News- Project to map ancient landscape of England may reveal burial grounds under your house (National)

The School of Archaeology at the University of Oxford is to compile a map of prehistoric England for the first time.

The 'Portal to the Past’ project will allow people to look online to discover the history of their own area over 3,500 years, from the Bronze Age in 1500BC to the Domesday Book in 1086.

Professor Chris Gosden, who is leading the project, said local history is one of the most popular internet searches after family ancestors.

However at the moment the parish records will only show up to around 1,000 years ago.

The five year project, funded by £1.8 million from the European Research Council, will bring together all the available data into a digital archive to create maps and as much information as possible about prehistoric England.

Prof Gosden said most modern day parishes are based on how the land was set out in Roman estates or even before then by peasant communities.

He said there could be metal works, ancient field systems, peasant huts, a Roman villa or even human bodies under modern buildings.

“We tend to look at surface of the world we live in but as soon as you look beneath the surface there will be a wealth of ancient features," he said.

Most of the data will be from English Heritage aerial photographs showing ancient sites of interest. There is also £100 million spent every year by developers carrying out archaeological research on sites before building work begins and private research by museums and individuals.

Material will also be drawn from county archives, databases of ancient coins, and the Portable Antiquity Scheme (which records the archaeological finds made by metal detectors). Oxford researchers will work with the British Museum, the Archaeology Data Service and local history experts with a good knowledge of the period.

Prof Gosden said bringing all the information about ancient England into one website will reveal where the landscape has developed and indeed, stayed the same.

Access to maps and databases on artefacts may also help budding archaeologists or even treasure hunters to find more.

“England is extraordinary in the level of potential information about the ancient landscape,” he said.

“We hope this project will provide an in-depth analysis of the whole of England, so we can glean new insights into how the landscape has changed and developed. We want to discover what this huge database of information on ancient sites can reveal about England at a national level. Until now we have had fragments of information about landscape use during this period but this project allows us to form a bigger picture of overall patterns and regional variations within England."

The Portal to the Past website is expected to go live in 2014. It will be available through the University of Oxford School of Archaeology website at http://www.arch.ox.ac.uk/

From: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/8675237/Project-to-map-ancient-landscape-of-England-may-reveal-burial-grounds-under-your-house.html

Save Roman Southwell - Once-in-a-lifetime chance for heritage

Roman remains in Southwell could be used for education and tourism if they are preserved, a group campaigning against development has claimed.

The Save Roman Southwell campaign wants to see the former Church Street site of the Minster School protected.

It is appealing for the site to be made a heritage area incorporating Southwell Minster, the Archbishop’s Palace and the prebendal houses on Church Street and Westgate.

Experts believe the remains site, later used as an Anglo Saxon cemetery, could provide the link between the Roman occupation of Southwell, the origins of Christianity in the town, and the building of the minster.

Mr Trevor Wight, of Save Roman Southwell, told the town council that the Roman remains were of significant archaeological importance and formed part of the historic core of the town.

He said: “We feel the historic core should be extended to create a tourist destination of local and national importance.

“What we envisage is a Roman heritage park including the archaeological remains linking with the other parts of the historic core.

“The building blocks are there because you have got the minster nearby with its own marketing and visitor guides.”

Mr Wight said they wanted the land returned to the community, which could preserve the remains and make the site usable before providing interpretation boards and a visual representation of the remains.

He said they then hoped to open the site up for archaeological investigation from experts and the community and finally create an educational facility and expose some of the remains, although this was likely to be very expensive.

Mr Wight said: “We have here a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and if we don’t take it now it will be gone.

“We have the opportunity to create a unique, attractive tourist centre on the site.

“We want to create a more complete package of tourism attractions and this has the potential not just to enhance tourism in Southwell, but tourism in Nottinghamshire.”

Caunton Properties Ltd has submitted plans for 29 homes on the site.

The plans have been delayed from going before Newark and Sherwood District Council’s planning committee several times but it is believed they will be decided by Christmas.

The Save Roman Southwell campaign and Southwell Town Council are against the application.

A member of the campaign group, Mr Peter Kent, said English Heritage was still against making the site a Scheduled Ancient Monument, which would protect it from development.

He said the group believed the site had more surprises to reveal and, if development was allowed, the remains would be lost forever.

Caunton Properties Ltd has told the town council it is considering selling the land to an Irish syndicate regardless of the outcome of the planning application.

 

From: http://www.newarkadvertiser.co.uk/articles/news/Once-in-a-lifetime-chance-for-heritage

Victorians valued as old school closes (Goldthorpe)

A SOUTH Yorkshire school brought back visions of the Victorians at an event to say goodbye to their old building.  Dearne High School at Goldthorpe is about to move into a new campus over the next few days which will see pupils enjoying state-of-the- art facilities.  But the secondary gave the community the chance to see the old school for the very last time, with many of the visitors being former pupils.

