| AGM 2021 |
| 2nd June |
The AGM, held via Zoom, retained subscriptions at £12 for individuals, £18 for families. Committee members remain as before, with the addition of Susanne Thompson, John Waterhouse having taken on the role of treasurer following the sad death of Dudley Pusey in 2019.
The AGM resolved to amend the Group's constitution to restrict membership to those aged 18 or over. The amended constitution and other affected documents will be available on the website shortly. Members may bring their under-18 children to Group activities as long as they remain responsible for them. |
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| Final days at Childerley |
| 9/5/2021 |
With no more immediate targets at Wimpole we returned to Childerley in the north-west corner of the estate. This was the last field, White Pits, that we needed to walk in order to have walked all the arable fields on the estate.
The weather conditions were fine, the ground conditions good - the only thing missing were the finds!! Most of the finds were heavily abraded glazed redwares, with a smattering of other post-medieval wares. There were three pieces of possible medieval ware which came from an area near an electricity pylon. This was interesting because they came from spoil probably generated when the pylon was built. Could this hint at finds being below the immediate plough soil? We know from previous examples, Lamp Hill at Wimpole, that field walking does not produce evidence when that evidence is below the plough soil horizon. | |  |
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| More walking at a very dry Wimpole |
| 25/4/2021 |
| After our enjoyable first walking day, it was back to Wimpole again on another field that has had geophys carried out on it. Kittsfour field is quite small but the geophys showed a few interesting signs which needed walking to confirm what date they were likely to be. The photograph shows most of the interesting finds. There were plenty of clay pipe, stoneware, glazed redwares and transfer printed pottery and modern brick & tile - suggesting no old settlement. However there were a few flint flakes, a very small horseshoe (or is it reinforcing for a boot?) and some pottery like the grey and red rims that hint at more ancient times. However, the quantity was very small which does suggest no site existed on this field and the geophys probably represents ditches or boundaries of fields. | |  |
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| Field walking returns - at least for the present |
| 18/4/2021 |
What a relief to be out field walking again, taking all the COVID precautions, of course. The weather was lovely and sunny, slightly cool as one expects in the spring. However, the recent lack of rain meant the ground has become rock hard - how times change. The field in the north west of the Wimpole Estate that we walked is due to be planted with trees so our exercise was to see whether there were any signs of archaeological value below ground.
The answer was probably none!! Finds were few and far between as the photo shows about a third of the total finds. The field is quite flinty so no surprise we found a couple of worked blades. There were a three probable early pieces of pottery plus several post medieval finds of red glazed ware and a stoneware rim.
However, the joy of good company, fresh air and exercise did us all a power of good - here's looking forward to the next walking before the crops render walking impossible. | |  |
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| Result of more Ickleton finds processing |
| 10/3/2021 |
One thing about a lockdown is there is plenty of time to carry out work delayed from previous events. The photograph shows the latest reconstruction of a piece of Staffordshire ware. Originally some was recovered during our 2019 excavation and shown in previous web pages. Then 2020 produced more of what looked like a similar vessel, also shown previously. The photograph shows the result of combining the 2019 and 2020 finds which enabled us to size the object much better. This shows the item was a 12 inch diameter platter of which we have about one third.
Interestingly it also shows how, on this platter, the zigzag design varies across the surface, on one side you have neat zigzags and on the other some really blurred and wide lines. This contrasts with many online pictures of Staffordshire ware that show a much superior neat pattern across the whole platter - was our one a reject possibly sold at a lower price or did they do economy versions even then? | |  |
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| Oh to live on gravel or chalk soils ...... |
| 04/02/2021 |
Even without the COVID lockdown, our chances of field walking are currently slim. The photograph shows one of the fields near Barton we are keeping in view as a possible field walking site - but, as you can see, it is still under water and has been since before Christmas. Our clay soils are a nightmare in these times of repeated rain events. Those who suffered the quagmire at Eltisley will, I'm sure, be able to guess how difficult walking in this field would be.
We hope everyone is keeping healthy and, for us oldies, have had your jab so that the horizons where field walking is again permitted are just a little closer - weather permitting, of course. | |  |
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| FIELD WALKING AND COVID UPDATE |
Welcome to the New Year - we hope everyone is OK and surviving yet another lockdown. We hope that 2021 gets back to normality as soon as possible. Currently, under the Tier 4 conditions imposed on us, there is no potential for us carrying out field walking in the traditional way. We are, therefore, reluctantly not scheduling any field walking in the coming weeks until the situation changes (or we all get vaccinated).
Please keep in touch with this website and our Facebook pages as we are processing a lot of our historical finds and there are sure to be some interesting material that comes to light. |
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| After the deluge comes the sun |
| 20/12/2020 |
What a change a week makes!! Today the sun shone, the wind blew but was almost warm ….but the mud remains. Very pleasant walking environment but we still had to trudge through the muddy surface which had not really dried at all - but we did finish the field. Again finds were few and far between - the photograph shows just how few. The shell tempered rim looks very early, as does the greyware. The brown slip coated piece could be medieval but the glazed redware is our typical post med find. Another heat crazed flint and a possible struck flint completes the finds in the photo.
