Community Archaeology reveals 19th-century house A recent community excavation in Belfast has revealed the remains of a 19th-century house and the partial layout of the Victorian streets in the area. Run by Community Archaeology Programme Northern Ireland (CAPNI) – an…
Counting Quaker Meeting Houses I enjoyed the article on the Quaker Meeting Houses in CA 422. I have searched for the Meeting Houses associated with 250 years of my Quaker ancestors, via train, bus, and foot, and found seven extant,…
The latest on acquisitions, exhibitions, and key decisions.
A delectable drink from Derby Derby’s profusion of malthouses (CA 420) included an early 18th-century example which had the distinction of being converted, in 1773 (by the architect Joseph Pickford for the Irish impresario James Whiteley), into Derby’s Theatre Royal,…
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.
Historic England continues to explore working-class heritage Historic England has announced the funding of 30 new projects through its Everyday Heritage grants programme, which will explore rural and coastal communities and celebrate working-class histories from across the country. The projects…
REVIEW BY JOANIE WILLETT Growing up in Cornwall has been indelibly etched throughout my social learning, which makes reading (and viewing) material about Cornwall tricky. The overwhelming most books, TV, and films are written about middle-class escape or escapism which,…
Sadly, trains no longer stop at Adlestrop, the station that is the subject of Edward Thomas’ best-known poem. That was lost to the Beeching axe in 1966, but there are plenty of other places where you can read his poems…
A new museum, created and funded by the local community, has opened in Knaresborough, North Yorkshire. Leon Corneille-Cowell explains how the space came to be, and highlights some of its latest work and upcoming projects.
Your thoughts on issues raised by CA.
Your thoughts on issues raised by CA.
Maidstone Museum’s impressively eclectic collection of British archaeology has been redisplayed in an absorbing new gallery. Carly Hilts attended its official launch in June.
REVIEW BY CH ‘Linn gu linn, bho ainm gu ainm – “from one generation to the next, from one name to another” – people make this story what it is.’ So writes Alistair Moffat in the introduction to this energetic…
Following on from our coverage in CA 410 and 411, this selection of summer digging opportunities includes projects in Staffordshire, Wiltshire, and Hampshire.
Your thoughts on issues raised by CA.
A forgotten air raid shelter, buried for more than 80 years, was found recently by a group of schoolchildren. Pupils at St Peter’s Independent School in Kettering, Northamptonshire, made the discovery during a clear-up of the school grounds earlier this…
This month we are revisiting the subject of the very first ‘Odd Socs’ column (CA 211): the Milestone Society. The original idea for ‘Odd Socs’ was to adopt a tongue-in-cheek approach to the heritage sector’s hundreds of voluntary societies, presenting…
Your thoughts on issues raised by CA.
The latest on acquisitions, exhibitions, and key decisions.
The Pole Society is the delightful invention of a group of satirists who have taken to the internet to poke fun at Tripadvisor by championing the merits of a new tourist attraction in Gloucestershire’s Forest of Dean: the ‘Cinderford Rusty…
Your thoughts on issues raised by CA.
For a brief snapshot of the mid-19th century, flower festivals drew thousands of visitors to Stonehenge, long before the Neolithic monument became a popular tourist attraction in its own right. Carly Hilts visited the site and spoke to Louise Crawley, Brian Edwards, and Jennifer Wexler to learn more about this colourful but little-known episode of Salisbury Plain’s past.
Conserving more than 26,000 shells in Devon For the past year, staff from the National Trust have been working to conserve the tens of thousands of marine materials – including shells, bones, coral, and starfish – that decorate the interior…
Historical records attest that the present parish church at Saline in West Fife had a medieval predecessor, but the exact location of this building has been lost over time. Linda Moyes and John Gooder report on recent efforts to find it once more.
We are grateful to LPRS Council member Simon Oliver for contributing this month’s ‘Odd Socs’ column.
The dig has also unearthed numerous finds dating from the mid-1800s to the early 1900s, including bottles, animal bones, and clay pottery.
Your views on issues raised in Current Archaeology.
Harold James Dyos, late Professor of Urban History at the University of Leicester, wrote that London underwent three distinct periods of growth: an increasingly dense build-up of the population in the centre, its spill-over into the outer districts of London,…
Your views on the latest issues raised in CA.
Non-conformist chapels and meeting houses have greatly enriched our townscapes, though we have been slow to recognise their merits. Indeed, the late Princess Margaret, when opening the Keele office of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of…
If there is a challenger to Piddington’s crown as the ‘prime’ site of Northamptonshire, then the multi-period site of Raunds in the north-east of the county, with its intriguing history of early medieval and later settlement, is a strong contender.
The project ends in December, but the team are still looking for more places to excavate. For more information, see www.thebishopbigdig.com.
I was reminded of his contempt for journalism during the summer, when the BBC and scores of newspapers that consider themselves serious reported that the drought was so severe that the source of the River Thames had dried up.
September and the first half of October will see heritage-themed events being held all across Scotland, as part of the annual celebration of the nation’s past coordinated by Archaeology Scotland.
Review by HB. Shadowlands is a moving and at times personal tour of Britain’s lost villages and urban spaces. The author pointedly excludes the historical remains of ‘urban success’ found in places like Bath and St Albans, choosing instead to…
With its distinctive chequerboard exterior combining Caen stone and knapped flint, the Marlipins building in Shoreham-by-Sea has been an eye-catching landmark for centuries – in fact, dendrochronological analysis suggests that it is the earliest surviving secular building in Sussex. Its…