 

Most of the staff and students gave the day a special feel by dressing up in Victorian costumes to reflect the high school's origins.  Spokeswoman Joan Townend said: "We held a fantastic fundraising day to treasure memories of The Dearne High.  "We displayed old archive records, documents and photographs, craft and in-house stalls, free fairground rides and refreshments. There was also a ghost trail through the front corridor and students performed mini-plays.   "There was a video of the Thurnscoe Mining Disaster and 100 Chinese lanterns were released into the Dearne community with messages on from students."

The day also featured contributions from the local history group.

From: http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/Victorians-valued-as-old-school.6688905.jp

University of Sheffield 2011 Field Schools

Manor Lodge Project 2011
Between 13 June and 15 July 2011 The Department of Archaeology will be offering fieldwork training at the Scheduled Ancient Monument at Manor Lodge, Sheffield. The focus will be on the location of the medieval and sixteenth-century hunting lodge of Sheffield. The hunting lodge sat amidst medieval parkland, and was only subsumed within the urban sprawl from the 1930s. One of the most well-known events in the history of Sheffield Manor Lodge was the period in the late sixteenth century when Mary Queen of Scots spent part of her captivity there. She was in the custody of George Talbot, sixth Earl of Shrewsbury and his wife, known popularly as Bess of Hardwick. Our excavations seek to illuminate this period of Sheffield´s history, when the Manor Lodge was at the centre of events of national and international significance. Once the property passed into the hands of the Dukes of Norfolk the lodge fell into a ruinous state, and in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries a pottery kiln was constructed at the site, coal mining occurred and workers´ cottages were built amidst the ruins. All traces of this industrial activity were stripped away in the early twentieth century, and one of our aims is to throw light on this aspect of the site´s history.
 Thornton Abbey Field School - 19 June to 16 July 2011During the 2011 season we will be concentrating our efforts just to the north of the church and the graveyard, in an area that has seen no previous survey or excavation work. Documentary research suggests that this area contained the mill as well as the ‘great barn’ of the monastery, and these are known to have continued in use well into the post-medieval period. On the ground the water channels, or ‘leat’, for the mill are clearly visible as well as the medieval bridge that crossed it (see right).

Students attending the field school will play a central role in continuing the geophysical and topographical survey of this area, as well as taking part in the excavation of the possible barn and mill areas. Whilst all work is supervised by experienced staff from the University of Sheffield, volunteers get to take part in all the key activities.

The field school fee is £180 p/w. This includes supervision, course materials, all meals, accommodation and weekly pick up & drop off at the local train station (Thornton Abbey).

If you live within the County Council districts of North Lincolnshire, North East Lincolnshire or West Lindsey you can attend the excavation for free so long as you provide your own food and make your own way to site.

Accommodation is in the form of camping close to the site, and we have a limited number of tents that may be borrowed if requested in advance.

From: http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/archaeology/field-schools-index

Women of Steel Share Stories for Oral History Project

Sheffield´s Women of Steel have shared their stories with students from the University of Sheffield to keep alive their memories of working in the city´s steelworks during World War II.

The recordings were part of a wider campaign, led by the Sheffield Star in partnership with Sheffield City Council, for recognition for these women whose efforts in the workshops of the steel industry sustained Britain during the war.

Three women from the campaign met with five students from the University´s School of English this week (13 December 2010) to record their memories to produce permanent digital artifacts. They discussed their role in the factories, what they enjoyed about their work and personal memories of family life and relationships during this time.

The recordings were taken as part of the student´s Collaborative Learning and Teaching module in the School of English which sees students taking their own responsibility for a project. The project is linked to the Storying Sheffield module which sees students working with members of the local community to collect, record and produce stories about their lives in Sheffield through creative representations.

The recordings will be showcased at an event in February which is part of the Off the Shelf History Weekend. The interviews will also be made available to the public on the Storying Sheffield website and will feed into the Council´s current plans to produce a permanent memorial in the city centre to commemorate the women´s efforts during the war.

Holly Willis, a third-year student from the School of English, said: "It´s been so interesting to meet with people who lived through the war. Their experiences are so far removed from anything we have been through and I think it is really important to keep these memories alive and give these women an opportunity to pass their stories on to our generation. I´ve heard some really interesting stories today, and I think the ladies we´ve spoken to have also enjoyed hearing about how our generation view their efforts during the war."
Notes for Editors: The oral histories will be posted on the Storying Sheffield website in the new year.

Off the Shelf Festival - Highlighting History will take place 3 - 6 February 2011.

Author events with historians and local history talks and walks have proved to be one of the most popular elements of the Off the Shelf festival and in 2011, for the first time ever, a mini festival is being organised on this subject. The four day event will include popular tv historians Michael Wood and Amanda Vickery, a talk on Black Diamonds by Catherine Bailey, illustrated talks by local historians, history walks, workshops, open days at Sheffield Manor Lodge and Bishops House and more. For details pick up a leaflet from 7 January 2011, visit the website below or telephone 0114 273 4400. http://www.offtheshelf.org.uk/

From: http://www.shef.ac.uk/mediacentre/2010/1818.html