| Best wishes for a happy Christmas and a productive walking season in 2018 |
This is to wish all our members and the various people who have helped us during the year a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Here's hoping next year brings us exciting things and special sites. Our latest member looks eager to start. | |  |
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| 2016 Christmas greetings |
This is to wish all our members and the people who have helped us during the year a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Here's hoping Father Christmas got the list requesting that next year brings us exciting things and special sites like those we had this year. | |  |
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| 19/8/2016 |
It is nice to get a thank-you for the community work we do. The folk at St Mary's Church in Hardwick sent us the following message after our excavations there:
"Everyone at St Mary's Church in Hardwick says a huge thank you to the team at Cambridge Field Archaeology Group for their efficient, professional and educational labours with us. We really enjoyed being with you lovely people as you volunteered your time and expertise to look for any history that could have been hiding under our feet"
In return we would like to thank them for the supply of delicious cakes and multiple cups of tea and coffee that sustained us.
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| Paul Spoerry book published |
| Paul Spoerry, the CAFG President, has just had an important study of Medieval pottery in Cambridgeshire published. With copious photographs and line drawings, this work will help make our identification of medieval pottery found while field walking that much easier. Congratulations to Paul for a welcome addition and an up-to-date view of our local pottery. | |  |
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| Best wishes for a happy Christmas and a productive walking season in 2016 |
This is to wish all CAFG members. and those who follow us on this web site. a very festive season to end another busy year of field walking and excavating.
This year we have continued our exploration of the Childerley Estate and started a very flint orientated season (who can forget the superb polished flint axe), more flints at Fulbourn, lots more while doing test pitting at Oily Hall and even more flints with the Meldreth Local History Group. A day spent with the Young Archaeology Club was another community based exercise we hope to repeat. A brief interlude at Comberton produced little of note but a combined lidar/aerial photo survey hints at more to come from this area.
Add to this the large amount of work at Wimpole on the glasshouse site which kept us busy for quite a few weeks. Finally looking over the potential new Wimpole carpark site was disappointing in the sense that the geophysics looked to show a nice Iron Age/Roman enclosure site but the finds did not support the geophys.
All in all a year notable for some appallingly wet days but which expanded our knowledge of the Cambridge archaeology record. We look forward to seeing you out on the fields in 2016, who knows what that may bring to light. | |  |
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| Val Whittaker Memorial Prize |
The Val Whittaker Memorial Prize for 2016 is now launched. We are offering up to £150 towards a course, books or equipment to take your interest in archaeology further. The deadline is 1st May. For details of the competition, click here
On the 1st July 2015 we presented Elizabeth Back with the Val Whittaker Memorial Prize for her work on ways of researching deserted medieval villages in Huntingdonshire. | |  |
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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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| Annual General Meeting |
| 13th April 2016 |
The AGM on April 13th resolved that subscriptions for 2016/17 should remain at £10 for individuals, £15 for families. Subs are now due.
All existing officers and committee were re-elected. Bill Watkins was re-elected examiner of the accounts. |
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| Annual General Meeting |
The AGM on March 25th resolved that subscriptions for 2015/16 should remain at £10 for individuals, £15 for families. Subs are now due.
Mike Coles stood down as Field Officer, but remains on the committee. Terry Dymott was elected Field Officer. Bill Watkins was elected examiner of the accounts. |
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| More walking at Impington |
| 19/1/2020 |
This weekend we continued walking at Impington with our Histon colleagues on the site rumoured to contain exciting things like banjo enclosures and Iron Age enclosures. Again, the ground conditions were fine, but the bright low angle sun again made visibility more difficult. There were quantities of stoneware pots and white glazed pottery but only a few finds of any age.
Next weekend we are starting at Ickleton near the Abbey Farm site where we carried out our excavation last year. |
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| Just a taster of future activity |
| 13/1/2020 |
| Today we were out at Ickleton discussing our excavation plans and also to look at potential field walking sites. A field called The Mash was the first target, a field full of flint and which produced the nice flint blade shown here. There was also some pottery that looked medieval in date so all to look forward to when we finish helping out at Impington. | |  |
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| Walking at Impington |
| 12/1/2020 |
This weekend we went walking at Impington where our Histon colleagues had a site rumoured to contain exciting things like banjo enclosures and Iron Age enclosures. Shown in the photo, the ground conditions were fine, although the bright low angle sun made visibility more difficult. Lots of finds bags but only a relatively few finds from the distant past.
We will return next weekend to try and finish off the field. | |  |
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| Another finds haul at Eltisley |
| 5/1/2020 |
Our final day at Eltisley produced another bumper crop of finds, although we were prevented walking part of the field due to the muddy conditions. The photograph shows just a small sample of the finds. The handles just keep coming, with another pricked design but also a fluted one not seen before. The shell and flint tempered material still represent the major part of our finds. This time there was also a lot of post-medieval material, including a small amount of blue and white transfer printed ware.
