| Events have not turned out well recently. |
| 7/12/2023 |
| Our field walking at Eltisley has not produced great results over the last few weeks. Apart from a Sunday cancelled due to the forecast weather, i.e. rain (which duly arrived) we have recovered very few finds from the latest field. There is a thin scatter of medieval pottery which is probably due to manuring or something similar. Let us hope the weather holds off this coming Sunday at a new field but please check before setting out if in any doubt. |
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| Autumn CAS conference takes place |
| 18/11/2023 |
| Last Saturday saw the CAS Autumn conference on local archaeology take place at the Law Faculty. The program started with some interesting insights into our local museums and how they function, especially the mammoth task of managing their accessioned material. The logic of upcoming changes to the Portable Antiquities Scheme were then covered, let's hope the metal detectorists understand the distinction between what is treasure and what isn't!! The final sessions covered local archaeological digs and the benefits of large scale excavation (unfortunately beyond the means of groups like CAFG). Local groups had exhibitions of their recent work, the photograph showing the CAFG entry. This was based on the work at Wimpole's parterre gardens and the groups posters at the Sir Cyril Fox exhibition at Magdalene College (open to the public until the 15th December) | |  |
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| Into the mud at Eltisley |
| 12/11/2023 |
Moving east from last week, we entered Field 4564 - and a very muddy field compared to last week. As the photograph shows, there were very few finds. In fact the photo shows ALL of the finds!! They were obviously very tidy people in Eltisley
There were several pieces of medieval pottery, a few post med pot and some metal finds. We will carry on next time to complete the field but the likelihood of lots of finds seems quite small - at least we get some welcome exercise. | |  |
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| Finishing off the big field at Eltisley |
| 8/11/2023 |
| Although there had been lots of recent rain, the field was soft but walkable (although some patches were quite soggy). The photograph shows some of the few finds from the south end of the field. There were only 20 bags collected and there was a noticeable shortage of brick and tile on this field compared to what we usually find. There were a couple of of pieces of medieval-looking pot and several oyster shells suggesting an early activity on this area. A few post med pieces completed our meagre return. | |  |
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| Storm Babet causes disruption to our plans |
| 22/10/2023 |
Storm Babet left fields in our area very waterlogged and consequently we decided to abandon our proposed walk at Eltisley this weekend.
We are also not walking on 29th because of various other activities - some members are excavating test pits at Reach Hythe while others are going on a flint knapping course. Let's hope we are good to go on 5th November. |
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| A return to Eltisley on a big field |
| 17/10/2023 |
In fine weather we returned to Eltisley on Field 8283 which lies to the east of Eltisley Wood and which we half completed. We had fewer finds bags than at Childerley but possibly more medieval pottery than anything else. There were possible flints - a core and a blade. The usual post medieval wares were also present - blue and white transfer ware, stoneware, Stafford combed ware and the inevitable glazed redwares - but in much lower numbers than usual.
We are returning this coming weekend, weather permitting, to finish this large field. | |  |
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| Our second weekend fieldwalking |
| 2/10/2023 |
On the second weekend of the Autumn 2023 field walking season we returned to Childerley. Harrolds Park lies next to the main house and so we were expecting to find medieval pottery. This we did, as the photo shows – grey wares, shell-tempered and red sandy wares in small numbers. There was, of course, post medieval finds including a glazed floor tile and part of a Bellarmine jug. However surprising finds were the two intact clay pipe bowls – undecorated of course, this is Cambridgeshire after all. These are normally fragile and break very easily.
This leaves just one small field left on the Childerley Estate that we have yet to walk, hopefully this
year. | |  |
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| More finds from Wimpole excavations |
| 1/9/2023 |
Our finds investigation has recently been concerned with the large number of oyster shells recovered from a number of trenches, but especially Trench 5. In the black layer nearly 150 upper oyster shells were recovered from one bag alone, plus numbers of the lower shell.
Some interesting shells are like the one shown here in the photograph - it shows two juvenile shells attached to the upper of a mature oyster. According to work by Jessica Winder in 2011 this is not that unusual. Using her guide to processing oyster shells we will attempt to analyse these finds. | |  |
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