| AGM 2019 |
The AGM on 3rd April 2019 resolved to retain subscriptions for 2019/20 at £12 for individual membership and £18 for families.
Mike Coles has taken over the role of field officer, but as co-ordinator only: members are encouraged to search out fieldwalking sites. Other officers and committee remain unchanged, Terry Dymott becoming an ordinary committee member. |
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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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| Another interesting find from Comberton |
| 8/5/2019 |
| The find from Comberton shown in the upper photograph is a piece from a German saltglazed stoneware jug, probably of bulbous form. It is part of a large medallion that would have a crown with bird 'supporters' above a GR cypher washed in blue with a winged cherub beneath. It was made in the Westerwald region of Germany, circa 1715 - 1725. An example of a complete piece is shown in the second photograph.
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| This example of a GR jug dates from the reign of George I of England. The jug has a large medallion on the front flanked by sinuous scrolling foliage on either side. A blackberry wash on the neck with the cobalt colouring of the foliage and the GR cypher. These early jugs were exported in great numbers from Germany to England following the crowning of the first Hanoverians as Kings of England.
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| The walking's over, now the analysis begins |
| 14/4/2019 |
Now that walking is over we have time to look more closely at some of our finds.
The recent walk at Comberton produced a part of a clay pipe bowl which, unusually for Cambridgeshire, had some relief initials on the foot (see photograph courtesy of Stephen Read). The initials are fairly worn but look like I and S and it may be possible to determine the date and its maker (the first name initial is always on the left hand side of the bowl when looked at as if you were smoking the pipe). The stem bore is 6 - 7/64ths and the style is similar to Oswald Type 12.
Now comes the interesting bit - the pipe style and stem bore suggest a pipe from the middle of the 18th C. The maker is more difficult because the letter I was often used for a J on pipes, so John and James often appear as an I (so James Knight = I K). Looking at lists of Cambridge pipe makers, most likely ones date to the mid to late 19th C which is at odds to the style. However, Cessford lists a John Sibley (1752 - 59) and John Saunders (1745). It is not clear that either used initials on their pipes so we cannot be sure who actually made this pipe. It may also be an import from other counties or London (where Oswald lists a number of possible candidates for this period). Clay pipes did not generally travel far from their maker' premises so Sibley or Saunders are still the most likely. | | |
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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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