Aerial photograph of the then newly dualled A505 Baldock-Royston road cutting through the chalk escarpment at Slip End, Ashwell, looking north. Parch-marks during that summer’s drought show peri-glacial geological features, especially the wide river-like feature running from top to bottom in middle of picture, with its profile clearly visible in the cutting. Also, four ring-ditches of ploughed-out Prehistoric burial mounds to the left. In the right foreground is a rectangular ditched enclosure on the Herts/Cambs county boundary where in October 1975 NHAS volunteers under my direction for North Herts Museums excavated several late Roman inhumation burials. Photograph by Gil Burleigh taken on the evening of 1st July 1976 from a Cessna light plane flown by Arthur Thorning, who writes: “One never knows when the past may catch up with one! I see in my flying log-book that the picture was taken from a Cessna 150 registration G-AVUH; such a small aircraft that I doubt if I could fold myself into it now!” Gil says “I certainly couldn’t!”

Ashwell Slip End Farm Skeleton 4 & skulls A-C, looking west, 24th Oct. 1975. Photo by Gil Burleigh.

All meetings are at Letchworth Free Church hall, corner of Gernon Rd and Sollershott West, 8 pm, unless stated otherwise. 

Tuesday 16th April 2019: ‘ What we can learn from excavated human remains’, Laura Dodd, Project Officer and human bone specialist, KDK Archaeology.

Tuesday 21st May: Annual General Meeting. Gil Burleigh will present an illustrated report on the year’s fieldwork, including parch-mark sites at Barkway, Great Offley and Pirton revealed by drone photography during the summer 2018 drought and  test-pit excavations in Great Offley and Pirton, as well as test pit excavations and geophysical surveys in Ashwell.

Autumn/Winter 2019/20:

October 2019: ‘Latest survey results from Ravensburgh Castle Iron Age Hill-Fort’, by Dr Ian Brown, Research Associate, Keble College, Oxford University.

‘Wimpole at the time of the Roman Conquest’, by Paddy Lambert, Project Officer, Oxford Archaeology East.

‘A multi-period excavated site at a quarry near Peterborough’, by Greg Farnworth Jones, Project Officer.

‘The Basilica and Portico wall excavations at Verulamium 2018’, by James Fairbairn, Senior Project Manager, Oxford Archaeology East.

‘Excavations at Hazel End, Bishops Stortford’, by Louisa Moan, Senior Project Manager, Oxford Archaeology East.

‘Beacons of the Past – the Hillforts of the Chilterns Landscape’ by Ed Peveler or Dr. Wendy Morrison, members of the project team.

‘Excavation of an Early Anglo-Saxon settlement at Priors Hill, Pirton’, Mark Hinman, Senior Project Manager, Pre-Construct Archaeology.

Treasure Act 1996:
A Government Public Consultation is currently underway with a view to revising it and its associated codes of practice. The consultation closes for comments on 30th April 2019.

Festival of Archaeology 2019
We are delighted to officially launch the Council for British Archaeology’s Festival of Archaeology website for 2019- a one-stop shop for Festival event organisers and a showcase for archaeology events from around the UK. Registration for the 2019 Festival of Archaeology 13-28 July is now open! Visit https://festival.archaeologyuk.org/ to register your event. Our new website includes online registration guides and publicity materials for event organisers – so it’s even easier than before to get involved and host an event or create activities for the summer. We also have a blog page on our website and would be delighted to showcase stories of #FestivalofArch projects for 2019 and those that you may have been involved with over the years.
As part of the Council for British Archaeology’s 75th anniversary we would also like to showcase stories of local, regional or national archaeologists. We are very proud that one of our first blogs on our website records the memories of Elisabeth Quinton, from Alberta Canada, who volunteered on a CBA dig in Canada in the 1950s. Her work on this dig inspired her lifelong interest in archaeology and, as she says, the CBA was the “catalyst for part of my interest in history.”
We will be sharing more details of the 2019 Festival of Archaeology events over the coming weeks so please visit the CBA’s Festival of Archaeology website https://festival.archaeologyuk.org/ or follow us on social media.
Twitter: @archaeologyuk
Facebook: Archaeologyuk
Or you can contact us at festival2019@archaeologyuk.org with any enquiries.
Best wishes,
Gillian Waters
Festival Co-ordinator

As part of Hitchin Festival July 2019 Hitchin Historical Society will be hosting its third biennial History Day on Saturday July 13th 2019 at Church House Hitchin from 10am to 4 pm.It provides an opportunity to meet with other local heritage groups and the general public. There is no charge to participating organisations and admission is free to the public.  Please let me know if you wish to book a table.
I will provide practical information later.
Kind regards
Gerry Tidy

Subscriptions

2018/19 Subscriptions became due on 1st June 2018. Please renew. The Society cannot continue to function without all members’ subscriptions. In particular, lecturers fees and expenses and hall hire have to come from subscriptions. Lack of sufficient income from subscriptions may result in fewer lectures. It’s up to us members. Thank you to all who have paid your subscription and renewed your membership.

Outstanding subscriptions may be paid in person at any meeting when membership cards can usually be issued also. Otherwise subscription cheques may be posted to Diane Burleigh, NHAS, 10 Cromwell Way, Pirton, Hitchin, Herts SG5 3RD.

Please note 2018/19 Membership cards are now available and may be collected at any of our lectures.

Adult £19, Family £24, Concessions (over 65, under 16), £10.

Non-members are welcome at any of our meetings. There will be a charge of £4 for entry.

Please renew your subscription otherwise you may be removed from our membership and circulation lists.
Thank you.

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