Here are a selection of some of the past events and workshops wehave ran for the public.

Family Archaeology Days, Rufford Country Park

Family Arcaheology days are incredibly popular with children, and parents alike.

Activities include

• Cave Painting,
• Prehistoric Rock Art,
• Brass Rubbing,
• Mosaic Making,
• Skeleton reconstruction,
• Wordsearches,
• Pottery reconstruction
• Calligraphy
• & Medieval Tile making

Knap Happy Flint Workshop

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Flint Knapper Karl Lee gave a demonstration of flint knapping, and talked about technological developments through history. Karl amazed onlookers by creating a Bronze Age Barbed and Tanged Arrowhead, and then a Beaker dagger, also from the Bronze Age. The workshop was very popular, and will hopefully become a regular feature.

Bright Sparks Fire Making Workshop.

Rufford Country Park.

This workshop was part of the country parks event listings, and was attended by 16 members of the public. The workshop was attended by people of all ages, and everyone found the workshop educational and a lot of fun.

Andy Gaunt of Nottinghamshire Communtiy Archaeology gave a talk about the history of fire lighting, and the archaeological evidence for it, also different types of natural fire lighting techniques, including the bow-drill ,and flint and steel. They saw a reconstruction of a Neolithic (New Stone Age) fire lighting kit, and were also shown types of tinder and how many plants can be used to create fire.

There then followed a demonstration of fire lighting, after which everyone got to have a go themselves, with all present managing to blow a flame from a ball of tinder.

This workshop will be available again shortly.

Prehistoric Pottery Workshop.

Rufford Country Park.

This workshop was also a country parks event, and was attended by members of the public. The workshop was led by Emily Gillott of Nottinghamshire Community Archaeology, and discussed the nature of clay and ceramics, the history of ceramics and the archaeological evidence which survives. A practical demonstration then followed in how prehistoric pottery was made, and artefacts from the Bronze Age and Iron Age in Nottinghamshire were shown.

Everyone attending then spent the remainder of the session creating pots of their own, which they could take home.

Everyone commented on how informative and enjoyable the workshop was.

This workshop will be availble again shortly.

From Sting to String, Nettles Workshop

Rufford Country Park.

A country parks event, this workshop was attended by members of the public of all ages. The workshop started with a talk by Emily Gillott of Nottinghamshire Community Arcaheology, about the nature and historic uses of nettles.

There then followed a demonstration by Andy Gaunt of Nottinghamshire Community Archaeology, of how to make string from nettles.

Everyone then collected nettles for themselves and made string, plaits and bracelets to take home.

Nettle tea was also available for the brave to try.

Sting to String, Nettles Workshop

This was a special Nettles Workshop, put on for Skill Force of Bassetlaw, www.skillforce.org. The workshop was a rewarding and successful experience with many bracelets and cords being made.

Many of the pupils also enjoyed nettle tea.

This is hopefully the first of many such workshops together.

Bright Sparks Fire Making Workshop

Rufford Country Park

This was the first Bright Sparks workshop to be attended by the public, as part of the country parks events listing. The workshop was a sell out, with 16 people in attendance. The workshop began with a talk about the history of fire lighting, archaeological evidence, and the methods of historic fire lighting and plants that can be used in fire making. As part of the talk demonstrations were given in the use of the bow-drill, and the flint and steel.

Everyone then collected tinder and had a go at making fire.

Prehistoric Pottery workshop

Rufford Country Park

This workshop was part of the country Parks events calendar, and was attended by members of the public. A talk was given by Emily Gillott of Notinghamshire Community Archaeology, about the history and development of ceramics, the archaeological evdience, and nature of clay. The attendees then had the chance to make their own pot, with some excellent results.

Mansfield Woodhouse Archaeology days

Children enjoyed a number of events over three days during the summe holidays, ran by NOttinghamshire Community Archaeology.

Events were based around ancient Egypt and Rome,and included mosaic making, and pottery reconstruction. There was also a cardboard stonehenge recreation.

Family Archaeology Day

Sherwood Forest National Nature Reserve.

