Excavation - Digging for windmill evidence (Bingham)

A heritage group has been given permission to dig an archaeological pit near the site of a former mill in Bingham as it bids to uncover the town’s historic origins.


Bingham Heritage Trails Association is being allowed to dig a one metre square pit on land owned by Bingham Town Council at the top of Mill Hill.

It will search for evidence of a windmill dating from the late 18th or early 19th Century as the group continues its efforts to piece together the history of Bingham.

It has already dug 29 test pits and has so far uncovered Medieval and Roman rubbish pits, and evidence of Roman and 15th Century houses.

The group’s chairman, Mr Peter Allen, said: “We want to look for further evidence of a windmill at the top of Mill Hill.

“We will get an idea of what was going on in the yard and near the mill in the late 18th or early 19th Century.”

He said pits dug so far had proved very productive, with only two not turning up any evidence.

“We don’t know where Bingham originally was and so our purpose is to look for Anglo-Saxon origins,” he said.

“It is quite amazing what we have found. We find bits of pottery and work out the story from there.

“We have found evidence of a Roman house in the rectory garden so there could even have been pre-Anglo-Saxon habitation in Bingham.”

He said samples were sent off to experts who could date them and give an indication of their significance.

The pits typically take two or three days to dig and are then filled in.

The project is being paid for through a £32,000 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Mr Allen said all the information would be put on the association website and some funding had been put aside for a publication, possibly a book.

From: http://www.newarkadvertiser.co.uk/articles/news/Digging-for-windmill-evidence

News - Roman Well Work Starts (Bingham)

Budding archaeologists from Toot Hill School, Bingham, are among those helping to resite a Roman well in its new home.

The well was discovered during excavation work for the A46 dualling scheme and is due to be put at the entrance of Bingham Cemetery.

With the help of the sixth-form students, Bingham Heritage Trails Association began cleaning the individual stones on Monday, before sorting them and labelling them so they could be assembled in the cemetery.

Meghan King, 17, of Nightingale Way, a member of Newark and District Young Archaeologists Club, is hoping to study archaeology at university.

“It was a great opportunity to do some fieldwork and get my hands dirty,” she said.

“To be able to handle something someone made with their own bare hands thousands of years ago was thrilling.”

Helen Green, 19, a former pupil at the school, starts her archaeology course at the University of Chester next week.

“I enjoyed working out which stones went where,” she said.

“It was a massive jigsaw puzzle and it was good to get some experience before I go to university.”

Rushcliffe Borough Council granted the project planning permission in March after an application was submitted by Bingham Town Council.

However, it only gave the heritage trails association the green light to start building work last Wednesday.

The association’s vice-chairman, Mr Geoff Ashton, said: “We are using lime putty to hold the stones together, the same material they would have used in Roman times.

“It is a fantastic project and we are delighted to have the students involved.”

From: http://www.newarkadvertiser.co.uk/articles/news/Roman-well-work-starts

News - Honoured at last (Bingham)

The grave of a first world war soldier is set to be marked with a headstone — 94 years after his death.

Gunner Thomas Alfred Baggins is buried in an unmarked pauper’s grave in Bingham Cemetery.

However, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission is looking to install a headstone after the Ministry of Defence confirmed the soldier had been awarded war grave status.

55150 Gunner Baggins, who served in the Royal Garrison Artillery, died in 1917 from pulmonary tuberculosis, aged 22, as a result of his service.

The search for Gunner Baggins’ grave was made more difficult because the name on his death certificate is not Baggins but Buggins.

He changed his name to Baggins when he enlisted because, apparently, he did not like Buggins.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission has asked Bingham Town Council to confirm Gunner Baggins’ burial plot so an application can be made for a headstone.

Its inscription is likely to read: ‘Gunner Thomas Alfred Buggins — served as Baggins.’

The chairman of the council’s recreation and cemetery committee, Mr John Stockwood, praised the efforts of the commission who, he said, were going to great efforts to find soldiers who were buried in unmarked graves.

“It is important to remember those who made the greatest sacrifice,” he said.

“There are too many unmarked graves of soldiers who died in the Great War. The very least we owe this man is a name.”

Gunner Baggins was born around 1894 in Shropshire. The 1911 census records the family as living in Bingham, in Buggins Cottage, Fosse Road, which still exists today.

His father, Thomas James Buggins, was a gamekeeper and, before he enlisted, Gunner Baggins was an asylum attendant at Nottingham County Asylum, Radcliffe.

Gunner Baggins was discharged on April 14, 1916, after being deemed no longer fit for service.

His younger sister, May, was with him when he died, and buried with him is his brother, Mr Harry Buggins, who died in 1945.

Representatives of the War Graves Commission are due to visit the plot next month.

Mr Pete Stevens, a Commonwealth War Graves Commission stonemason, said the headstone application could take between three and 18 months to process.

“Many soldiers changed their names when they enlisted, some because they lied about their age, some because they wanted to escape the law,” he said.

“In this instance it was simply a matter of not liking his name.

“If the soldier had no family, or the family had no money, they were buried by the local parish.”

From: http://www.newarkadvertiser.co.uk/articles/news/Honoured-at-last