Event - Throapham Church - Open Weekends 2011

Throapham Church will be open on the following weekends during 2011 30 April -01 May, 28-29 May, 25-26 June, 30-31 July, 27-28 August, 24-25 September. 

The church will be open between 10.00-16.00 on Saturday and 13.00-17.00 on Sunday.  There will be guided walks on Saturdays at 11.00, 14.00 and 15.00 and on Sundays at 14.00 and 16.00.

For further information please contact the Friends of Throapham Church via e-mail pammd15@tiscali.co.uk (please mark any e-mails as Re: Throapham Church) or phone on 01909 732485.

News - Surprising ‘Finds’ in Throapham Graveyard

The Friends of Throapham Church have recently received funding from South Yorkshire Community Foundation which has enabled a group of volunteers to start clearing and cleaning up the graveyard round this Anglo-Saxon church which is run by the Churches Conservation Trust. They have also had the backing of the Parochial Church Council for the church.

 

They started work this last weekend clearing some of the brushwood and also the massive amounts of ivy which has run rampant round the graveyard. Imagine their surprise when the first thing they found was an ancient table tomb still in existence (many have been removed from graveyards). The next find was a large C18th gravestone where we didn’t expect there were any graves, it was covered by years of growth of grass over the top. The next finds were a chest tomb and even larger table tomb which is richly decorated on the ends and is very rare for our area of the county. Many people do not realise that this graveyard was where the early miners who worked (some of whom were killed) at Dinnington Mine were buried, the first one who was recorded in the register was Moses Wright aged 44 who was buried on the 9^th December 1904.

 

There are many people from Thurcroft, Laughton, Firbeck, Letwell also buried there and also one of the Athorpes who were Lords of the Manor of Dinnington, and many of the owners of the ancient Manor of Throapham. There are also three War Graves in the Cemetery, at least one from the First World War. As this was the first day at the graveyard we do not know what else we will find when we continue, we do know there is a railed tomb still to clear. The Parish Registers record the history of the local area from the C16th and the new growth at Dinnington because of the opening up of the Colliery.

 

If anyone is interested in joining the group or willing to donate to our work please contact Pam Cook 01909 732485 in the first instance. If you cannot work you could help by making tea and coffee for the workers or help in the church dusting etc. or at our open days throughout the summer.

 

By Pam Cook (Friends of Throapham Church)

 

Archaeologists to probe Sherwood Forest's 'Thing'

A team of experts hope to shed new light on one of Nottinghamshire's most mysterious ancient monuments.

A 'Thing', or open-air meeting place where Vikings gathered to discuss the law, was discovered in the Birklands, Sherwood Forest, five years ago.  In January 2011 experts plan to survey the hill and see if they can detect signs of buried archaeology and the extent of the site.   The site was found by three local historians after a treasure hunt.   It started after husband and wife team Lynda Mallett and Stuart Reddish, along with their friend John Wood, came into possession of a 200 year old document.    It described a walk around part of Sherwood Forest which marked an ancient boundary.  They searched for the boundary on the landscape and found a place called Hanger Hill on which stood three stones.

The historians, from Rainworth, researched further and found that the same place was called Thynghowe on a 1609 map.   This was significant.   "A 'thyng' is the name of a Viking assembly site while a 'howe' is possibly a Bronze Age burial ground," said Lynda.

Lynda and Stuart then formed The Friends of Thynghowe and invited members from the three local historical societies to join them.   Over the last five years they have researched the site, establishing its importance.   References to Nottinghamshire's Thynghowe have been found in an ancient Forest Book dating back to the 1200s.


The site is also thought to be a bronze age burial mound.   It is thought that Thynghowe may have marked the boundary between the Anglo Saxon kingdoms of Mercia and Northumberland.   However, it may date back much further, as 'howe' is a term often used to indicate a prehistoric burial place.   "It's a very exciting find," said Stuart. "We're talking about 4,000 years of history in the heart of Sherwood Forest."   This and other Viking meeting place locations were chosen for their acoustics.

Stuart said a voice spoken at the meeting place in the Birklands can be heard from hundreds of yards away.   Research has found that the site was used for centuries.   "We've got documentary evidence that people met there right up to the 1800s. Local people were still meeting up there and raising each others spirits 200 years ago," said Stuart.   The site has now been recognised as a national rarity by English Heritage and added to their National Monument Record.

Funded by local donations The Friends of Thynghowe have been working hard to increase public awareness of the site's history.   "We've put a marked trail in, we've produced leaflets and booklets," said Lynda. "We've done a lot of work to promote this."  




Every April they also host an annual walk around Thynghowe, explaining all the history of the site. In 2011 it will be held on 16 April.   And they are now putting in an application for Heritage Lottery funding to develop 'trail tales' for school children.   "So they can start to connect these exciting stories with the real history of Sherwood Forest," said Lynda.   "This is our real cultural heritage," added Stuart. "We love Robin Hood, we love the Major Oak but this is real history. This represents families that have lived in the area and it belongs to the people of the area."