The ever popular Family Archaeology Day at Sherwood Forest National Nautre Reserve, enabled visitors to have a go at Archaeology whilst enjoying the country park.

In between visiting the Major Oak and searching for Robin Hood, children and families were able to try the Archaeology challenge and paint Mediaeval style clay tiles, recontruct broken pottery, dig for artefacts, wash finds, and record their location,

They could also colour in copies of stained glass windows and have a go at calligraphy.

All participants completing three of the free activities received a certificate and a NCA badge.

Bright Sparks Fire Making Workshop

Sherwood Forest National Nature Reserve.

This firelighting workshop was part of National Archaeology week and was attended by the public.

Visitors learned about the history of fire lighting, the archaeological evidence, different plants and tinder used, and the different historical methods.

Demonstrations of the flint and steel, and bow-drill, were folowed by everyone having a go themselves.

Mediaeval Stone Masonry Lecture

Sherwood Forest National Nature Reserve.

James Wright, Archaeology and Historic Bulidings Assistant at Nottinghamshire County Council gave a lecture about Mediaeval stone masonry, as pat of National Archaeology week.

The history of stone masonry, the methods of quarrying and carving stone, and the styles of buildings through time were all discussed in this popular and intresting lecture.

The Development of Glass, Lecture

Sherwood Forest National Nature Reserve.

Emily Gillot of Nottinghamshire Community Archaeology, gave an intresting lecture on the development of glass.

The nature and compostion of glass, the historic development of glass, the archaeological evidence and exampleartefacts all formed part of this lecture, which was open to the public as part of National Archaeology week.

Prehistoric Pottery Workshop

Sherwood Forest National Nature Reserve.

This workshop was part of the National Arcaheolgy week events, and was attended by members of the public. A talk was given by Emily Gillott of Notinghamshire Community Archaeology, about the history and development of ceramics, the archaeological evdience, and nature of clay. The attendees then had the chance to make their own pot, with some excellent results.

From Sting to String, Nettles Workshop

Rufford Country Park.

This workshop was for Nottinghamshire Community Archaeology volunteers, and was well attended.

Visitors learned about the nature and historic uses of Nettles, before a demonstration showed them how to make string from nettles.

Nettle tea was available to drink, and home made Nettle omlette was eaten by the brave.

Everybody went home having made a large amount of string.

To enlist as a volunter, or for more information please visit our getting involved page

Remote Sensing Lecture

Sherwood Forest National Nature Reserve.

Emily Gillot gave a lecture on Remote Sensing technology and its uses in modern archaeology and landscape studies.

This event was for the Nottinghamshire Community Archaeology volunteers.

To enlist as a volunter, or for more information please visit our getting involved page

Prehistoric Breadmaking Workshop

Rufford Country Park.

Nottinghamshire Community Archaeolgy volunteers, learnt about prehistoric Breadmaking from Emily Gillot.

The workshop included grinding corn on a reconstructed Iron Age Quern stone, and using authentic ingraedients, everyone made bread and cooked it over an open fire.

To enlist as a volunter, or for more information please visit our getting involved page

Bright Sparks Fire Making Workshop

Rufford Country Park.

This fire making workshop was for the Newark Young Archaeology Club.

Once again everyone learnt about fire lighting history and archaeology, plants and tinder, aswell as demonstration of fire lighting technologies.

All the Young Archaeologist then made fire.

Bright Sparks Fire Making Workshop

Rufford Country Park.

This event was for Nottinghamshire Community Archaeology volunteers.

Andy Gaunt of Nottinghamshire Communtiy Archaeology gave a talk about the history of fire lighting, and the archaeological evidence for it, also different types of natural fire lighting techniques, including the bow-drill ,and flint and steel.

A reconstruction of a Neolithic (New Stone Age) fire lighting kit, was shown, along with types of tinder and how many plants can be used to create fire.

There then followed a demonstration of fire lighting, after which everyone got to have a go themselves, with everyonet managing to blow a flame from a ball of tinder.

To enlist as a volunter, or for more information please visit our getting involved page