A scatter plot seems to suggest these finds are scattered over most of the field but with a concentration along the middle and west end along the present housing line. Not shown in the photo are the large number of golf balls lying over the field, a feature of a number of the sites we walk in all areas of South Cambs. | |  |
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| Greetings to all members and associates |
| 22/12/2019 |
Let's hope Father Christmas gets the request for no more rain but doesn't send us any of the white stuff!!!
Thanks to all those people who have been walking in 2019 and for people like Oxford Archaeology East who do so much to support us. Happy Christmas and a successful New Year to everyone. | |  |
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| Field walking at Eltisley very rewarding, despiter the ground conditions. |
| 15/12/2019 |
The weather conspired again, some of the ground was like porridge but we managed to walk a lot of the remaining area - and the finds just kept coming. The photograph shows just some of them. The surprise was the Roman pieces that look like they are Samian (but just might be Romano-British copies). There were masses of shell tempered pieces which may be Roman or later and the post med finds included most of a stoneware ink pot. The interesting thing is how these finds are spread all over the field but not in such quantities in any one place to say here was a settlement.
Now we have a well earned Christmas break and hope to come back refreshed in the new year. Let's hope my request to Santa for some decent weather in 2020 gets heard. | |  |
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| The weather wins again |
| 10/11/2019 |
| The weather was sunny, the wind a little chill but the sodden ground meant a high risk of damaging the growing crop - so no walking at the weekend. We hope to carry on this Sunday but early weather predictions are not so good. However, who knows, they may be different on Saturday. |
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| Interesting finds at a new venue |
| 1/12/2019 |
This weekend took place at a new site to the west of the county, at Eltisley on a field near Manor Farm. We were hoping for some medieval finds on the field nearest the moated site - but things did not turn out quite as expected. The photograph shows a selection of the finds - they ranged from the medieval lovely shell tempered handle with pricked decoration, the shell tempered rim and plenty of oyster shells. However, they were all some way from the moated site. There was also a piece of lava quern stone, glazed redwares, a stoneware neck of a bottle and a little blue and white transfer printed ware.
Next Sunday we will attempt to finish this particular field and to see where the medieval finds lead us. | |  |
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A close up view of the medieval shell tempered handle with a pricked decoration. | |  |
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| The finds at Clopton just keep coming |
| 10/11/2019 |
A fine Sunday for a change but the ground was really muddy after yet more overnight rain. The finds just keep coming from the field as we have now covered from the top of the ridge to the A603 and about 100m west of the scheduled area.
As the photos show we have recovered lots more lava quernstone, this thinner (3.3cm thick) piece has a round hole cut through it and may be a top stone. The side shown has a pecked surface | |  |
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| The other finds, shown in the other photo, span quite a period, from the prehistoric flint blade, through lots of shell tempered wares, a handle, through various early glazed wares to some blue and white transfer ware. The finds are getting fewer in number as we go west but a brief look further out in the field still revealed more pottery so more visits still required to find the end. | |  |
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| More finds from our Clopton collection |
| 5/11/2019 |
As we process some of the Clopton finds, we find some slightly unusual things amongst the masses of pot handles and rims. The twisted rope handle is not a common find, nor the large handle in a grey fabric. Among the finds is what appears to be a Hedingham base (on the left). What we have got is masses of shell (and some grit) tempered pottery, as the photograph illustrates.
On this field we have yet to find where the pottery finds peter out at the presumed edge of the settlement. More visits needed and lots of work for our expert to sort through. | |  |
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| Another bonanza day on the Clopton hill |
| 31/10/2019 |
Another day, another 9kg of finds to process. As we moved west out into the field there was not much sign that the finds spread was decreasing, however down near the main road there was definitely a reduction. The finds were basically the same as the previous visit. What was noticeable was the number of pieces of lava quern stone, including the one in the photograph. This has a diameter greater than 40cm and is 5cm thick, thus suggesting it was a hand quern and that it was a bottom stone. The grooving was still very clear and not so worn.
We now have a major processing exercise to undertake - and we still have a lot of field unwalked. Just how much material remains on the field we don't know but it suggests that Clopton village extended a lot further west than the small area that was scheduled. | |  |
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| Further down the hill at Clopton |
| 29/10/2019 |
Today we returned to Clopton to field walk on the field that is to the west of the medieval village site and runs down the hill to the main road. It was astounding - a group of four picked up material that weighed in at nearly 18kg. The material was masses of medieval pottery (including lots of rims and some bases), lots of bones, lava quernstones, Roman tile and Samian ware. The photo shows just some of the rims and the decorated Roman flue tile. This tile is unusual as it is a much more complex pattern than the usual wavy lines and was obviously applied by a stamp.
This mass of material will take some considerable time to process but we intend going out again and moving further west in the field to see where the finds decrease or stop. | |  |
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| A visit to Orwell and a mysterious shape on the Lidar plot |
| 27/10/2019 |
A Lidar plot from Historic England's study revealed a mysterious rectangular banked enclosure at Leaden Hill. A request from the local history society saw us walking there to see if we could determine if it were old, i.e. Iron Age or even earlier.
