CBA West Midlands Newsletter
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CBA West Midlands Newsletter Issue Number 19 Autumn 2014 In this Issue News From the Past 2015 The Coffin Works th Tours & Events Saturday 28 February Day Schools Carrs Lane Church Centre, Featured Museum Birmingham, B4 7SX Great War This annual event includes illustrated presentations Centenary Events about sites and objects from rural and urban parts and Exhibitions of the region, ranging in date from prehistory to Museum of Carpet modern times. Talks this year include excavations in West Midlands towns, cities and countryside. Committee Contact Details Fee: £20, CBA WM members may deduct £5. Light refreshments included (Please bring your own lunch). The Send cheques payable to CBA West Midlands to Caroline Mosley CBA West Midlands c/o 84 biscuits are Grosvenor Road, Harborne, Birmingham, B17 9AN back! Enquiries: 0778 694 1059 or email [email protected] http://www.archaeologyuk.org/cbawm/ 7 On Saturday 12th August 2014 an exhibition open day was held at the Museum of Carpet, Kidderminster as part of the Festival of Archaeology 2014. The exhibition detailed the results of the After over a decade of fundraising and a year of refurbishment, Heritage Lottery Funded community excavation known as 'Dig Birmingham Conservation Trust is delighted to be opening to the Minster' that was undertaken last year by Kidderminster Civic public the Newman Brothers Factory at the Coffin Works, Society and Worcestershire Archive and Archaeology Service at St Jewellery Quarter, on 28th October 2014. Mary's and All Saints Church with the aim of finding the 'Minster' of This fantastic grade II* listed factory which made coffin furniture for Kidderminster. over 100 years, will offer visitors the extraordinary opportunity to Along with display panels put together by volunteers detailing the “step back in time” and experience the factory as a “time-capsule” dig, a number of artefacts found during the dig were displayed and set in the 1960s, full of original stock and machinery and with may a volunteers were on site to talk to visitors about their experiences, tale to tell. artefacts and help with children's activities that including mini sand BCT are currently looking for volunteers to help visitors to Newman pit digs. One volunteer, Julian, also spent a huge amount of time Brothers make the most of their visit. putting together a slide show of photos which was extremely well A wide range of opportunities are available received. from tour guiding to demonstrating the With the help of the CBA the event was so well publicised that we original machinery. If you would estimate that we received over 100 visitors during the day and the like to be part of the team at museum we so pleased with the outcome that they arranged to keep Birmingham’s newest and most the exhibition for a further 2 weeks. We aim to build upon the unique heritage attraction, get success of the event and hold a similar exhibition over the coming involv ed at Newman Brothers! months. By Marie Dufaud By Caroline Norcott For more information and role descriptions, please visit Get in touch if you think that CBAWM can help with your project! www.birminghamconservationtrust/volunteer-at-newman-brothers/ Birmingham Cathedral Tours Most Monday lunchtimes 1-2pm FREE contact Jane McArdle for more information 0121 262 1840 or email: [email protected] Guided Walks around Ledbury, Herefordshire The Historic Walk and 8pm Thursday Evening Ghost Walk are available by booking only. Your guide will meet you under the Market House and take you around all of the historic parts of Warwick’s Victorian Christmas Ledbury Thurs 27th November Email or phone Elisabeth for more 5pm to 9pm information:- Traditional carousel, ferret racing, Elisabeth Galvin traction engines, fire spinners, Street Tel: 01531 650414 Magician, Victorain Market and craft Mobile: 07760 472186 stalls. Lantern procession from St e-Mail: [email protected] Mary’s Church before the lights switch- on. Craft, charity and festive food stalls will wind through Swan Street, Market The Trench Raiders st Street and the Market Place.Christmas 1 November Tree Festival at St. Mary's Church Bantock House 7pm to 10pm Sing-along entertainment of the Great Candlelit Christmas War with popular tunes British soldiers Sat 6th December put their own words to. The songs are Avoncroft Museum linked together by factual accounts of 7pm – 10pm what took place in the years 1914- Christmas comes to Bromsgrove at 1918. Cheese, rustic bread and a glass Avoncroft’s traditional annual of wine included .Admission: £17 per celebration. Craft stalls, bands, choirs ticket. Booking required. and mulled wine. The grounds and Bantock House,Finchfield Rd buildings will be decorated in authentic