We are now stopping for Christmas (or what passes for it in these strange times) and we are expecting another lockdown will start 2012. So keep looking at the website and we will update you as time goes on. A happy!! Christmas and a better New Year to you all. | |  |
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| If we thought last week was bad........ |
| 13/12/2020 |
We started in light rain, which grew heavier, and with a cold wind that steadily got stronger. We ended drenched and looking forward to getting home in the warm and dry. Underfoot the mud was even more glutinous in places. However, we did find what look like three pieces of medieval pottery (see photograph) together with a selection of post med pot and another fired flint. Still not enough medieval to get excited with just yet.
We are hoping for a week of drier weather so we can finish this field before Christmas (and/or the next lockdown!!). | |  |
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| A hard day in the fog |
| 6/12/2020 |
| This weekend was not very fruitful, the photograph shows ALL of the finds from our slog at Eltisley. A combination of fog that varied in thickness and glutinous patches of mud in the field made for a hard day trudging in Field 99. The finds were mostly single pieces of post med pottery, with one possible bit of medieval, and single flint blade and heat crazed flint lump. Although we have not quite finished the field it is fair to say there is no medieval settlement visible here. The field extension round the corner (which is much nearer where we found medieval pottery before) remains our only hope. | |  |
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| After the collecting comes the analysing |
| 22/11/2020 |
| After collecting over 400 bags of finds at Clopton this autumn now comes the washing, logging on spreadsheets and analysing what we have recovered. Some members have been looking at the large number of handles we have recovered from the previous field north of the trackway (our label CLP001). There is a large selection, including rod and strapped handles, stabbed hole and slashed decoration, made in shell and flint tempered wares, sandy wares, late medieval reduced ware and glazed red ware. Some also have early medieval glazes but the photograph shows a selection of these types (thanks to Susanne and Stephen for their work). As we are processing CLP002 we have a lot more handles to sort through in the coming weeks.. | |  |
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| Last visits to Clopton |
| 12/11/2020 |
Two visits, each by a pair of walkers, has seen the finds on the Clopton field reduce to practically zero. Seventeen bags contained yet more tile but also a series of finds which sort of define the site. The photograph shows another piece of Roman mortaria, a slash decorated jug handle of medieval date, some stoneware and a clay pipe stem and part bowl. Also a glass base, pehaps of a sundae dish, and an unidentified brass fixing. This sums up the date coverage we see in the majority of finds.
This is probably the last field walking for a while as we can only cover a very small area with a maximum of 2 walkers. Let's hope December becomes free again and the various crops have not grown too much in the interim. | |  |
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| The lava quern just keeps coming |
| 8/11/2020 |
Yet more lava quern stone has come from the Clopton site, this time an identifiable top stone. As the photograph shows we have the grinding surface with the grooves clearly visible. But what we have not seen before is the round hole in the top surface where the turning handle would have fitted. The stone is 2" thick (5.2cm) while the handle hole is some 4cm in diameter. The diameter of the complete stone is greater than 40cm.
Although the recent posts have mostly been about quern stones of one sort or another, it is hoped some interesting pottery finds will emerge as their processing proceeds. | |  |
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| New lockdown curtails our Clopton experience |
| 1/11/2020 |
What turned out to be our last field walk for a while was a damp and muddy experience but the finds keep coming. Although we marvel at all the medieval finds we must not forget the other periods are also represented here. The photograph shows just a few Roman pieces from our recent walking. Nene Valley colour coated ware, here as a cup base, continue to appear but not in large quantities. The mortaria, which may be Oxford ware, are found in a few cases. However, we must remember that some of the very large quantities of shell tempered ware are almost certainly Romano-British in origin.
What we have not found is the limit of the pottery scatter, although the number of finds is definitely dropping. The number of lava quern fragments is truly amazing, we have not been on a site where so much has been found | |  |
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| More interesting finds from Clopton |
| 25/10/2020 |
| Despite a less than encouraging weather forecast we had another prolific day at Clopton as regards finds. Another bumper haul of finds included yet more lava quernstone. We have found lots of lava quernstone fragments that are hard to identify as lower or upper stones because they lack any identifiable characteristics. Today, as the composite photograph shows, we recovered a piece that is almost certainly a top stone based on its shape. | |  |
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Compare the shape and the profile of our piece with the illustration of a known Roman lava quernstone. The similarity of our piece with the top stone shown in the drawing is very clear, with the raised lip evident in the drawing visible in our piece. The interesting thing is the sheer quantity of lava stone we keep recovering from this area near the Clopton village whereas the John Alexander record of his excavations does not mention lava quernstone at all.
As we move westwards from the scheduled area there is no sign, as yet, of any drop-off in the quantity of finds. Although ploughing over many years will have moved material around it cannot explain the wide spread of finds which suggests the settlement area was considerably bigger than the current scheduled area. | |  |
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| More on millstones |
| 19/8/2020 |
A request for more information about quernstones, as a result of someone reading our article, led to more research on the use of millstones. We often think of them as only milling grain but in fact more applications were used for millstone grit ones, especially after French burrstones took over bread milling.
The photo shows one other use, that is milling (or pulping) apples for cider making (from Jersey). This shows a millstone being used on its edge, unlike the flat horizontal stones used for milling grain.
Other uses included pulping wood chippings for paper manufacture, with Canada and Scandinavia being big markets for millstone grit stones. In fact the last of these was shipped to Norway in the 1960's. Malt was also milled for beer manufacture and bark for tanning. Ores and pigments are also mentioned as being crushed using millstones. Of local interest is the fact that Kings Lynn was a major export port for millstone grit mill stones. | |  |
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