The photo shows some of the finds which have a very post-medieval look about them. The usual suite of Staffordshire ware, stoneware, red glazed ware and a piece of blue and white transfer print date the finds to that era. There was a couple of possible medieval wares and some poor quality flint - but not enough to place the enclosure to those periods. The musketball-like object is actually a ceramic boiling bead or cooking piece.
However, the discovery of a number of pieces of coprolite lying on the surface suggests that the enclosure may relate to activities carried out here during the 19th C coprolite workings. It could be a washing settlement tank used to wash the coprolite material before it was processed. Further work will be necessary to prove this theory. | |  |
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| Finishing Field 42 at Comberton |
| 21/10/2019 |
| We finished the Field 42 in Comberton that we had started last year. Then we found a Roman cluster that mapped onto the Historic England Lidar/aerial interpretation at the western end of the field. This time we found very little apart from a thin scatter of post-medieval pottery and brick/tile. This really confirms that surface traces suggest the Roman cluster does not extend back towards Long Road, a straight road that may have Roman connections. |
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| Another good day at Clopton |
| 17/10/2019 |
Weather gods cheated again!! Another good sunny day at Clopton where we managed to complete walking the field and answered our questions. The pottery gradually diminishes as you move west and more or less stops by the end of New Forest. Finds became polarised - as the photo shows. We had post-medieval glazed ware and a carborundum whetstone at one end and quite a few prehistoric flints at the other, including some fine blades. Medieval finds were still found but in only small numbers.
Our next option is to seek permission to head down hill and find where the southern limit is.
We are going to try and finish the Comberton field this Sunday - weather permitting, of course | |  |
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| Another lost Sunday but joy on Tuesday |
| 15/10/2019 |
Yet another Sunday lost to wet weather - however we cheated the weather gods by going out on a Tuesday to Clopton, near the DMV site. This was a very busy morning and resulted in the collection of 92 bags of mostly medieval pottery. There were other things like a clay pipe, a thick tile (or a thin brick) plus a number of pieces of lava stone. Some items are shown in the photograph here.
The purpose of our investigation is to find how far from the western boundary of the scheduled area this pottery scatter goes. Although the amount of pottery found has decreased, we are still finding material at a distance of about 0.5km from the boundary. | |  |
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| Weather fine so had to go walking |
| 9/10/2019 |
The weather has been fine for a couple of days so it felt we had to go field walking at Comberton on a Wednesday. The conditions were ideal although the surface was partly obscured by straw. There were not many finds, mostly very abraded post-medieval pot. However there was a nice worked flint blade, as shown in the photograph.
We hope to be out at the weekend but yet again the weather forecast is not good - perhaps we need to go out on any day but a Sunday at present. | |  |
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| And still the Sunday rains continue |
| 6/10/2019 |
The Autumn of 2019 is becoming a wash out, especially on Sunday mornings it seems. The weather radar map shown here for 9am this morning shows the extent of the rain clouds and how heavy the rain has been (red = heaviest, of course) over Cambridge. The typical heavy Cambridgeshire clay soils are more or less unwalkable under these conditions.
The long range forecast for next Sunday still indicates more rain is likely, so perhaps we need to choose another day of the week to escape it. Let us keep our fingers crossed and hope for a change in the weather soon. | |  |
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| It's a weather conspiracy!! |
| 30/9/2019 |
| Yet another weekend lost to the inclement weather and a coming weekend that looks very similar. We will try to get to Comberton this coming weekend but the predicted weather is bad. Please contact us before you head out to the site. The parking instructions are the same as before. |
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| First field walking effort a write-off |
| 22/9/2019 |
| We had planned our first field walking exercise at the weekend on land in Comberton, this was to complete sites we had started last year. However, as they say, Man proposes, Mother Nature disposes. The persistent rain both before and on the day made walking on the clay soils too difficult. So we look forward to next weekend when we try again - keep your fingers crossed!! |
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| Some of the interesting finds from our processing |
| 23/8/2019 |
| As we carry on processing the finds we have found only a small number of bricks, mostly a small fragments. However, the photograph shows one of the substantial pieces of brick which is interesting. This brick shows signs pf glaze on the flat top and one of the long sides. Whether the long side glaze is material that has dribbled down from the flat top while being fired is unclear. The brick also has a substantial amount of mortar on the short side and the underside opposite the glazed portion. Dimensions that can be measured are 103.2mm wide and 54mm deep. The glaze looks very medieval in colour. | |  |
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| Processing continues |
| 10/7/2019 |
Our work on the Ickleton material continues. We have now finished sorting and washing the tile and brick. The amount of tile is amazing - 16 bags of tile weighing a total of 46.78 kilos is the total so far but with more to be bagged and weighed. As an example, one bag from context 1902 weighed 5.095k and contained 656 pieces of tile and brick!!
All the other material has been washed but now needs to be catalogued.
