Cotswold Archaeology is working in conjunction with Operation Nightingale and the US Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) to search for the remains of a missing US Army Air Forces pilot, whose P-47 Thunderbolt crashed in rural Essex on 26 January…
To mark 200 years since the Stockton and Darlington Railway – the world’s first modern railway – opened on 27 September 1825, Historic England have announced seven new listings relating to railway heritage sites across the country. Four stations have…
In the previous few columns I have explored some of the great towns of Roman Britain – so, as a change of pace, here I will begin a new mini-series on the country’s great prehistoric sites. I will commence this month with a series of locations in Norfolk and Suffolk.
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…
Eight of Norfolk’s First World War pillboxes have been awarded Grade II- listed status by the Department for Culture, Media, and Sport, on the advice of Historic England. Among the first pillboxes in Britain, these concrete structures were built between…
Excavations at Eaton Socon, near St Neots, have revealed illuminating traces of a rural hamlet and the experiences of its working-class inhabitants over the course of more than a century. Isobel Woolhouse outlines some of the key findings.
To conclude my mini-series on the towns of Roman Britain, I will head to what may be the most famous Romano-British city of all: Verulamium, modern-day St Albans. With much of the city surviving, unexcavated, beneath modern-day park- and farmland, and upstanding elements visible alongside the award-winning museum that was founded by Tessa Verney Wheeler and Mortimer Wheeler in the 1930s .
Norwich’s imposing Norman keep has reopened after a five-year transformation project, boasting an interior restored to 12th-century finery and an atmospheric new medieval gallery. Carly Hilts reports.
The Welwyn Roman Baths, preserved under the A1(M) in Hertfordshire, opened to the public 50 years ago this year (CA 27). In the lead-up to this milestone, Dr Kris Lockyear led a team from the Welwyn Archaeological Society (WAS) and…
This past autumn a rare gold shilling – called a thrymsa – was found in a field near Norwich by a metal-detectorist. It represents a completely new type of coin, dated to the 7th century and containing both Christian and…
In CA 310, we reported on surveys undertaken by the Community Archaeology Geophysics Group (CAGG) of the Roman city of Verulamium (St Albans, Hertfordshire). At that time, the group, led by Dr Kris Lockyear, had mainly worked in the site’s…
REVIEW BY MAGNUS ALEXANDER This is a fascinating landscape history of a medieval ‘watermilling powerhouse’, which demonstrates that over 1,000 years of watermilling has had a huge impact on an apparently natural braided river. Most of the book consists of…
Most of us associate prisoner-of-war camps with 20th-century conflicts, but an archaeological evaluation undertaken in July 2009 by Channel 4’s Time Team revealed that the first specially constructed camp dates to the late 18th century, when it was used for incarcerating thousands of enemy prisoners taken during the Napoleonic Wars of 1793-1815.
Over the past 15 years, a series of research projects at Wrest Park, a 19th-century country house in Silsoe, Bedfordshire, has revealed in detail how the grounds of this estate evolved over the centuries. This work was recently highlighted during…
The site of what is believed to be the world’s first purpose-built prisoner-of-war camp will soon be open to visitors. The Norman Cross Camp, just south of Peterborough in Cambridgeshire, was established by the British government during the Napoleonic Wars.…
Following the discovery of more pieces of the Bromeswell Bucket at Sutton Hoo last year (see CA 414), the fragments have now been micro-excavated, revealing its intact base along with the cremated remains of both human and animal bones. The…
The latest on acquisitions, exhibitions, and key decisions.
Last month’s visit to Chester/Deva got me thinking about the other great urban sites of Roman Britain. I have previously visited Silchester/Calleva (CA 337, April 2018), Wroxeter/Viroconium (CA 338, May 2018), and London (CA 416, November 2024), but what about other Roman towns and cities?
Found in 1979 on Gallows Hill in Thetford, Norfolk, the Thetford Hoard was originally believed to have been buried in the second half of the 4th century AD. Now Ellen Swift from the University of Kent has re-examined the components…
Following on from CA 422, this selection of summer digging opportunities includes projects in Aberdeenshire, Essex, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, and Nottinghamshire.
