We’ve had occasional posts here about looking at Archaeology and history where you live. We may well be many weeks into the lockdown with Coronavirus but it hasn’t stopped us thinking about and working on Archaeology. Now, we’ve stayed at home and thought how could we tell you about the Archaeology of where you live? The answer was, by telling you something of the Archaeology of where we live! We live in a small parish just outside Buxton, in the Peak District of Derbyshire.

Hi, Well we’re in to week 9 of lockdown life here. Of course as soon as the word came, we couldn’t work in schools, or with vulnerable people. We were due to take part in a community excavation next month, but because of the risks posed, we couldn’t proceed. So that has now been postponed until next year. We’ve looked at how everyone is responding to ever changing situation and it looks to us as if people in general and schools in particular are cautious about re-opening, and

Last week saw the latest episode of BBC 4’s Digging for Britain. If you missed it, then you missed out on seeing what could prove to be the discovery of a lifetime for many, if not all the Archaeologists involved in  the project. The site is near Woodbridge, a small coastal town in Suffolk. In what began as a seemingly straightforward infrastructure project, a geophysical survey showed something of interest. What emerged from the initial excavations was a large ditch, some 15

As you’ll know, Stonehenge didn’t exist in splendid isolation but was part of an extraordinary complex of monuments ranging in size from just a few posts in the ground to a ‘super-henge’ 500m in diameter. This workshop introduces Key Stage 2 children to some of the key monuments including Stonehenge itself. Among the monuments we explore are Durrington Walls, the Greater Cursus and Amesbury 42 long barrow. These date to the Neolithic period and I was fortunate to be part of t

Welcome to the first of our new occasional blogs “What’s in your parish?” in which we’ll take a look at what archaeology can be, or has been found in parishes around our region. We’ll focus on Derbyshire initially as that’s where we’re based, but will spread our wings as time goes on. We floated the idea with schools in the county and asked for suggestions for parishes to include. The first parish to get in touch was Ockbrook, near Derby, so here goes with just some of the ar

Staffordshire History Day 2017 It seems that most weeks there’s a conference, meeting or seminar I’d like to go to. Why? Well they are either out of personal interest or its relevant to Enrichment’s work. This week it was Staffordshire History Day.  The event was held at the Riverway Centre in Stafford and I was accompanied by Elspeth Walker from Peeling back the Layers as we had a stand to display what the project had been up to over the past two years. There was a good rang

On our journey to Yate last week we made the effort to visit the hamlet of Hawkesbury, which was just a short journey from our B’n’B on Hawkesbury Common. It was late evening when we got there but we were glad we did. Why visit there, well here are a couple of reasons. The Parish of Hawkesbury The parish of Hawkesbury has a long history. The parish as it is known today dates from the time of the Norman conquest and there is a really useful website provided by Hawkesbury Local

Catherine and Hetty Pegler’s Tump This week we travelled to Gloucestershire to do a workshop in Yate. We took this opportunity to visit one of what we think is one of the best named archaeological sites in Britain – Hetty Pegler’s Tump. It has been on the list of places to visit since I first heard of it back in the 1990’s.  So, how did it get that name and what exactly is Hetty Pegler’s Tump? So what’s in a name? The short answers are firstly, that Hetty Pegler’s Tump named

Large upright stones (orthostats) forming part of a linear feature at Gardom’s edge near Baslow. Yes, it’s that time of year again already. On Saturday I made the annual pilgrimage to the Pomegranate Theatre in Chesterfield home of Derbyshire Archaeology Day for a number of years now. This year I had an extra reason for attending . . . I was giving a presentation on the work we’ve been doing at Peeling back the Layers. More of that later. As ever there was an eclectic mix of

Discussions start on some of the results of excavations by local societies. Last Saturday saw me in Salford, in the Grade II listed Peel Building of the University to be exact, for this year’s Greater Manchester Archaeology Day. The day’s programme looked to have something of interest for everyone, and so it proved. First up was Barney Devine of Battles Bricks and Bridges an award winning project from Co Fermanagh in Ulster. Not very Manchester I hear you say! Perhaps not, bu

