REVIEW BY KK
Encapsulated within this volume are the published proceedings of the conference held in 2020 to mark the 25th anniversary of the Sedgeford Historical and Archaeological Research Project (SHARP) – but it is so much more than a collection of academic papers. Eloquently and engagingly written, the introduction by Richard Hoggett not only tells the history of SHARP, along with laying the foundations for the subsequent papers, but also serves as a poignant memorial to Neil – the founder of the project (and a former editor of CA) who sadly died before this volume was published – highlighting the impact he, and SHARP, had on so many budding archaeologists.
The SHARP project began in 1996, following Neil’s fortuitous meeting with Bernard and Susan Campbell, the then-landowners of the Sedgeford Hall estate, where many of SHARP’s future excavations were to take place. Neil was looking for the ideal location to start an excavation, and Sedgeford proved to be it. Since then, the initiative has developed into a ‘long-term, multi-period, multi-disciplinary research project’ that has revealed the evolution of Sedgeford throughout time. The main focus of the project up until this point, however, has revolved around the early medieval period, with the excavation of a middle Anglo-Saxon cemetery (the Boneyard) and the nearby Anglo-Saxon settlement (see CA 299), as well as a malting complex of the same date (CA 379).
In light of the excavation of the malting complex, which is one of the largest of this period known in England, it was decided that, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the project, the annual conference would focus on the agricultural revolution that occurred in England between the late 7th and early 9th centuries AD. While not all the talks at the conference were able to be published in this volume, the ones that were provide excellent insight into the topic.
