| 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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| 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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| 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... |