| AGM 2022 |
| 8th June |
| The AGM on the 8th June 2022 retained subscriptions at £12 for individuals, £18 for families and £1 for non-member attendance at lectures. The post of secretary remains vacant; Martin Bacon has replaced Robert Skeen on the committee, otherwise officers and committee members remain as before. |
|
 |
| Mid-summer update |
| 26/7/2022 |
Just a quick update to events at CAFG. Our planned summer test pitting at Wimpole has been put off until October. The hot, very dry conditions mean that excavating in the hard clay soils would probably do more damage than good.
In the mean time we have sorted all the pottery finds from our 2019/20/21 excavations at Ickleton and when you see the total it becomes obvious that the medieval pot (in some quantity) increases markedly as you proceed down the contexts. We are now ready to get it to Paul Blinkhorn for his verdict on what we have.
Our September date at Oily Hall to dig some more test pits is still on. We remember this site for the large numbers of worked flint that came from our field walking and the first batch of test pits - if you want to learn about flints it is the place to go. |
|
| Identity revealed |
| 7/5/2022 |
One of the finds from the Ickleton field walking near the old windmill site was, appropriately, a piece of stoneware pottery with a relief windmill on it. At the time there was a suggestion that it might be of Dutch origin but research has shown it came from a lot closer to home.
The design is identical to that on Doulton Lambeth two tone salt glaze pottery of the 19th C Victorian period. It is part of the decoration used on the Doulton Harvest ware series of domestic pottery, as seen in the photograph.
In 1815 John Doulton and John Watts were partners in a pottery at Vauxhall Walk, London with the owner, Mrs Martha Jones. When she withdrew in 1820 the business continued as Doulton & Watts. John Doulton's five sons set up various businesses nearby and when John Watts retired in 1853 the various businesses were consolidated under the name Doulton & Co. The company was first and foremost a manufacturer of industrial ceramics but in the early 1860s they began to manufacture a range of domestic and ornamental salt glazed stoneware that became known as Doulton Ware. This decorative stoneware was produced in association with the Lambeth School of Art and achieved great acclaim in the late 1890s.
Other members of the family enjoyed great success culminating in the award of a Royal Warrant and the right to use "Royal" in the name of its products by King Edward VII in 1901. | |  |
|
 |
| WE'RE BACK AT BAR HILL |
| 25/4/2022 |
| After a meeting today we can confirm that Oxford Archaeology East have allowed us to return to our Wednesday evening meetings at Bar Hill. The first evening will be on 4th May and we will be washing and sorting finds - just like we did all those years ago!! |
|
|
| Revisiting Mash Field, Ickleton |
| 10/4/2022 |
As we had time to spare, we returned to Mash Field where previously we had found pieces of a puddingstone quern and to see if more had appeared. The photograph shows some of the finds from a relatively small area of the field.
Firstly, there were a number of worked flints of different types. Then there were greyware and redware material that could be medieval plus a piece of shell tempered ware that looks a lot older. The lovely piece of Metropolitan slipware showing much more of the slip pattern than we usually see. Finally the interesting glazed redware that looks like a piece of a vessel wall, except for the conical hole which goes through it. Quite what it's purpose was is not obvious - another piece to investigate further.
This field walking brings to an end our springtime season as crops have generally reached the stage where walking is not possible. We will be back in the autumn. | |  |
|
|
| Finishing off the field next to the windmil site at Ickleton |
| 10/4/2022 |
| We finished off the site we started at Ickleton near the M11 motorway. Finds were pretty much like the rest of the field, as shown in the photograph. There were some interesting pieces like the greyware neck of a flagon or something similar. Also Metropolitan slipware and Staffordshire combed ware similar to previous examples. The handle and base of sandy redwares plus the masses of tile fragments (which we left on the field) were also similar to the rest of the field. The stoneware pieces was different and shows part of a raised windmill design, suggesting it might have come from Holland. This will need checking to see if that is the case. | |  |
|
|
| More slow going at Ickleton |
| 27/3/2022 |
Carrying on from last week, the field next door was investigated. This proved hard work due to the lumpy surface and dust which covered the surface and any finds. The finds that were recovered were similar to the previous field - lots of GRE, including several parts of handles (see photo). There was part of a Staffordshire slipware pie crust platter, white glazed ware, stoneware and dozens of pieces of tile (which we mostly left behind on the field). Clay pipe and oyster shell also figured but there were two earlier finds - the Nene Valley colour coat and a piece of shell tempered ware.
