| 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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| Side Hill still not producing |
| 18/11/18 |
Another pleasant day out on the fields of Childerley. Weather fine, ground visibility OK (bit more growth than last weekend) but......not many finds. No more medieval, just the things shown in the photo. Very much post-medieval apart from the not very special flint.
However, we hope to be going out to Histon next weekend on fields we last walked many years ago. This is to help our friends at HIAG to continue their search for the village's past. | |  |
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| Back at Childerley Estate near Knapwell |
| 11/11/2018 |
| Our return to Childerley was greeted by strong winds, but luckily of the mild temperature. In the mostly sunny conditions, the ground was surprisingly dryish and ground visibility good. However, finds were in short supply, lots of broken flint, field drain and broken brick but little pottery. The photograph shows most of what we found, including possible medieval rim and a handle, together with a possible worked flint. Not much for a morning's work!! | |  |
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| Publications concerning CAFG |
| 5/11/2018 |
The group gets a mention in 2 new publications.
In Current Archaeology we have the inside back page (which is devoted to highlighting various local groups) in the latest December issue (as shown in the photograph).
The second is in an article by Bill Franklin in the latest PCAS Vol CVII for 2018, pages 107 - 118. This studies a document relating to Wimpole that came to light as part of the group researches into the estate. | |  |
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| The finds keep coming at Clopton |
| 4/11/2018 |
An overcast day but a good walking crew. We had another productive day with nearly 100 finds bags collected, the most on one day for quite a long time. The photograph shows just a representative sample of the material being found. We have handles and rims in a variety of material - lots of shell tempered pieces in orange to brown to grey fabrics, black and red sandy wares and some lovely pieces like the Brill/Boarstall ware with its mottled glaze and impressed circular design.
We have reached a point nearly 140 metres west from the scheduled site boundary and still there are finds turning up, so who knows where it will drop off. This spread to the west was described in a paper by John Alexander (our previous President) who excavated and field walked here in the early 1960's.
Unfortunately the field is now treated and unavailable for further walking, so we can look forward to Autumn 2019 for a return visit. | |  |
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| Fruitful day at Clopton |
| 28/10/2018 |
This was a good day field walking near the Clopton deserted medieval village site. In good, if a little windy and cool, conditions the group found a good selection of medieval pottery, perhaps also some Roman wares. A small amount of post-med ware was also present. However, the surprise was the amount of flint around, both cores and tools. A selection of the finds is shown in the photograph. The star piece in the centre is part of a large handle in redware with a thumbed decoration.
We are returning this coming weekend to see what else turns up. | |  |
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| Small returns at Gow Leys |
| 21/10/2018 |
| The weather was perfect, the ground was dry, finds visibility was excellent - the only thing missing was the finds themselves. The photo shows the total number of pottery finds found in the complete field, i.e. 3 pieces of post-med pottery (plus some field drain and broken brick). Although we know that the Childerley fields are not deep ploughed any more hence finds could be below the ploughsoil depth, this suggests no settlement of any period was present in this area. | |  |
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| More promise in our second field at Comberton |
| 7/10/2018 |
In pretty perfect walking conditions, ground washed by rain the day before, we tackled another Historic England target. As the photo shows, there was a quantity of Roman pottery in one area of the field. Enough to suggest a building but not enough to suggest a settlement.
Finds included a piece of Samian (the smallest piece in the photo), a possible piece of mortaria and several black/dark grey rims. The oyster shell is also often a Roman period find. The colour-coat dog bowl rim may be Oxford ware.
The coming weekend may produce more interesting finds, so we will wait and see what it produces. | |  |
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| First field walking of the autumn |
| 30/9/2018 |
The site suggested by Historic England produced a real mixed bag. The walking conditions were ideal, a dry and harrowed surface with good visibility. There were a few Iron Age-looking sherds, a piece of Roman flue tile but lots of post med stoneware and glazed redwares, as shown in the photograph.
This is not enough to suggest a big Iron Age/Roman site like those on the Childerley Estate. It may be that the underlying site revealed by the aerial photos is not being disturbed by ploughing, much like the Lamp Hill site at Wimpole that did not produce lots of finds but the current excavation has. | |  |
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| Interesting piece of Iron Age? shell tempered rim with a criss-cross "non-slip" surface to the underside of the everted rim. | |  |
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| Once a field walker, always a field walker! |
| Recently, while on holiday, we were walking on a path across a field covered in thousands of pieces of flint. I remarked "I really should be looking for worked flint in this lot". Barely 2 minutes later this lovely thumbnail scraper caught my eye. However, I did not have the willpower to examine the other myriad pieces in case a nice arrowhead appeared. Once you become a field walker it is very hard to walk anywhere without looking down at the ground, but that way you miss the beautiful Dorset coastal views (so I am told!). | |  |
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| Field walking season Autumn 2018 |
How quickly the summer passes, especially a busy one like this year. Heat pump bore holes, basement exhibition and Johnston's Pond excavation filled our time.
We now move back into the field walking season with the start at Comberton on a site suggested by Historic England's SW Cambridgeshire survey. Hopefully the dry soil conditions will carry on for a few more weeks. |
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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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