Wolverhampton WV3 9LQ. Christmas style and illuminated by 01902 552195 lanterns. Tickets: Adults £7 & Children £5 (Members: Adults £3 & Children £2) Twenty Years of Archaeology in Birmingham DAY SCHOOLS Archaeological excavations throughout Worcestershire Annual Archaeology Black Country History Day the city have transformed our view of Saturday 18 October Day School Contact Dr Malcolm Dick, Centre for University of Worcester. Birmingham’s past. West Midlands History University of Saturday 15 November Birmingham. Tel: 0121 415 8253 or Learn about discoveries and research In addition to excavation, timbers of email: [email protected] over the last year in the County. historic buildings have been dated by tree- Talks range from Redditch Local ring dating, and LiDAR has located History Society's work celebrating Our past Uncovered Archaeology Day earthworks in Sutton Park. Pollen and Anglo Saxon Warwickshire the 50th anniversary of the New Saturday 25 October Town to recent excavations beetles have provided information on past Heritage and Culture Warwickshire revealing past inhabitants of the environmental conditions. present a day of talks, displays and County. Contact 01905 765560 or email interactive workshops related to local All periods of the city’s past have been discovered and investigated, including [email protected] history and archaeology. 10,000 years old remains near Curzon Street; Neolithic pottery in Bournville; £15 per person (£5 for stallholders) Bronze Age burnt mounds throughout the city; Iron Age and Roman farms on Birmingham History Day Contact 01926 412132 to book your the M6 Toll motorway; a Roman livestock-collecting centre in King’s Norton; Saturday 22 November place. If you are a local history medieval industries in Bullring in the city centre; the medieval village of Aston; Contact Dr Malcolm Dick, Centre for society who would like a stall please and glassworks, brassworks, limekilns and other canalside industries. contact West Midlands History University of [email protected] Birmingham. Tel: 0121 415 8253 or Nationally important sites have been protected through designation as email: [email protected] scheduled monuments, such as Peddimore Hall, and extension of scheduled areas as at Sutton Park. Archaeological remains have been displayed and interpreted in new developments: landscaping in the new Queen Elizabeth RON WAITE Hospital includes grassed banks on the line of the ramparts of Metchley Roman fort. The results of excavations in the city centre have been included in It is with great sadness that we have to a display in Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, and several books and report the sudden death of Ron Waite. articles have been published about the results of archaeological work. Ron made an invaluable contribution to Dr Mike Hodder was Birmingham City early prehistoric studies in the Council’s Planning Archaeologist from Midlands, both Mesolithic and 1994 to 2014. He still gives talks about Palaeolithic by his lifelong fieldwalking the city’s archaeology and can be contacted at: for lithic surface finds. A full obituary RON (BARRY) WAITE: will be printed in the next edition of [email protected] 4 JULY 1949-23 JULY 2014 West Midlands Archaeology. Local Government Archaeology in the West Midlands Local authorities (LAs) are required by the National Planning Policy Framework and legislation to take the Historic Environment into consideration when evaluating every planning application submitted to them or when designing strategic/forward plans for the long term development and management of the environment. This forms part of a suite of environmental considerations that LAs must satisfy in order to ensure sustainable development. Most LAs employ one or more archaeologists to provide this advice, or in the case of two tier authorities, the districts consult an archaeologist(s) employed at the county council level. These local government Historic Environment professionals do far more than simply evaluating planning applications. They provide support to people seeking to understand and conserve local heritage assets (from school children to academics); engage local communities planning for their area's future; and inform those seeking to more effectively manage distinctive environments and landscapes. LAs in the West Midlands have a huge challenge ahead, with budget cuts of up to £150,000,000 from central Government. Historic Environment services are seeing increasing pressure with jobs and services being cut across the region. Worcestershire Archive and Archaeology Service, for example, is seeing a 65% budget cut by 2016/17. Other councils are not so lucky, potentially seeing up to 100% cut; for instance Sandwell. CBAWM, along with National CBA, English Heritage and the Institute