UPDATE: The total weight of the tile and brick after processing came to 76.65 kilos. |
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| The mixed finds from all periods |
| 2/7/2019 |
As we work through our finds from Ickleton, so the wide spread of periods becomes more obvious. The photograph shows what appears to be a Roman tegula tile which came from the same levels that were producing post-medieval finds. There is a scheduled Roman villa site some distance to the south of the village of Ickleton, is this the likely source?
The stratigraphy of our site is totally mixed up, with Roman finds near Anglo-Saxon near medieval near post-medieval - and all in the top 30cm or so of the trench. As yet we have no idea where this mixed-up back-fill material came from - were there dumps on the farmhouse area itself or was the material imported from elsewhere. Time will, hopefully, tell. | |  |
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| More from the Ickleton pottery finds |
| 30/6/2019 |
As mentioned before, we have found quite a lot of Staffordshire combed ware, some of which is shown in the photograph. How many vessels it represents is hard to tell.
As processing goes on we have also found several pieces of early slip wares, all in the upper layers above the cobbled surface we have uncovered.
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Along with the late 17th/early 18th C Staffordshire wares we have a medieval jug handle with stabbed decoration, shown here. The proximity of the two sorts of finds is further evidence for the backfill of this area being done with material from several different, and widely separated in time, sources of waste.
The latest news on the iron dress pin featured earlier is very interesting. Our favourite expert Helen has confirmed that it is most likely to be Middle Anglo-Saxon in date, i.e. from the period 8th - 9th century. This, plus the early glazed floor tiles, is a tantalising clue to the priory we were seeking. | |  |
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| Further finds from our processing of Ickleton material |
| 25/6/2019 |
Sorry for the lack of recent posts - computer issues meant nothing could be entered on the website until yesterday.
As we continue to process material from Ickleton we have seen some very interesting pottery like the colourful slipware shown in the photograph. As well as the Bellarmine pottery mentioned before we have recovered quite a few pieces of Staffordshire slipware with combed patterns - not enough to make a complete vessel but some pieces we can join together.
The broken tile (mostly) and brick are a weighty mass of material - one relatively medium sized bag alone produced over 10lbs (4.6kg) of tile. We still have a lot of material to process and other interesting finds will undoubtedly come to light. Keep watching the website for more information as it emerges. | |  |
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| Another interesting find |
| 15/6/2019 |
| When field walking and metal detecting Roman sites it is not unusual to find metal pins with decorated heads and made in bronze. However, this find looks like a typical Roman pin but is made in iron. It has a fluted design on the head. We cannot find an equivalent mentioned in the literature but we will carry on looking. | |  |
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| Getting closer to the Priory? |
| 15/6/2019 |
As we work through the finds we are uncovering some interesting pieces. The photograph shows a partially glazed floor tile, measuring 5" (longest edge), 4.5" (other main edge) and 1" thick. I use inches as this medieval tile would have been made with those measurements. The glaze is greenish in colour and quite worn. The glaze only covers the top of the tile but glaze has dribbled down the edges.
This tile most probably came from an important medieval building, like a Priory, on account of its age. We have so far retrieved three similar tiles, but this is the largest piece found. | |  |
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| Ickleton dig proceeds |
| 7/6/2019 |
Our dig at Ickleton is proceeding, but at a slow pace due to the difficulties of digging through a layer of compacted cobbles that lies just below the topsoil. We have potentially found a wall, probably robbed out at the dissolution of the Priory. Also a mortar/clunch floor surface has been uncovered which may lie inside (or possibly outside) the structure.
The cobble layer still produces masses of 19th C tile and some brick. The quantity of nails increases by the moment, some of them large hand-made timber nails. Pottery comes from a wide range of periods - lots of Staffordshire combed ware and glazed redware in abundance. | |  |
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| Some of the pottery does come from the medieval period, like the piece shown in the photograph. This is called a "bunghole cistern". The drawing from Oswestry shows some forms recovered there, most are jugs with straight sides like the upper example but others are well rounded jugs like the second example and ours. The surrounding edge of the bunghole is often decorated by thumbing, like ours. This is an interesting piece because we have not seen its like before. There are some more interesting pieces to show at a later date. | |  |
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| Our first day at Ickleton |
| 1/6/2019 |
What luxury - the turf taken off by a turf cutter and the top 10cm of soil removed by a digger. It certainly saves time.
We came dowm straightaway on to a level of cobbles which correspond very well with the feature shown in the geophysics plot. | |  |
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| From the upper layers we have already retrieved some interesting find, like these three pieces from a Bellarmine jug. This is a type of decorated salt-glazed stoneware that was manufactured in Germany and Holland throughout the 16th and 17th centuries. They incorporated a stamped image of Cardinal Robert Bellarmine (1542-1621). He was notorious as a bitter opponent of the Dutch Reformed Church and Protestants who disliked him used to smash the jugs.
