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

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

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

The Peel Building, University of Salford Saturday saw the 9th Manchester Archaeology Day – and this was an excellent chance to catch up with some of the work that has been happening in and around the city over the last  year. The venue was generously provided by the University of Salford and it was no surprise to see the theatre full again. The day began with a welcome by our host Prof. Judith Smith of the School of Environment & Life Sciences, who was warm and generous in he

It has been really busy of late, but we thought we’d share with you the fantastic time we had with the children of Class 5 at Taxal & Fernilee Primary School in Whaley Bridge. We’d been invited by their teacher Mr Darley to do a workshop as part of the children’s history theme  – Ancient Mesopotamia. They had been reading the fantastic Varjak Paw books which had given them quite a bit of background information on Ancient Mesopotamia, and Mr Darley told us they were really exc

Back in June we visited Anglesey with our children to see some of the archaeology of the island. Our weekend was packed full of archaeology from the Neolithic tomb of Bryn Celli Dhu to church graveyards. Well now we’ve heard of a really exciting discovery of an extensive Neolithic site at Llanfaethlu on the western side of the island. The site emerged as work was being carried out prior to the building of a new school and it has become one of the most important Neolithic site

Last week the BBC aired the latest documentary in the Horizon franchise – First Britons. Since then there has been a lot of to-ing and fro-ing in discussion groups such as Britarch – a discussion list moderated by the CBA – and it has been interesting to see some of the points raised by the discussants – it has even moved on to include the Celts! For those of you who haven’t seen it, it is essentially an update of the work that has been carried out by archaeologists and scien

Well its been another busy week here at Enrichment with KS2 workshops in Halifax and more locally – at the school where three of my lovely children go, and there was no favouritism asked for or given before you ask! My first workshop was at Christ Church CofE Junior School in Sowerby Bridge, W Yorks. As part of their ‘History Week’ I was asked to deliver a full day of activities for the whole school, which included excavation workshops with me and a range of teacher-led activ

Hey, we couldn’t resist this one – a school in Reading has come up trumps – a hoard of Roman coins has been discovered in its grounds! Roman coins shown here in situ – the scale is 30 cm. Courtesy of Reading Borough Council. Excavated Roman coins. Once excavated they will be sent for conservation and then to Reading Museum. Courtesy of Reading Borough Council. The Ridgeway Primary School are the lucky school in question. As part of development work at the school, archaeologis

I was privileged enough to be invited to take part in the Year 9 Classics Day at Loughborough High School. Designed to encourage the girls to think about the relevance of Classics beyond the classroom and to try to promote the three Classical subjects (Latin, Greek, Classical Civilisation) that they offer at GCSE, the day involved a number of workshops focusing on different ways of engaging with the Classical World. Alongside in-house workshops and one delivered by Sonya Nevi

What a wonderful day we had in Cheshire! Armed with our trenches, tools and artefacts, Dr Ian Parker Heath (trusty archaeologist husband and colleague) and I, made our acquaintance with Lower KS 2 at Offley Primary School in Sandbach. We explored prehistory from the Palaeolithic to the coming of the Romans, covering what the new primary history curriculum calls ‘Changes in Britain from the Stone Age to the Iron Age’. After ‘training’ to get the children thinking like archaeol

After delivering a workshop covering the Stone Age to Iron Age to Y4s at St Andrews CE Primary School in Levenshulme in October, the beginning of 2015 saw me returning to delve deeper into the Stone Age with Y3s. The second visit saw me ensconced in a brand new ‘dance studio’, which proved to be the perfect place for our excavations of the Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic. Animal bones, charcoal, waste flakes and artefacts of each period (with ‘toolkits’ provided by the

Y3s at Aughton St Michaels CE Primary School in Ormskirk became archaeologists for the morning when they excavated artefacts from the Stone Age. Over three hours, the children were ‘trained’ to become archaeologists, to think like archaeologists and to understand how we excavate. Armed with these skills, they dug up objects from the Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic and analysed what they had found, thinking about what objects can tell us about how people lived in the pa

I love delivering Archaeology Days, because Archaeology Days allow time for me to really develop children’s interest and enable them to progress from one activity to another. Hopefully, by the end of the day they leave for home with a good grasp of what archaeology is, what it sets out to achieve and some information about the period they are studying, as well as smiling faces at a day well spent! One such day was had at Garstang Community Primary School in Lancashire, when w

After being invited back for the third year in a row, we are top news story on the Derby High School Website! Read all about it! http://www.derbyhigh.derby.sch.uk/ #workshop #excavation #school #KS3amp4 #artefact #stratigraphy #education #Archaeology #timeline #dig

Last Thursday, I returned to the Croft Primary School in Rugeley, Staffordshire, to deliver a workshop to Y5 to support the teaching of their ‘Treasure Island’ topic. Being only a few miles away from where the Staffordshire Hoard was found, meant that a focus on the Anglo-Saxons was perfect for this occasion. After considering what ‘treasure’ is, and discussing how even the most seemingly insignificant objects can be treasure for archaeologists, the children were ‘trained’ in

I’m pleased to announce that over the past few weeks I have delivered my first archaeology workshops relating directly to the new primary history curriculum – namely “changes in Britain from the Stone Age to the Iron Age” a.k.a. prehistory. Two of these covered the whole of prehistory – an overview from the Palaeolithic to the end of the Iron Age – one over a whole day, the other over an afternoon. That was some feat I can tell you! Of course, we couldn’t cover everything in

For the first time since the National Curriculum was put in place, prehistory is now part of the Primary History Curriculum.  Of course, for us archaeologists this is good news; it is something for which the Council for British Archaeology (CBA) has been campaigning for years. Recently, a group of like-minded archaeologists and educators met at The Hive in Worcester, to discuss how best we might be able to support teachers in an area of the curriculum they may never have taug

It was up to County Durham that I travelled last week, to meet the time detectives of The Links Primary School in Stockton-on-Tees, and what fantastic time detectives they were! I really love what I do and to hear the comments from the teachers that suggest they and their pupils love it as much as I do – well, there’s nothing better! This is what Miss Daly, one of the teachers involved, wrote to me regarding the presentation of the workshop: “Children warmed to you straight a

I had a brilliant time recently at St John’s Primary School in Sandbach Heath.  I was thrilled by the sea of eager faces grinning up at me as I explained how archaeology was “rubbish” and demonstrated how archaeologists excavate artefacts. I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again, but I am repeatedly amazed at how children as young as 5 and 6 years old can engage with the subject of archaeology and contribute so thoughtfully to the workshops. I could tell you all about it