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Apologies for the short notice on this one!  We will shortly be doing a talk at Sturton le Steeple Village Hall, looking at a potential archaeological project there.  It's an open talk for anyone who is either local, generally interested, or keen to help out with fieldwork.  No need to book, just come along if you fancy finding out more.
See details below!
 
Sturton - On a Roman Road to Nowhere?
Wednesday 4th July, 7pm at Sturton Village Hall, in the conference room.
 
Myself and my colleague Lorraine will first present a talk on Sturton le Steeple.  This will look at what we know about the development of the village, its possible relationship to the Roman town of Segelocum, and how the area fits in to the national Roman picture.  The aim of the evening is to hopefully get moving on a potential archaeological project in the village, looking for the Roman road and clues to the village's origins.  
 
After the talk we will look at identifying plots of land where people might be happy to have a small test pit, and land which could be field walked or subject to geophysics, or other archaeological investigation.  We will also take down the names of people interested in helping out with any digging or fieldwalking.  
 
Lastly we will be doing our best to identify any finds that people bring along.  We know very little about Sturton and the surrounding area, and hopefully by plotting on a map where people have found different things we can start to build up a proper picture.

This project is part of the Trent Vale Landscape Partnership Project, funded by the Heritgae Lottery Fund.

Excavation Opportunity - Kirkby Hardwick

 

Phase 2 of the excavations at Kirkby Hardwick begin on Wednesday March 21st.  The excavation is looking at the remains of Kirkby Hardwick house, for which the area is named, which dates from the Tudor period and perhaps earlier.  The house was tragically demolished in the 1960's, but some of the foundations and floor levels remain.  The excavation aims to help us understand the building better, from its origins to its development.  You can see photos from the previous phase of excavation on the website under 'See what we do'.  No experience is required; all welcome! 

 

21st to 30th March (excluding weekends) - Main excavation.  This will be the main excavation period to investigate the West Range and its interface with the Tudor wall, and also to try and locate the North Range.

2nd to 5th April - Recording week and backfilling.  No excavation will take place during this week, but we will need help to get all the recording and drawing done. 

 

If you're interested in coming along you must let us know as spaces are limited.  In addition, if you put your name down for every day you may be asked to donate a few days to people who are unable to make every day.  I hope nobody takes offence at this, we just want to provide opportunity for as many people as possible to join in, and don't want to resort to putting hard-and-fast limits on the number of days people can come along for.

 

The dig day runs from 9.30am to 4pm, and we will meet in the Kirkby Hardwick train station car park in the mornings. There are facilities on site including toilets and hot water, and the parking at the station is free.  Please let us know if you would like to book a space.

We are running a geophysical survey training week at Willoughby Deserted Medieval Village (DMV) by Norwell, from the 27th of February to the 2nd March- there is a possibility of Saturday the 3rd of March, but that will be confirmed one way or the other shortly.

Please get in touch if you wish to attend any of the days mentioned. Places are fairly limited due to the amount equipment- so booking is essential.

The training is the first session in fieldwork being offered as part of the Community Archaeology handbook, so people attending would be encouraged to share their experiences with us in some way so that we can begin work on that chapter.

The survey is being undertaken by Peter Masters of Cranfield University, as part of Trent Vale. As well as leading the survey he will be contributing the professional’s element of the chapter.

This is a great opportunity to gain an insight into using the equipment, the logistics of fieldwork and the standards and guidance of the profession- as well as being immense fun!!!

The geophysics follows on from the topographic survey undertaken by the Community Archaeologists a few years ago which can be found here (see Willoughby Deserted Medieval Village).  It will hopefully provide us with some answers – and further questions regarding this fascinating site.

The site is located a few miles north of the village of Norwell on the side of the road to Carlton on Trent.

More information when you book a place.

Many other opportunities to get involved will also be coming soon with survey training, test-pitting, field walking and excavation all planned for the next few months.

Please let us know if you wish to attend the geophysics in February.

Fieldwork

We're working on arranging a number of upcoming activities, including graveyard survey days, riverbank audits, and oodles of excavation.  We're not ready to confirm dates yet, but we should be returning to Kirkby Hardwick tudor remains for a second phase of excavation in March, so watch this space!  We will also be returning to Mons Pool excavation near Collingham in August.  Visit the 'See what we do' section of the website if you want to see pictures from previous excavations.

 

Archaeology Handbook

One of the big projects for this year is to produce a handbook on archaeology for community groups, which will be written by professionals and amateurs working together.  We had a couple of introductory workshops that people came along to and helped form ideas.  I want to say a massive 'thankyou' to all who attended; it was really useful for us and we think we have a better idea of how the handbook needs to develop. 

 

Don't worry if you weren't able to make it as there will be plenty of opportunities for people to get involved in writing pieces for it.

 

Time Travel Trent Vale

This event will be returning to Newark Castle for the 3rd year.  It will take place on Saturday 28th July, and will hopefully be bigger and better than ever.  We will be looking for volunteer stewards once again, but we will email about that closer to the time.  Time Travel Trent Vale also has a facebook page, so you can follow developments there.

 

We hope to see you soon!