They were also used as "witch bottles" where people filled the jug with certain articles, sealed it and buried it in order to deflect a witch's curse. | |  |
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| Geophys at our Ickleton site |
| 15/5/2019 |
As the date of our proposed excavation at Ickleton draws closer, the plot shown here is the resistivity plot for the area with our intended trench line. The red(high res) areas of the plot delineate the shape of a roughly square structure? with a much lower res (blue) interior. Our intention is to sample the line across the possible structure to take in both the possible wall and the centre.
We have already laid out a 10m x 2m trench, the next step is immediately before our excavation to get the turf removed with a turf cutter and the topsoil removed by a digger. We will observe both these steps to see any features that may appear. | |  |
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| What a way to end the Spring season |
| 7/4/2019 |
Sunday was a complete surprise, even after last weekend's surprise. The small field in Comberton was not especially expected to produce much but after the significant medieval finds just across the road, nothing could be ruled out - and so it turned out. The photograph shows just a few of the finds, again a lot of medieval but also some nice post-med like the Westerwald fragment with a large letter "R" visible. There were 97 bags of finds but the prize find has to be the very large shelly-ware rim on the right. This was only one of the many shell tempered wares found. We look forward to cataloguing these finds and getting an expert view on what they are.
These last two weekends have been very welcome after the paucity of finds earlier in the year. Now for a break and a rest before coming back invigorated in the Autumn. | |  |
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| Surprising day at Manor Farm in Comberton |
| 31/3/2019 |
The return to Comberton and Manor Farm was a year after our previous visit - and was it a total surprise!! The field lies on the outskirts of the village but relatively close to an old manor site. However, expectations of lots of finds were low. How wrong can you be - it turned up masses of finds, just some of which are shown in the photograph.
What was surprising was the range of material - from possible Iron Age shelly ware, to Roman Nene Valley ware and other local ware, to medieval glazed redware and slipwares to blue and white transfer ware.
All in all a great weekend of field walking and unexpected finds. | |  |
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One highlight was the two fragments of probable medieval lava quernstone. The photo shows the curved dressing (Lepareux-Couturier type 5) of the grinding surface. The other side has s curved shape in the centre which may be the edge of the grain hopper.
(Lepareux-Couturier, S. 2014. Complex dressing patterns on grinding surfaces of rotary querns and millstones from Antiquity in the Paris Basin, France: state of research and perspectives. AmS-Skrifter 24, 149–158, Stavanger). | |  |
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| A lovely morning's walking on the ridge |
| 24/3/2019 |
| In ideal weather - lovely sun and a cool wind - it was a pleasure to be out walking. We finished walking Upper Thornhill field but the finds were again in short supply. As the photo shows, we had a selection of post-med pottery (blue and white, stoneware and red sandy wares) together with some clay pipe. There were a number of possible flint flakes and a small quantity of possible medieval ware. The strange find was the stone/asbestos? vessel that looks like a garden urn of some description. Further investigation required. | |  |
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| Better day on the ridge at Wimpole |
| 17/3/2019 |
Back on the ridge again in strong winds but no rain, thank goodness. Although the ground was a bit sticky, the small band of walkers covered quite an area. The photo shows the finds were post-medieval as before, although the whetstone is undateable. There was a nice glazed rim with decorative pattern which we don't often see and some blue and white transfer ware.
What was noticeable was the transition from a dark soil with lots of flint and stones of various sorts to a sandier orange/brown soil with very few flints or stones. This lies in a hollow which may be man-made but the early maps make no mention of a quarry at this site so who knows. We will go back hoping to finish it off this Sunday. | |  |
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| Back to the Wimpole ridge - Part 2 |
| 10/3/2019 |
After Storm Freya it was the same again, we walked Upper Thornhill in almost the same conditions this weekend - light rain and an ever-increasing cold wind. After a few passes the hardy band gave way and some of us headed for a coffee at Wimpole Hall. The ground conditions were a bit muddy but ground visibility was excellent even if the finds were in short supply again. However, the photo shows it was all post-medieval wares. So not bad for the short time we were walking. There are masses of flint around but so far not a piece of worked or burnt flint has been found.
As we said last week, let's hope the next weekend is OK as we have over half the field still to do. | |  |
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| Back to the Wimpole ridge |
| 3/3/2019 |
| In the face of Storm Freya, we walked Upper Thornhill in light rain and an ever-increasing wind before giving way and heading for a coffee at Wimpole Hall. The ground conditions were surprisingly good but the finds were in short supply. However, as the photo shows, there was a nice piece of medieval? pottery with a thumbed decoration, a red sandy ware base and a thin glazed redware rim. So not bad for the short time we were walking. This field lies alongside Harcamlow Way footpath and not so far from a Roman site we found some years ago. Let's hope the next weekend is OK as we have quite a bit of field still to do. | |  |
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| Good to walk in summery conditions again |
| 24/2/2019 |
Firm ground underfoot, warm sun on your back, skylarks singing above and no cold wind - the recipe for a perfect Sunday morning stroll. After the miserable past few weekends it was a pleasure, even if the finds were in relatively short supply. However, as the photograph shows, we did have a number of very abraded sherds of probable medieval ware. Plus the usual collection of brick and tile, of course. There was little modern material so this field is not like many other Childerley fields.