Paperwork! One of the teachers getting to grips with it! What a busy week we’ve had as we started work in earnest on Peeling Back The Layers at Under Whitle near the village of Sheen in northeast Staffordshire. If you are new to our site, we are part of a community archaeology project which is exploring the history and archaeology of a small farm, and the link will lead you to the project’s background. Monday and Tuesday saw us getting volunteers and teachers together to intr

Catherine talking to Eileen Parker, one of the archaeologists on the project. Catherine and I had a little road trip this week when we visited some excavations taking place in Derbyshire. First up was a visit to this year’s fieldwork at Castleton, where a team from Castleton Historical Society and students from the University of Sheffield have been busy uncovering more of the history of the village. Much of the work has been focussed on the search for the medieval hospital of

As some of you might know, Catherine and I are working closely with a local group who are exploring the history and archaeology of a small farmstead. The project is called Peeling Back the Layers and you can read our earlier post here. The next major step is excavation, and although we are not lifting any turf until June 20th, now is the time when we have to think seriously about where we want to excavate and why. The historical records refer to this field as Whitle Bank, alt

You know you’re getting close when you see the sign! Last week I was despatched on a mission – to see how Trent & Peak Archaeology had been getting on with the excavations they were undertaking as part of the Our River, Our City project in Derby. The project is a major redevelopment of the city’s flood defences and centres around the River Derwent in the Darley Abbey and Chester Green areas of the city. Needless to say it is having an impact on some of the archaeology. Cheste

Back in December I visited the excavations at a site called Must Farm near Peterborough. It is a fantastically preserved Bronze Age house and associated structures, including at least a walkway and a palisade. Since then there have been more exciting finds that have added to our understanding of life at the site when it was occupied. Just to recap: the site was discovered sticking out the edge of a quarry in 1999 and it is sad to say that as the site is situated on the edge o

St Peter’s, Titchfield, Hampshire. Churches are just one of our ritual sites. To paraphrase that Fast Show character “Aren’t churches great?” As sites of the social history of any given parish they are probably second to none. They hold registers of the key changes in most of our lives – births, deaths and marriages. Each of these is accompanied by a ritual, so when archaeologists refer to a site being ‘ritual’ they are thinking about this sort of activity.  So, through these

Members of the 2009 Stonehenge Riverside Project photographing the joints on the top of one of the uprights. Once again the nation’s favourite prehistoric monument features on TV with the Timewatch documentary that considers the many, and it must be said varied, interpretations of the site. I think I might be right in thinking this is a repeat, but nonetheless it is always worth reminding ourselves of just what we think it might be all about. Over the years there have been a

Assembling for the day! A full house anticipated. Saturday 9th January saw the 25th Derbyshire Archaeology Day unfurl its wings at its now traditional home of the Pomegranate Theatre, Chesterfield. Derbyshire Archaeology Day is a chance for many of us interested in archaeology and heritage, both professional and amateur, to catch up on events, projects and of course excavations over the preceding year, but it was a day tinged with sadness as the recent death of a long-time su

The arrival of 2016 has brought more archaeology programmes to our television screens with two new series airing this week. The BBC brings us Immortal Egypt and Channel 5 10,000 BC: Two Tribes. The BBC’s Immortal Egypt is a 4 part series written and presented by Prof. Joann Fletcher of the University of York and is shown on BBC2, one of the corporation’s mainstream channels. It is ‘a history’ of the culture of Ancient Egypt, and that is what it began to show us last night. Th

Last week I have the opportunity of visiting Must Farm,  a Bronze Age settlement site, with members of the Prehistoric Society. Right off, I have to say this was a fantastic site in many ways, and that the work being undertaken by the Cambridge Archaeology Unit with the support of Historic England and the landowner Forterra is exemplary. There was so much to see and we had Mark Knight of the Cambridge Unit to act as our guide. The story of Must Farm has emerged through a seri