| Exhibition at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology closes |
| 23/1/2018 |
| Our successful exhibition of what CAFG does at the Museum closes this Thursday evening (25th Jan). For those who have not visited it yet, your final opportunity is before close of the Museum on Thursday afternoon. Apparently it's success means that the Museum is going to carry on with a new display by Access Archaeology to demonstrate what test pitting in villages can tell people about where they live. We look forward to seeing this story. | |  |
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| 2018 AGM |
The AGM on 4th April 2018 resolved to retain subscriptions for 2018/19 at £12 for individual membership and £18 for families. Officers and committee remain unchanged, with the addition of co-opted members, Bill and June Woodfield.
We are 40 this year! We are planning celebratory events. |
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| Exhibition at Wimpole in its last stages |
| 3/9/2018 |
The exhibition at Wimpole has reached the end of its continuous manning but will be open for the Wimpole "Big Dig" on 8th/9th Sept provided volunteers can be found.
The exhibition has been a very popular event and we have spoken to several hundreds of people during the time it has been open. We hope that they learnt something about Wimpole but also that we gained a lot from listening to their thoughts and experiences.
If we had to nominate the star find for attracting attention it has to be what we would have considered the least likely. The photo shows the item - the plastic Halloween finger!! There were more comments about this item than almost any other, and plenty of tales from the visitors about their memories of buying them from Woolworths shops. It just shows what can get people's attention is not necessarily what we would expect. | |  |
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| Update from the Wimpole exhibition |
| 23/8/2018 |
We are now several weeks into the exhibition and time to reflect on things so far. The NT regard it as a complete success and there have been suggestions that they may like it to stay open as long as the house itself is. We have seen many people of all ages and from all over the country who are eager to find out how we have done things and understand how they perhaps could do likewise. The photo shows the exhibition area but privacy rules prevent views of the crowds we have had.
As we move to the Bank Holiday weekend the one thing we need are more members willing to man the exhibition. Peak times are between 12am and 4pm, so if you can spare some time please let us know and enjoy meeting people who are interested in what you and the group have done and will be doing in the future. | |  |
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| First weekend of our Wimpole exhibition |
| 13/8/2018 |
This past weekend was our first at the exhibition. While weekdays have produced small numbers of visitors it was assumed that the weekends would produce the largest response. Saturday was exactly as predicted - four members struggled to cope with the numbers of people coming through the door. Sunday, where the weather was less enticing, proved slightly anti-climatic with fewer people coming to see the exhibition. The drop-off was borne out by the smaller number of people who registered to enter the house.
We will have a small number of members who will man the exhibition on certain days during the coming week. However, we need as many members as possible during the afternoons of the weekend so please contact Mike Coles or Terry Dymott if you can help. |
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| CAFG exhibition at Wimpole Hall |
| 4/8/2018 |
Starting soon, CAFG have been asked to run an exhibition of finds made at Wimpole over the years. This will be held in the basement of the main House during normal hours, including the weekends. It is housed in the area where we are storing all the Wimpole finds. A selection of interesting finds from the different periods will be on view, including some of the latest ones from the Heat Pump borehole project. Posters from our Heritage Lottery project will also be shown.
This exhibition is to complement the excavation work being carried out at Lamp Hill by Oxford Archaeology East. The site of a new visitor centre and carpark is being excavated in preparation for the construction work to begin sometime next year. Visitors will be welcome to see what is going on during the weekdays. |
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| A local find from a Wimpole borehole |
| 18/7/2018 |
While searching through the spoil from an earlier borehole in the Wimpole grass area, a glint in the clay caught my attention. Breaking open the lump of clay revealed a small, rectangular intact glass bottle with embossed characters on both sides. Cleaned up, the bottle is shown in the photograph
The characters read:
CHIVERS & SONS LTD, HISTON, CAMBRIDGE on one side and THE CAMBRIDGE LEMONADE on the other.
The bottle type is embossed on the base as UGB 13. | |  |
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| Some research revealed that Chivers did indeed produce small bottles of lemonade crystals in the period around 1900 - 1910. The powdered contents were said to make 2 gallons of lemonade, enough for 32 glasses. The lemonade crystals were sold all over the country and an advertising sign is shown in this photograph. Chivers sold their business to Schweppes in the early 1950's but bought back only the jam making part a few years later. | |  |
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| Our excavating work is finished but the post-excavation work begins |
| 7/7/2018 |
Today we finished the digging phase of our work at Johnston's Pond when we reached our 1.3m deep limit. We have found both side walls and carried on digging down to try and find the bottom of the breach in the end wall. At 1.3m we still have not reached the bottom, this being similar to when we dug the other wall last year. The excavation this year has shown how comprehensive the destruction on the north, pond-side wall was, unlike the relative completeness of the south wall last year. It appears that they wanted to recover something on the north side which was some way down, perhaps some water control mechanism which was worth going to all these lengths to retrieve.
Now we start the post-excavation work of drawing plans and sections of what we have uncovered. Monday we hope to complete a photographic record and thereafter drawing the plans. Any help will be gratefully received!! | |  |
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| Back into Johnston's Pond |
| 3/7/2018 |
We have returned to Johnston's Pond for our second excavation on this site. Last year we uncovered a curved wall and an adjoining side wall, shown in the item below, and had noted another possible wall nearer the pond.