This is the last large field we had left to do in order to have completed walking the majority of the Childerley Estate. We have to thank the Jenkins family for letting us carry out this large survey which will now need writing up. | |  |
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| Weather defeats us but here is something from sunnier times |
| 14/2/2019 |
The weather has been frustrating, the day before and the day after have been quite fine but the Sunday has been awful - either raining or soggy underfoot. But here is something from sunnier days.
We often find odd bits of quern stone when we go field walking but nothing quite like the photograph. In the valley of Burbage Brook, near Hathersage in the Peak District, there are these abandoned millstone grit querns lying by the track. They have been formed, the centre hole drilled yet they were abandoned - why? Did someone cancel the order or were these stock that never sold when millers started using other material. Anyway, there are reputed to be nearly 100 stones in various states of manufacture just lying around - a very impressive sight. | |  |
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| Beaten by the Weather Again |
| 3 and 10/2/2019 |
| The weather and ground conditions stopped fieldwalking for two more weeks. We hope for better next Sunday. |
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| Weather and terrain win again |
| 27/1/2019 |
Field walking was abandoned on Sunday due to standing water on the field and with the very strong wind blowing the growing crop flat. This meant that surface visibility was very poor, hence not walking that day. With the crop at the stage it is, we do not want to risk damaging it - better to wait another day.
On better days we have found whetstones on a number of sites, like the broken one in the photograph. They are often made of natural sandstones and similar natural materials. This particular one is made of carborundum - and this helps date it. Synthetic SiC (silicon carbide) powder has been mass-produced since 1893 for use as an abrasive. Grains of silicon carbide can be bonded together by sintering to form a very hard and long lasting whetstone for sharpening hand scythes and similar tools. They gradually replaced natural stones from about 1900. | |  |
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| Thin pickings at Childerley |
| 20/1/2019 |
It was a lovely sunny day with a little ground frost but good ground visibility - but few finds, mostly broken 20th C tile. A total of 3 pottery finds was slim reward for our efforts.
However, we do find plenty of fossils on the Childerley fields so we do get to practise our geology skills. The fossil on the left of the photograph is a fossil sponge found on Sunday which looks like a small cannon ball. However, the fossil on the right is also a fossil sponge but the broken edge allows you to see the actual sponge within it. Finds of ammonites, belemnites, gryphaea (oysters) are also quite common, so when the archaeology is not so exciting there is plenty of geology to keep you on your toes. | |  |
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| Back to the flat lands of Childerley |
| 13/1/2019 |
| A total contrast to last week - no hills, no rough ploughed surface. This time a flat surface with a growing crop but good surface visibility. We were finishing off a field we had part walked all the way back in Feb 2015. There were very few pottery finds, mostly post-med but two (see photograph) may be medieval. The rest was a lot of modern broken tile and brick. No settlement here, although in the east corner we had walked in 2015 there were some medieval finds that could be associated with the deserted village of Little Childerley that lies just over the hedge from our field. | |  |
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| Back to the hills of Wimpole |
| 6/1/2019 |
This weekend we returned to field walking at Wimpole for the first time in several years. Plantation field was rough ploughed and hilly (at least by Cambridge standards!!!) so the walking was quite hard - many thanks to those who stayed behind to help pick up the finds.
As the photo shows it was largely a post-med collection - white ware, stone ware, red glazed wares and clay pipes. There were some other pieces that may be medieval or earlier and a possible worked flint. The finds were thinly scattered all over the field, so no settlement here. | |  |
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| Recognition of our efforts |
| 21/12/2018 |
It is always nice to get some recognition for our efforts in putting Cambridgeshire archaeology on the map. An Historic England research project has produced a report called the National Archaeological Identification Survey: South West Cambridgeshire. Aerial Investigation & Mapping Report by David Knight, Jonathan Last, Sally Evans and Matthew Oakey. We contributed information to this report about the Roman sites at Childerley, Arrington and, too late for the report, Comberton.
It is good to see the group specifically named in the Acknowledgements for having contributed to the information used in the report. In the Autumn 2019 we hope to complete the Comberton work and tackle more of the potential targets on the Historic England interpretation map. | |  |
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| Last weekend walk of 2018 |
| 16/12/2018 |
Another fine day after horrendous winds and some rain saw us finish the year at Histon. In somewhat muddy conditions and with a low sun making visibility difficult, it was more of the same finds. More stainless steel cutlery and cut bone, together with lots of brick and tile, formed the largest quantity. However, the medieval (or perhaps Roman) pottery, together with plenty of post-medieval wares, still occurs enough to keep us interested.
Having finished the field in time for a Christmas break, we will re-assemble at Wimpole on January 6th 2019 to tackle Rectory Farm. See you there. | |  |
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| Pottery and cutlery reign supreme |
| 9/12/2018 |
A new field at Histon but still the post-med pottery and (college?) cutlery dominate the finds. The photograph shows just some of the post-med pot but also the small piece of medieval pot and part of a nice flint blade. The farmer has confirmed that pig swill from the colleges was deposited on the land in the past, hence the collection of spoons, forks, knives, ladle and cake slice we have found. One wonders what the replacement cost must have been for the college (or colleges) concerned!
