daily, at 12:30pm and at 3:30pm (meeting at the Malting Lane entrance to the park) from Thursday 23rd to Thursday 30th May (trenches will be backfilled on Friday 31st May).

There will be additional events at Clare Town Hall on Saturday 25th May to accompany the excavations taking place at Clare Castle. From 1 to 5pm, skeletons discovered during excavations at Clare Castle in 1951 will be on display. They have been recently studied by Dr Stuart Prior and Dr Heidi Dawson of the University of Bristol will be on hand to answer questions. Participants will be able to visit during the lunch break and/or after the excavation day. At 7pm, Dr Prior and Dr Dawson will be joined by Dr Carenza Lewis, University of Cambridge, for a public lecture on ‘Medieval Castles’. All are welcome to attend but please arrive promptly to ensure a seat.

The excavations will be run by Access Cambridge Archaeology as part of the Heritage Lottery Funded Managing a Masterpiece project which is about understanding, conserving and celebrating the Stour Valley.

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A successful afternoon was held on Saturday 20th April, when at Heritage Writtle and Writtle Archives invitation, people who had lived in Writtle during World War 2 were asked to reminisce about their experiences, over tea and cakes.

We were given a lot of interesting information about the German and Italian POW s, the bombs that were dropped over the Parish, and various observations of defense equipment, most of which has not appeared in any records.

People met friends whom they had not seen for years, and there was a happy exchange of memories and reminiscences about their lives as children in Writtle during those days.

We will be putting together the many comments over the next few months, and will include the information in the forthcoming book ”Village life in Misfortune and War” that we are jointly writing as part of a Heritage Lottery Funded ‘All Our Stories’ project supported by Cambridge Community Heritage.

Thanks to everyone who came and made an interesting and informative afternoon.

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Wormingford Landmarks is a project run by Wormingford Community Education Centre to discover more about the first people to settle in the local area.  There are different events and activities planned throughout this year for the public to explore the archaeological evidence from a Neolithic/Bronze Age site and make their own connection with the past.  At the end of April, volunteers came forward to take part in 2 days of fieldwalking, a non-invasive method of looking for archeological remains.  Late on the second day, Nat Jackson, a volunteer from the local community, discovered a Stone Age axe lying on the surface of the soil.

Amanda Findley, Wormingford Landmarks Project Leader, said “This find came right at the end of a cold, wet day.  It was an amazing feeling to hold something in your hand which was made by another human who was alive thousands of years ago.  It is a fantastic discovery.’  Howard Brooks from Colchester Archaeological Trust is the lead archaeologist on the Landmarks project.  He said, ‘We think that flint axes, as well as being valuable functional tools were also prestige items that were often buried in significant places, often near to natural features such as rivers, or burial grounds.’” The find will be investigated by a flint expert to try to determine its age and it will be on display at Landmarks events planned for the summer.

A Cambridge Community Heritage supported project, you can read more about the discovery on the Wormingford Landmarks blog here. The news story has also made it onto the BBC News Essex website here.

On Saturday May 18th there will be a flint interpretation session at CAT headquarters, Roman Circus House, Circular Road North, Colchester 10.00am – 12.00 noon – all welcome to come along.

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Fen Edge Archaeology Group have two upcoming events in May which all are welcome to attend.

15th May 2013, 7.30 pm at Cottenham Village College

The Medieval Leper: the Huntingdon and Norwich Evidence by Dr Elizabeth Popescu

This talk will detail the evidence for medieval leprosy from two cemetery sites: one at the Hospital of St Margaret, Huntingdon (Spittals Link) and the other at St John Timberhill, Norwich. While the character of these sites is quite different, they each have interesting stories to tell about those suffering from leprosy at this time, and how these individuals were treated in life and in death.

Liz is the Post-Excavations & Publications Manager at Oxford Archaeology East, based in Cambridge. She has research interests in urban medieval archaeology and in cemeteries and castles in particular.

23rd May 2013 at 7.30 pm in the Tony Cooper Suite, Cottenham Village College

The Twenty Pence Project – Progress and Plans by Katie Anderson

This meeting will review our investigations so far and present plans for this summer’s excavtions (6^th to 20^th July 2013). Katie Anderson will report on her findings on the pottery from Twenty Pence Project.

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Dr Carenza Lewis delivered a talk to over 90 people at Nayland Village Hall yesterday evening about the results of test pit digging in the village. As part of the Heritage Lottery Funded Managing a Masterpiece scheme, Access Cambridge Archaeology (ACA), volunteers and the local residents of Nayland excavated 34 small archaeological test pits throughout the village of Nayland over three days between 5th and 7th October 2012, to find out how the village developed over hundreds and thousands of years in the past.

For the initial test pit results, please see our website here. For extra photos and information see also the Managing a Masterpiece page on Nayland here.

 

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ACA returned to Acle, east of Norwich, last week for a fourth year of test pit digging with local students as part of the University of Cambridge’s Higher Education Field Academy programme. We enjoyed two days of bright sunshine and dodged the worst of the April showers, only to leave with the first sunburn of the 2013 field season!