After two days we have uncovered this new wall, as shown in the photograph, which looks very similar to last year's curved wall. However, what is very different is the degree of destruction. This latest wall has a large hole hacked through its middle and we are attempting to define the area missing and to see if any of this central area of the wall survives lower down. Why this demolition was carried out is not clear, but it means there must have been something worth recovering. The wall stability is not helped by being undermined by a complex animal burrow system which seems to go in multiple directions. | |  |
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| More finds from the latest bore hole |
| 26/6/2018 |
| Today we opened another bore hole which produced lots of post med pot as seen in the photograph. There was a quantity of blue-and-white transfer printed ware and other decorated ware. This was all among a lot of brick and tiles with yet more cobbles, all suggesting we might be on the missing house site. More clearing up tomorrow may produce yet more interesting finds, visit the website again to keep up to date. | |  |
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| After the cobbles, now the bottles |
| 24/6/2018 |
Last time we mentioned finding some old wine bottles. Well, some turned into lots, the photograph shows just a few of them. We have bases, necks and lots of wall sherds. They mostly appear iridescent and the surface flakes readily.
Interestingly the glass underlies an iron pipe that was the first thing seen in the pit (and prevented its use for drilling) suggesting the pipe is more recent. Whether this is a gas pipe (looks too modern) or another telephone line is not clear. | |  |
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| There are several sizes of base, including the large one show in the other photo. This particular one is not iridescent but appears a bit hand-made suggesting it could be early in date. It is not round like a mould one often is and the underside is very lumpy and distorted. One axis is 15cm, the other 14cm. An expert opinion is needed. | |  |
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| Is it a trackway or a cobbled yard? |
| 20/6/2018 |
As we dug a new bore hole pit in the grassy area by the coach park we suddenly started turning up rounded cobble like those shown in the photograph. They were laid with bigger ones lower down with gradually smaller sized ones as you moved up the trench. In some places clunch was visible as a rammed top surface, The total thickness of the cobbles increased as we headed south in the trench. Because of the limited trench size it is hard to tell how big the cobbled area is but perhaps probing with a metal rod will enable us to define its area.
The bore holes in the grassy area are turning up lots of finds - from medieval to modern day - all in the top 20cm layer. Today we started finding old wine bottles. Keep watching this space for news as we excavate the hole further down. | |  |
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| Our summer excavation at Wimpole |
| 13/6/2018 |
For our annual excavation at Wimpole we will be returning to Johnston's Pond up near the Folly. Last year we excavated part of a substantial brick-built structure which we hoped was associated with the water supply to the 18th C fountain. Although we went down over a metre in depth we did not find any sign of an outlet from this structure.
Therefore this year we will tackle the northern end of the structure. This can be seen as the broken line of bricks right at the bottom of the photograph near the ranging rod. We hope to explore whether this is another substantial brick wall and what its relationship is to the pond that lies just north of it. The dates of the scheduled excavation period are 2nd July - 11th July, although we may extend this as we know more about the result. | |  |
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| Hidden conduit at the front of the House |
| 29/5/2018 |
Over the years of digging at Wimpole we have uncovered a number of brick-built conduits (notably by the fountain). This photograph shows another conduit exposed when the trench for the heat pump pipes running across the front of the House was dug. A camera showed that it was not in use as a roof fall about 20m under the grass blocked the exit.
Several more brick-built features have also been exposed and this heat pump work is adding lots of information to the knowledge of what lies beneath the ground close to the house.
Our monitoring of the drilling pits continues with a total of 10 now examined. So far no exciting finds to report. | |  |
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| Work begins on the Borehole testing at Wimpole |
| 22/5/2018 |
The group has started working at the Wimpole site observing the drilling of some 30 boreholes to be used for their new heat pump system. The first holes in the carpark road area produced nothing of significance, just one piece of very abraded medieval pottery. The photo shows the cross-section where the surface layer of road scrapings sits above a hardcore layer of sand and limestone chippings. Under this is a layer of mesh laying directly on the underlying clay.
Obviously the top soil had been scraped off when the surface was laid so no finds could be recovered. | |  |
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A picture of the drilling rig used for the boreholes can be seen on our Facebook page. An important part of the system is the Mud Puppy shown in the next photo. This separates the drilled material from the water used by the drilling head so that the water can be recycled. The mud will be used elsewhere as make-up.
More holes will be drilled on the grass areas so it will be interesting to see what that produces. | |  |
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| More on Westerwald pottery found at Comberton |
| 24/4/2018 |
| During our last session in Comberton, one of the finds was a nice piece of a Westerwald stoneware tankard base, shown in the photograph. What is interesting about this piece is the fact that it uses both the normal cobalt blue band around the base but also a manganese purple filled area containing a stylised leaf in relief. This helps date the item more closely as this combination of colours was only used for a short period during the years 1650 - 1680AD and again in the last quarter of the 19th C. | |  |
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| More information on the Heat Pump activity at Wimpole |
| 24/4/2018 |
For those who would like to know more about Heat Pumps and how they work, Historic England have a free publication on their website explaining how they work and their advantages. It can be accessed via www.historicengland.org.uk/images-books/publications/eehb-heat-pumps.
Wimpole will use both Ground Source heat Pumps (for the main house) and an Air Source Heat Pump (for the new visitor reception in the new car park at Lamp Hill). |
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