Recent research on a portrait believed to depict Lady Jane Grey has revealed that the painting may be the only surviving image of the ‘Nine Day Queen’ that dates to her lifetime. A devout Protestant, Lady Jane Grey was named…
A coin hoard spanning more than 200 years of Roman history has been found near the village of Barton Bendish in Norfolk. Discovered by metal-detectorists, the 16 coins are all silver denarii minted in Rome, and are thought to have…
Sherds adopts a very broad definition of ‘heritage’, so no apologies for beginning this month’s column by drawing attention to the 70th anniversary of the establishment of tiddlywinks as a competitive university-based sport.
REVIEW BY RUPERT TILL I first came across Graeme Lawson’s work about 16 years ago. He is a pioneer in exploring musical instruments in the archaeological record. His work is always highly detailed, applying an archaeologist’s methodological rigour to provide…
Reviewing the best military history exhibitions with MHM.
Shining a light on Reedham I was delighted to read Mike Fulford’s article on Reedham (CA 420). In 2021, as part of a Diploma in Archaeology at Oxford University Department of Continuing Education, I wrote a long essay about the Roman…
By the time you read this, February fill dyke will be over for another year and March will (perhaps) have come in like a lion. Sherds is always glad when winter is over, but in the depths of the cold, dark, and grey weeks of January and February there is one sure way to find warmth and consolation – by reaching for a book called Next to Nature, an anthology of the ‘Word from Wormingford’ diary columns that Ronald Blythe wrote for many years for the Church Times.
An exceptionally well-preserved example of a 15th-/16th-century pottery kiln has been excavated at Sutton V.A. Primary School in Bedfordshire. The large, well-built kiln was discovered by Albion Archaeology. It retains its stoke-hole, floor, and flues, offering a rare opportunity to…
• Roman recycling at Reedham? Exploring the origins of a Norfolk church
• From brewing to bread: tracing Britain’s malting industry
• Uncovering Bury St Edmunds’ dramatic past: the surprising story of a Market Cross
• Bronze Age brutality? Exploring evidence of a massacre at Charterhouse Warren
• A sticky subject: examining ancient adhesives in museum collections
• New genetic analysis: illuminating Iron Age and early medieval migrations
Some 12 miles east of Norwich, Reedham’s church of St John the Baptist has a distinctive appearance, dominated by reused Roman stone, brick, and tile. Mike Fulford describes how archaeological research has identified a potential source for this material: a possibly military predecessor preserved beneath the existing medieval structure.
Mentioning money I wanted to comment on the excellent article ‘Fields of Gold’ in CA 419.Snettisham is not only notable for buried torcs but it is also a ‘hot spot’ for coins – less spectacular, maybe, than torcs, but equally…
Bury St Edmunds’ neoclassical Market Cross recently celebrated its 250th anniversary – but the structure has a much longer tale to tell. Former County Archaeologist Adrian Tindall explores the Suffolk landmark’s colourful past, including its role as a playhouse and its place in the story of the National Anthem.
REVIEW BY TIM PESTELL Only a handful of British archaeological sites can be truly described as iconic, but Snettisham in Norfolk has a strong claim, having become synonymous with the presence and hoarding there of Iron Age torcs. The questions…
A hoard of more than 300 11th-century coins, still carefully packaged within their lead and cloth container, has been uncovered in Suffolk. The discovery was made during archaeological work ahead of constructing Sizewell C nuclear power station. While investigating a…
• Secrets of Snettisham: exploring a unique Iron Age collection
• Encountering the Iceni: expanding our understanding of Venta Icenorum
• Vanished voices? Illuminating the experiences of medieval women
• Hopping through the history of oast houses: from brewing sites to luxurious living spaces
• Under the infirmary: revealing the secrets of medieval Berwick
• Searching for Severus: did a Roman emperor visit Carlisle?
Language and linen I have just finished reading the latest ‘Sherds’ column in CA 417. His pieces are always thought-provoking, and I thoroughly enjoyed the section on the Norse/Anglo-Saxon influence on our modern language. I am fascinated by place-names, and…