We will have our final 2018 walk this coming weekend as we finish off the fields we have started. The new year will probably start with a trip to Wimpole - so away from the nice peaty soils and back to the heavy clays again. | |  |
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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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| 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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| 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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| 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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| Seeking the Romans |
| 9/4/2017 |
Moving north from Hanging Field, Childerley, we hoped to find the Romans carrying on into the next field. However, there were only a few pieces, not enough to equate to a settlement, in fact not very much pottery of any date.
This was the last field walking of the Spring session as Easter holidays approach. We are planning some possible excavations over the summer months but will return to field walking some time in September. Many thanks to the members who have been out in all conditions this period and also to the landowners without whose permission we would not have a hobby. |
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| Latest publications update |
A new article on the Wimpole coprolites is now available to read or download on our Articles section of the website. It describes what coprolites are, how they were formed and where they are found plus notes on how they were processed in Cambridgeshire.
The first of what is hoped to be a series of reports on Roman Ceramic Building Materials (CBM) collected by the group, is available to download from the reports section. This first assessment concerns CBM from a field near to Whole Way Cottage, Harlton, which was first fieldwalked in 1994. |
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| MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE |
| Just to wish all members of the Cambridge Archaeology Field Group, and the visitors to our website, a Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year. Also, as the cartoon suggests, we hope to look forward to some good field walking in the coming year. | |  |
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| Cambridge Antiquarian Society Autumn Conference |
The CAS Autumn Conference on the Recent Archaeology in the Cambridgeshire Region was, as usual, an interesting collection of papers and with a good crowd. We had more comments on our Wimpole display regarding its professional appearance, which is encouraging and just reward for all the effort people put in to preparing it.
Our presentation of the work from Wimpole on Tuesday 25th November at Orwell went well. Mike Coles gave a lecture and our presentation display was used again. |
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| Heather Coppock, 1926 - 2014 |
| Heather, a stalwart supporter of the Group since 1984, sadly died on the 13th April. She was laid to rest in the churchyard of All Saints Church, Haslingfield, on the 29th April. | |  |
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| CAFG Members help at Meldreth's HLF funded 'Big Dig' |
| CAFG volunteers helped dig test pits at the second of three test pitting weekends at Meldreth's Heritage Lottery funded 'Big Dig'. Thirty test pits will be opened over the three weekend period. The highlight so far is the discovery of a Pilgrim's Badge - a rare test pit find.
The next will be 17th and 18th August. Anyone interested in helping should contact Robert Skeen (email: robertskeen@gmail.com) | |  |
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| Gold bottle top |
| Conservation by the NT of some of the finds from our excavation of Mr Ratford's house at Wimpole in 2010 have now been completed. This beautifully decorated gold cap may have come from a small scent bottle and dates from the latter part of the 18th century. Finds such as this suggest that the occupier of the house [was it still a Mr Ratford when the house was demolished?] was of some importance on the estate - he was possibly the Estate Manager or was it his wife? We have not been able to find an exact parallel so please see what you can find. | |  |
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| Finds Workshops |
We are holding informal finds workshops on the third Wednesday in the month at Bar Hill, primarily for less experienced fieldwalkers. The next is on
21st November on pottery.
Click on full programme for the series planned for the next few months. |
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| Knife end-cap from Grantchester |
| 31 July 2012 |
| While reviewing finds from Haslingfield for our current project on settlement development in that parish we recalled a box of finds from the County Council store at Landbeach. In this collection we found a copper alloy knife end-cap, recorded as found at TL 428548 while field walking in 1990. Dr Helen Geake advised that there was a similar find recorded in the Portable Antiquities database as SF6653. This latter object is dated to the 15th century and the wider panels have a figure in robes turned slightly to the left, one of which is nimbed (has a halo) and the other not. Our find from Grantchester is very similar, with one figure clearly nimbed, and with the left arm bent across the body but it is rectangular in cross section, not hexagonal, and the two narrower panels are only lightly decorated.
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| http://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/21207 |
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| Haslingfield Test Pit Project |
 | | On 25th May we mounted a display in the Haslingfield Village Centre of the finds from the test pits dug in June 2012. Rob Atkins gave an outline to about 50 people of the significance of these finds which, added to those from fieldwalking over many years,suggest a number of small settlements that only came together on the present village site from the 11th century. The full report should be available during the autumn. |
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| Val Whittaker Memorial Prize |
On 4th June 2014 we were happy to present the 2014 Val Whittaker Memorial Prize to Katherine Peacock, a student at Hills Road Sixth Form College, for her project on “An Archaeological survey of the Mere Way in Cambridgeshire”.