A topographical survey using total station and GPS will take place from 17 to 22 January 2011.  
Archaeologists from University College London will also be present using magnetometry to reveal the extent of the site and what may be beneath the ground.   Friends of Thynghowe and interested members of the public are invited to come along and help on Thursday, 20 and Saturday, 22, 9.30am - 12.30pm and / or 1.30pm - 4.30pm. Booking is essential.

If you are interested in attending on either or both of these dates please contact Alex Price, the Local Improvement Schemes Project Officer on 07753625571.

From:  http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/nottingham/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_9155000/9155982.stm

Friends of Firbeck Hall - Newsletter #9 out now

Just received my Friends of Firbeck Hall Newsletter today, it's great to hear that contact with the buildings new owner, Mr Cooper, is going well.

Hopefully the hall will be restored back to its once great beauty again in the near future.

Friends of Firbeck Hall website www.firbeckhall.net

A bumper chance to explain enigma of the lump From the Yorkshire Post

Many thanks to Terry (Regina Theresa) for finding this for us from the Yorkshire Post, I've e-mailed Community Archaeology for further details:

FOR centuries an inconspicuous bump in the ground has lain, unexplained, in the depths of Sherwood Forest.

But now, archaeologists from across the country are hoping to shed light on what could be one of the region's most mysterious – and most significant – ancient monuments.

Three years ago the Forestry Commission revealed that the Friends of Thynghowe group had found a Viking meeting place – known as a "Thing" – in the Birklands, near Worksop.

Such sites, of which there are only a handful in the British Isles, are thought to have been used in the Dark Ages as a landmark where people came together to resolve disputes.

Andrew Norman, from the Forestry Commission, which manages the Birklands, said: "What was once just a bump in the ground has now got lots of people excited up and down the country."

The earthen mound known as Thynghowe, which was first noticed on 19th century maps and then later identified through trawling the woodland landscape, has now been listed on English Heritage's National Monument Record.

New studies have also found the name Thynghowe in an ancient Sherwood Forest book dated to around the 1200s. However, more research is needed to understand the site's mysterious story.

As a result, Nottinghamshire County Council's community archaeology team is set to carry out a topographical survey of the hill in the New Year, after the Friends of Thynghowe made a successful bid for council funding.

At the same time, University College London plans to undertake a magnetometry survey, which can detect buried archaeology by registering anomalies in the earth's magnetic field.

The academics became involved after hearing about the Sherwood Forest site at a conference on Viking sites in Shetland and Orkney earlier this year, which was attended by representatives from the Friends of Thynghowe group.

Mr Norman added: "This is a major effort to unravel more of its secrets."

Thynghowe was discovered five years ago by husband and wife team Lynda Mallett and Stuart Reddish, along with their friend John Wood, who all live in the village of Rainworth.

Ms Mallett said: "My husband and myself own a woodland in Sherwood Forest. A 19th century document came into our hands which described a walk around Sherwood Forest, taking people around a very important boundary.

"We transcribed it and realised this went through our wood and all the way through Birklands as well. We asked the Forestry Commission if we could then go into Birklands and find anything mentioned in this 1816 document,

"One of the most significant places was a place called Hanger Hill, which is described as having two boundary stones and a stone on it. There were also apparently quite a lot of celebrations which took place there.

"When we did our research, having found this place in and amongst all of the trees, we realised Hanger Hill was also a place called Thynghowe, which is a Viking assembly site."

It is thought that Thynghowe may have marked the boundary between the Anglo Saxon kingdoms of Mercia and Northumberland. However, it may date back much further, as "howe" is a term often used to indicate a prehistoric burial place.

Ms Mallett said Thynghowe could date back 4,000 years – which would make it one of the most important sites not only in the region, but in Britain. She said: "It's a highly, highly significant place in Sherwood Forest and a national rarity.

"There are other 'Things' in Britain, but most of them you can't find a written record of. In this case we've found a written record dating back to the 1200s.

"Also, most 'Things' you can't actually see, because they've been built over or they're on private property. With ours, you can actually stand on it and look around and see some of the landscape that was there way, way back in the past."

To shed light on Thynghowe's history, archaeologists are set to arrive in January and analyse mysterious ancient stones in the area, which could be part of the complex or even predate it.

Ms Mallet said: "We need to bring this to national attention and find out as much as we can about this site.

"The more we can find out about it, the more chance we have of making it a scheduled monument, which gives it the highest level protection that we can get.

"We want to make sure local people know all about it. If this site has 4,000 years of history, there certainly isn't another site in Sherwood Forest as significant as this – and everyone in the world has heard of Sherwood Forest.

"To have a site in Sherwood Forest that is of this age, and that is still here, is really quite amazing."

http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/A-bumper-chance-to-explain.6616462.jp

The Friends of Thynghowe website is located at http://www.thynghowe.org.uk/index.html