Twenty-nine Year 9-11 students from Aylsham High School and Taverham High School dug nine test pits spread across the village, including a couple in the southern hamlet of Damgate, bringing the total now dug in the area to thirty-five. The distribution of pottery found this year seems to confirm some of the patterns we’ve previously observed, with further evidence of Roman occupation to the east near the aptly named ‘Roman Wood’ and several more sherds of Saxon pottery in the core of the current village along Bridewell Lane.

Staff said that they appreciated how “staff engaged well with pupils, valued their contributions and shared their knowledge”, and felt that their students had gained “a huge amount! Confidence in their abilities and in the development of new skills. It has also encouraged them to ask about and find out about university – what it is like and to study and experience. It has been fantastic for them.”

The participants visited Downing, St. John’s and Selwyn Colleges on the HEFA Day 3 visit to Cambridge University, and all of those who had previously said that they did not intend to apply to university, said in feedback that the course had made them reconsider. One student from Taverham said that he “would definitely recommend (HEFA) to other young people. THANK YOU!!”

Many thanks to Brian Grint, of Acle Community Archive Group, for hosting the HEFA again. Thanks also to Jack, a local resident now studying Archaeology at Bournemouth University, for his help supervising test pit groups.

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To celebrate being a finalist for the Art Fund Prize for Museum of the Year 2013, the University of Cambridge’s Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology is hosting three days of drop-in activities, tours, and demonstrations across the first May Bank Holiday weekend.

It is the 100th year that the Museum has been in their Downing Site home so come and meet some Edwardian archaeologists and anthropologists on the day, and try out a range of family friendly activities including:

Have a go on the full-size replica catapult in the courtyard
Dress up and get your photo take in the Edwardian photo booth
Watch a demonstration of prehistoric butchery using stone tool
Decorate the Museum by making bunting with us
Explore the Cabinet of Curiosities
Learn more about local history on expert-led tours

The Museum, and the activities and demonstrations with artists and craftspeople, will be open on Saturday 4th – Monday 6th May from 10:30am-4:30pm each day.

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A message from Wormingford Landmarks which has places available for fieldwalking volunteers this Saturday, 27th April 2013.

We have morning or afternoon sessions available. We will meet at 9.30am and 1.30pm at Wormingford Community Education Centre, Church Lane, Wormingford CO6 3AZ to walk down to the site (15 minute walk over steep hills). Limited parking available near the site for those who might find the walk there difficult.  Last week we covered a lot of ground and we think we had some good finds but the aerial photographs show that there are interesting features in the second half of the field and we are very keen to complete this area. We’d love to hear from anyone who can help but numbers are limited so please book your place with Amanda Findley as soon as possible on wcec12@gmail.com or call me on 07990 666880.

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Dr Carenza Lewis, will be giving a talk on the results of the Nayland excavations next Monday, 29th April at 7:30pm at Nayland Village Hall.

As part of the Heritage Lottery Funded Managing a Masterpiece scheme, Access Cambridge Archaeology (ACA) gave Nayland residents the chance to carry out their own small archaeological test pits to find out how the village developed over hundreds – even thousands – of years in the past. Thirty-four sites were dug by residents, family, friends and interested members of the public from elsewhere over one weekend last October.

The project was run by Dr Lewis, well-known from Channel 4’s Time Team and BBC’s Story of England and The Great British Story. Come along to her talk on 29th April to find out how the finds from the excavations have pieced together a picture of the history of Nayland and have contributed to research at the University of Cambridge about our understanding of the development of rural settlement in the eastern region.

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The first of the summer’s Higher Education Field Academies was run by Access Cambridge Archaeology last week. HEFAs are three day aspiration-raising courses which give young people the opportunity to do their own hands-on archaeological investigation that will give them the skills and confidence to raise their ambitions for the future.

Twenty-seven students from Sawston Village College, Linton Village College and The Manor School, Cambridge, attended the academy in Stapleford last week. This was our first visit to the village and the students dug eight archaeological test pits over the two days, and even found time for an additional slot trench adjacent to the deepest test pit on the final afternoon.

Most of the sites dug were in residents’ back gardens but we were also invited to dig in the playing field of Stapleford Primary School which was visited by pupils at the school at regular intervals.

The HEFA participants were looking for evidence to date the origins and development of the village, and our pottery specialist Paul Blinkhorn was on hand to identify finds. The pottery report is already online here.

After the two days in the field, the students visited the University of Cambridge to analyse their results and learn more about life and learning at a top university. The feedback was excellent with 96% of the students rating the HEFA as ‘Excellent’ or ‘Good’. One student said “thank you for this opportunity, it has been fantastic to be a part of it” and another said “it was a great experience and thank you for involving me!”

Many thanks to John Street of Cambridge Archaeology Field Group (CAFG) for identifying sites to dig and booking the village pavilion as a base for the two days. Thanks are also due to Susan, Robert and Terry who are also members of CAFG who gave their time to supervise test pit groups, as well as regular volunteers Claire and Sue, and new volunteers Zenobia and Georgie.