The deadline for this year's applications was 1st May 2015, and we hope to present the award at our meeting on the 3rd June. For details of the competition, click here |
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| The Val Whittaker Prize |
| We made two awards in the Val Whittaker Memorial Prize competition for 2013, to Matthew Finch and Bess Sayers. The presentations were made at our June meeting. This year (2014) we are extending the deadline for entries until the 2nd May. We are offering up to £150 towards a course, books or equipment to take your interest in archaeology further. For details of the competition, click here | |  |
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| Val Whittaker Memorial Prize 2012 |
 | | Our Val Whittaker Memorial Prize 2012 has been awarded to Jezz Davies, an archaeology student with Cambridge University Institute of Continuing Education, for his projects on marine archaeology. The formal presentation was made on 3rd October 2012. Stephanie Emra, our 2011 winner, has made good use of the prize, and you can read her report here.
For details of the prize competition for 2013, click on "The Val Whittaker Prize" here |
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| See Jezz's winning project report |
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| 2011 Val Whittaker Memorial Prize |
| On 1st June 2011, Stephanie Emra, an "A" level student at Hills Road Sixth Form College, was presented with her prize in our Val Whittaker Memorial competition. To see her essay click here. Stephanie hopes to study archaeology at UCL. | |  |
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| A memorial for Dr John Alexander |
A memorial service for Dr John Alexander, our president until his death in August 2010, was held at St John's College on 5th February 2011, at which the Group was represented. During the service, the following reading was given from "Rescue Archaeology", written by John in 1971. It encapsulates his views and deserves a wide audience:
"...the complete history of man in this country is only one of the many similar regional studies elswhere. They should all be seen as part of an even grander study - the history of man in the world. Within the last twenty-five years this great project, to which far-seeing historians have always turned for inspiration, has become possible. This is so important a development that it must be made more widely known, for a study of the human past, which all races have in common, should be a unifying factor. Archaeologists all over the world accept common standards of evidence and common conclusions. This is a promising development for, down the perspective of two million years, the contributions and experience of all the continents can be seen to have made us what we are today."
We, as a Group, are starting to plan a lecture or lectures in John's memory. |
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| New President and Vice-President |
Dr Paul Spoerry, manager of Oxford Archaeology East and previously the Group's Vice-President, is now the Group's President
Our new Vice-President is Dr Susan Oosthuizen, of the Institute of Continuing Education at Cambridge University. |
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| Annual General Meeting |
At the AGM on 24th April 2014,the existing officers and committee were re-elected. Richard Cushing was re-elected examiner of accounts.
Subscriptions for 2014/15 were maintained at £10 for individuals and £15 for families.
Responses to a member questionnaire were presented. A meeting for all members to discuss the issues raised will be held on Wednesday, 2nd July. |
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| Annual General Meeting |
| 10 April 2013 |
At the AGM on 10th April 2013,the existing officers and committee were re-elected. Bill Hughes was thanked for his work in examining the accounts over a number of years and Richard Cushing was elected to the role for this year.
Subscriptions for 2013/14 were increased to £10 for individuals and £15 for families.
Proposed amendments to the Constitution were adopted, with the proviso that the Val Whittaker bequest should be treated as separate in the accounts so that, in the event of the Group ceasing to exist, that money would be distinct from other assets. |
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| 2012 AGM |
| 4th April 2012 |
At the AGM on 4th April existing officers and committee were re-elected.
Subscription levels for this year were increased to £9 for individuals and £12 for family membership.
It was agreed to top up the Val Whittaker Memorial Prize fund over time so that we can continue to offer bursaries for some years to come. |
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| Annual General Meeting |
| 6 April 2011 |
At the AGM on 6th April 2011 three changes were made to the committee: Dudley Pusey takes over from Graham Vincent as treasurer; and Peter Cornelissen and Robert Skeen replace Stephen Reed and Emma Smith as committee members.
Subscriptions remain the same, at £8 for single membership and £11 for family membership. |
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| Special General Meeting |
A short SGM took place on the 6th October 2010 prior to the talk, to consider the proposed appointment of a new President and Vice-President, following the recent death of the group's first President, Dr John Alexander. Dr Paul Spoerry, manager of Oxford Archaeology East and previously the group's Vice-President, was proposed for the position of President and returned unopposed. Paul had previously acknowledged his willingness to take up the position.
For the position of Vice-President, Dr Susan Oosthuisen, of the Institute of Continuing Education at Cambridge University, was proposed and also returned unopposed.
We look forward to working with them in the near future. |
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| The 2010 Val Whittaker Memorial Archaeology Prize |
Two 2010 prize-winners, Laura Boxell and Neville Robinson, were announced at the April AGM.
Laura is now studying Archaeology, Anthropology and Forensic Science at Bournemouth University and reports that the prize has enabled her to buy books such as Henry Lee's "Crime Scene Handbook" and a pair of steel capped walking boots in preparation for excavations in the spring. She says "I would also like to thank...the group for awarding me this bursary as it has come in very useful for my studies."
For further information about the Val Whittaker Memorial Archaeology Prize, click here | |  |
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| And, for details and how to apply... |