| Still no progress in 2025 for our field walking program |
| 16/2/2025 |
| Visits to Eltisley and Orwell Hill have shown just how saturated the ground is and hence the reason we are still unable to get field walking. We have permission to walk at Orwell Hill and also the RSPB site at Knapwell but the conditions still defeat us. It is hard to remember such a slow start to a walking year, but conditions may be a little better next weekend so keep your fingers crossed. |
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| Presentation of the Val Whittaker prize |
| 5/2/2025 |
| Our new President's first action was to present the Val Whittaker prize to the winning student, as shown in the photograph. Balint Beremenyi from Emmanuel College won it with his paper entitled "The Seal of the Necropolis in the MAA Cambridge". His excellent presentation described the Seal and documented efforts to date it with reference to its iconography and to similar objects. | |  |
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| Our new President |
| 6/2/2025 |
| As we go into our 2025 season, we do so with a new President following Dr. Paul Spoerry's reirement from the role. Stephen Macaulay has links with CAFG going back many years and we welcome him to our group. His role as Regional Manager for Oxford Archaeology (Cambridge Office) enables us to continue using their Bar Hill premises for our finds processing and Wednesday meetings. We also benefit from his years of experience of the local archaeology scene and his leadership of the continuing Jigsaw Community. |
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| Developments in the 2025 field walking program |
| 27/1/2025 |
| After many delays, storms and other bad weather, we finally hope to soon be field walking at the RSPB site in Knapwell. The documentation has been completed and sent for final approval so, weather permitting, we may be walking on 2nd Feb. Please keep a lookout for further information on the website and by email. |
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| Christmas greetings 2024 |
| 17/12/2024 |
| Wishing all our members and web followers a Happy Christmas and a better 2025 for field walking. This year has not been the best for field walking due to the gales, very wet fields and changes in farming practices. However we hope for a more normal year next year and lots of exciting finds. | |  |
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| Back on the chalk at Ickleton after a long break |
| 17/11/2024 |
| At last a site to walk and, despite the dire weather forecast earlier in the week, some good weather. Ground conditions were a little bumpy and dusty but we were walking again. However, not many finds, although we left a lot of small pieces of broken tile on the ground. The finds were mostly a mixture of glazed and unglazed post medieval redwares, as the photo shows. There were also a small number of other post med ware, such as transfer print and whitewares. Lots of flint but only a small number identified as flakes. The majority of surface items were the potatoes left behind after harvesting - in the very old days these would have been gleaned by local people. | |  |
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| CAS Conference |
| 9/11/2024 |
| Last Saturday saw the CAS Conference occur in a new venue at the Cripps Library. As part of the presentations CAFG gave a lecture (through Tom Midgeley) on our work at Wimpole over the last few years. We also had a poster presentation about our 2024 Parterre Gardens excavation, together with a few of the finds. | |  |
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| Our first walk of Autumn 2024 |
| 6/10/2024 |
After our summer break we gathered again at Wimpole for our first field walking day of the Autumn. The weather was good, there were lots of walkers and the ground visibility OK. The ploughed surface made walking a little difficult but we completed Clay Pits West in one go.
There were not vast numbers of finds and most of them were post med in date. One interesting find was part of a Hamilton bottle, used in the 19th C for mineral waters and other fizzy drinks - described as egg-shaped in appearance. There were some small pieces that looked medieval in date, like the part of a handle on the right. However, lots of GRE, some transfer printed ware and clay pipe stems formed the bulk of the finds. | |  |
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| An unusual find has emerged as we process finds |
| 16/8/2024 |
| What looked like an ordinary bone from a small animal (sheep?) when examined as we processed the finds suddenly became of interest when we noticed cut marks across the end. On research it appears this may be an Anglo Saxon stamp for decorating pottery. Examples have been seen which show similar shaped oval marks on vessels from the Anglo Saxon period. More research needed. However it does highlight how important a close examination of finds is for what might otherwise have been discarded. | |  |
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| In the Footsteps of Fox |
This year marks the centenary of the publication of Cyril Fox’s seminal book: ‘The Archaeology of the Cambridge Region’. In November 2023, the McDonald Institute and Madgalene College hosted an international conference to celebrate Fox’s contribution to archaeology. CAFG was invited to provide two posters based on our work, which were displayed in Magdalene College, along with around 12 others from the UK and abroad, until the middle of December. The posters investigate how our fieldwalking results from two areas on chalklands (Fulbourn and Ickleton) and two on mainly claylands (Wimpole and Childerley) compare with Fox’s expectations relating to the effects of local geology on
human activity.
In the Footsteps of Fox - Part 1
In the Footsteps of Fox - Part 2
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