There will not be any field walking next Sunday but we hope to take advantage of the Waterbeach Barracks excavation open day. Further field walking will be arranged, if possible, for the 10th April otherwise we have probably reached the end of our Spring season. | |  |
|
|
| Finds from near the Windmill site, Ickleton |
| 20/3/2022 |
| We transferred to a field near the site of an old windmill by the Duxford Road which had been in use up to the early 1900's. This field had the usual surface covered in flints but this time we found no worked flints but a pair of burnt flints (see photo below). This field had far less tile on it but the usual post medieval collection - GRE, Staffordshire slipware etc but also several pieces of Westerwald blue decorated stoneware. A number of pieces of clay pipe were also found (see the photo here). | |  |
|
|
What has been different is the number of probable medieval (and perhaps earlier) finds from this site compared to The Stackyard. This photo shows a few of the pieces, interestingly they include a high number of rims from pots or platters. The medieval finds appear more concentrated close to the old windmill site which was there in the medieval period.
This coming weekend we are going to the field next door so it will be interesting to see if the number and type increases there. | |  |
|
|
| More finds from The Stackyard, Ickleton |
| 23/3/2022 |
The previous post from Ickleton showed the interesting finds, here are some of the ordinary finds from this site. Visible are the post-med stoneware lid and body, some blue and white transfer ware, Staffordshire slipware and GRE (Glazed red earthenware) handle and rims. Also some probable worked flints and medieval pot - in other words a typical find selection for many fields in Cambridgeshire. In a field containing so much flint it is still surprising we did not recover more worked/burnt flints.
The next site is near an old windmill site in Ickleton which may provide some more interesting finds | |  |
|
|
| Not a flint day at Stackyard |
| 13/3/2022 |
| With all the flint on the surface of this field we expected to find lots of worked flints - wrong. There were a few worked flints but the majority of the finds were roof tiles and post medieval pottery. However, there were a few interesting finds as the photograph shows - they represent the little and large of our efforts. The tiny piece is a fragment of Samian pottery - with the Ickleton Roman villa nearby it may not be surprising but this, at first sight, seems to be the only Roman pot we found. The large piece is a two colour (or inlaid or encaustic) floor tile some 24mm thick with faint traces of a glaze. These tiles were commonly used in prestigious buildings during the 12th - 14th C but largely disappeared after the dissolution of the monasteries in 1550 (but enjoyed a Victorian revival). This could well have come from the Priory or a local church. The lack of a full glazed surface suggests this tile might have had a hard life, as seen with other surviving medieval floor tiles. | |  |
|
|
| Back to the chalk hills of Ickleton |
| 10/3/2022 |
The last three weekends have been spent helping our colleagues at HIAG carry out an intensive survey of nearly 100 10 metre squares. This was based on an original field walking exercise that revealed significant amounts of Roman pottery on a reputed Iron Age site at Manor Farm, Impington.
The group of HIAG and CAFG people duly recovered lots of different Roman pottery and possibly some Iron Age shell tempered wares. The majority of finds were, however, lots of glass from jars and glazed white ware pottery - could this be linked to the nearby Chivers factories?
Next weekend we are off to Ickleton to walk a chalk-based site overlooking the M11 which is fairly close to the known Roman villa site there. Our recce showed a field full of flint so the prospects of worked and burnt flint must be quite good, based on our experience on nearby fields. |
|
|
| Happy days in the Fens near Upware |
| 21/11/2021 |
This past weekend members were helping the National Trust to carry out a community event in the Fens near Upware. Together with Oxford Archaeology East we were the experts showing the visitors how to carry out a field walking survey.
We had an enjoyable time with a grey day, a sunny day with short showers (and rainbows as seen in the photo) together with a raw wind. Typical Fen weather for this time of year.
The idea was to walk a peat field and hopefully find some prehistoric flints, just like we did at Oily Hall many years ago. However a quick coring study showed the peat was still quite deep and that ploughing had not reached into the old surface layers. | |  |
|
|
|