| AGM 2021 |
| 2nd June |
The AGM, held via Zoom, retained subscriptions at £12 for individuals, £18 for families. Committee members remain as before, with the addition of Susanne Thompson, John Waterhouse having taken on the role of treasurer following the sad death of Dudley Pusey in 2019.
The AGM resolved to amend the Group's constitution to restrict membership to those aged 18 or over. The amended constitution and other affected documents will be available on the website shortly. Members may bring their under-18 children to Group activities as long as they remain responsible for them. |
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| Field walking again, at last |
| 12/09/2021 |
This weekend past we had the opportunity of doing some field walking on the Wimpole Estate, work associated with the on-going tree-planting exercise. Walking on the rough ploughed field made one's legs ache - how quickly one loses your fitness!!
The photograph shows a selection of the finds - mostly post-medieval. The neck of a stoneware cider demijohn, various coloured transfer printed wares and a stoneware ink bottle. Also clay pipes, one bowl with a horseshoe symbol and a stem with initials (TC or perhaps TO - more investigation required). However, there were also a number of very abraded medieval redware fragments plus a very unusual find on the right of the photo - the carved bone. This has a tapered section with a series of concentric lines around the circumference - could it be a bung. More investigation required here. Still it was good to see so many people out enjoying themselves, we look forward to the next opportunity. | |  |
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| A busy day at the Ickleton excavation |
| 26/08/2021 |
| As the photograph shows, it was a busy day at our Ickleton dig. Work continues apace, with the western end of the trench now confirmed as being down to the natural gravel base. Elsewhere, we are still removing successive layers of cobbles and discovered another potential post hole, smaller than our first one. In the meantime the sections of the western end have been photographed and drawn. This leaves us with the final work on the eastern end and then lots of drawing of sections and a plan. Hopefully we might finish by Saturday!! | |  |
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| Finds processing of Ickleton finds 2021 |
| 12/08/2021 |
Finds processing of pottery finds from Ickleton have revealed a wide range of types, from shell tempered early material, through early medieval glazed wares and some Tudor green glazed material.
There were many pieces of fire-blackened pottery of a thin wall and unglazed. Some of the rims have angled slashed decoration on a band of raised material while others have finger impressions on the shoulder of the pot. The amount of pottery began to diminish the further down the sequence we went so our next excavation work at the end of August may well be down to natural relatively quickly. | |  |
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| Excavation at Ickleton Abbey Farm |
| 05/08/2021 |
| We finished our planned excavation in July without completing the tasks we had set ourselves therefore we intend to return there on Monday 23rd August and hope to finish by Sunday 29th August. We have removed most of the flint surface and hope to get down to the natural levels in this period. |
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| Planned excavation at Ickleton Abbey Farm is underway |
| 21/7/2021 |
| After four days of working in the sweltering heat at Ickleton, we are slowly making progress through the flint layers. The photo shows some lava quernstone pieces which came out today, four pieces in total. We continue to find pieces of tile, occasional nails, bones and some medieval pottery - in other words a repeat of last year. We have uncovered a post hole or pit which contained a piece of clay pipe stem with a 8/64ths inch diameter hole. This could suggest a mid 17th C date but also post - 1800 according to Flood. The burnished surface could suggest the latter date period. | |  |
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| Planned excavation at Ickleton Abbey Farm |
| 29/6/2021 |
| Although there still exists a possibility that Covid restrictions may still apply, we are planning to go ahead with our continuing excavation at the Abbey site in Ickleton. The planned dates are Saturday 17th July through to Sunday 25th July. As we intend to complete this excavation in this session, the finish date may be extended to permit final steps to be taken. There is the intention to hold an information day for local inhabitants and other interested parties on Saturday 24th July. |
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| Final days at Childerley |
| 9/5/2021 |
With no more immediate targets at Wimpole we returned to Childerley in the north-west corner of the estate. This was the last field, White Pits, that we needed to walk in order to have walked all the arable fields on the estate.
The weather conditions were fine, the ground conditions good - the only thing missing were the finds!! Most of the finds were heavily abraded glazed redwares, with a smattering of other post-medieval wares. There were three pieces of possible medieval ware which came from an area near an electricity pylon. This was interesting because they came from spoil probably generated when the pylon was built. Could this hint at finds being below the immediate plough soil? We know from previous examples, Lamp Hill at Wimpole, that field walking does not produce evidence when that evidence is below the plough soil horizon. | |  |
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| More walking at a very dry Wimpole |
| 25/4/2021 |
| After our enjoyable first walking day, it was back to Wimpole again on another field that has had geophys carried out on it. Kittsfour field is quite small but the geophys showed a few interesting signs which needed walking to confirm what date they were likely to be. The photograph shows most of the interesting finds. There were plenty of clay pipe, stoneware, glazed redwares and transfer printed pottery and modern brick & tile - suggesting no old settlement. However there were a few flint flakes, a very small horseshoe (or is it reinforcing for a boot?) and some pottery like the grey and red rims that hint at more ancient times. However, the quantity was very small which does suggest no site existed on this field and the geophys probably represents ditches or boundaries of fields. | |  |
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| Field walking returns - at least for the present |
| 18/4/2021 |
What a relief to be out field walking again, taking all the COVID precautions, of course. The weather was lovely and sunny, slightly cool as one expects in the spring. However, the recent lack of rain meant the ground has become rock hard - how times change. The field in the north west of the Wimpole Estate that we walked is due to be planted with trees so our exercise was to see whether there were any signs of archaeological value below ground.
The answer was probably none!! Finds were few and far between as the photo shows about a third of the total finds. The field is quite flinty so no surprise we found a couple of worked blades. There were a three probable early pieces of pottery plus several post medieval finds of red glazed ware and a stoneware rim.
However, the joy of good company, fresh air and exercise did us all a power of good - here's looking forward to the next walking before the crops render walking impossible. | |  |
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| Result of more Ickleton finds processing |
| 10/3/2021 |
One thing about a lockdown is there is plenty of time to carry out work delayed from previous events. The photograph shows the latest reconstruction of a piece of Staffordshire ware. Originally some was recovered during our 2019 excavation and shown in previous web pages. Then 2020 produced more of what looked like a similar vessel, also shown previously. The photograph shows the result of combining the 2019 and 2020 finds which enabled us to size the object much better. This shows the item was a 12 inch diameter platter of which we have about one third.
Interestingly it also shows how, on this platter, the zigzag design varies across the surface, on one side you have neat zigzags and on the other some really blurred and wide lines. This contrasts with many online pictures of Staffordshire ware that show a much superior neat pattern across the whole platter - was our one a reject possibly sold at a lower price or did they do economy versions even then? | |  |
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| More on millstones |
| 19/8/2020 |
A request for more information about quernstones, as a result of someone reading our article, led to more research on the use of millstones. We often think of them as only milling grain but in fact more applications were used for millstone grit ones, especially after French burrstones took over bread milling.
The photo shows one other use, that is milling (or pulping) apples for cider making (from Jersey). This shows a millstone being used on its edge, unlike the flat horizontal stones used for milling grain.
Other uses included pulping wood chippings for paper manufacture, with Canada and Scandinavia being big markets for millstone grit stones. In fact the last of these was shipped to Norway in the 1960's. Malt was also milled for beer manufacture and bark for tanning. Ores and pigments are also mentioned as being crushed using millstones. Of local interest is the fact that Kings Lynn was a major export port for millstone grit mill stones. | |  |
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