ARCHAE CBA West Midlands OLOGY Newsletter West Midlands Issue Number 26 Summer 2018 News from the Past 2019 In this Issue Saturday 23rd March Carrs Lane Church Centre Lectures, events and museum Carrs Lane, Birmingham updates HeadlineC Talk – What’s New HS2 On Ancient Tracks – new gallery at HS2 offers a unique opportunity to tell the Hartlebury Castle story of Britain, it’s past and future. Find out museum about new discoveries in the West Midlands Virtual Saxon Fee: £20, CBAWM members may deduct £5 Wolverhampton Light refreshments included (please bring your Blists Hill Victorian own lunch). Town in Steam Send cheques payable to CBA West Midlands Steve Linnane to Caroline Mosley CBA West Midlands, 16 Obituary Beverley Court Road, Quinton, Birmingham B32 1HD Committee Contact Details Enquiries: 07786 941059 or email [email protected] Talks and Lectures Birmingham and Coventry and District Warwickshire Archaeological Society Archaeological Society 11th September October 2nd 2018 Dr Roger White Speaker: Richard Bradley Margaret Rylatt Memorial Barrows and Burnt Mounds: Lecture: Romans in the West Investigations at Meriden Midlands Quarry, 2013-2015 9th October November 6th 2018 Mathew Morris WARWICK MUSEUM LECTURE Castle Hill - In Search of the Recent Discoveries in Knights Hospitallers Warwickshire 13th November December 4th 2018 - AGM Vicki Score - The Akrotiri Project Speaker: Nick Daffern The Ice Age and Palaeolithic 11th December West Midlands a.k.a The Deirdre O'Sullivan Original West Midlands Safari J.B. Shelton Memorial Lecture: Park Urban Hopes and Urban Destinies: the Coventry Friaries ALL lectures are held at the (covering both Whitefriars and Birmingham and Midland Greyfriars) Institute except that on November 6th which will be All meetings will be held at held at the Warwick Market Hall Friends Meeting House, Hill Museum. Street, Coventry, at 19:30. There is a £1 door charge per member Evening lectures start at 7pm. (excluding children of family Lunchtime lecture in January members) to defray room hire starts at 1pm. fees. Door fee for non members Non-members welcome - £3 – is £3 pay on the door. Talks and Lectures Staffordshire Staffordshire Archaeological and Archaeological and Historical Society Historical Society 28th September 2018 23rd November 2018 Dr Richard Bifield 1709-2009: Dr David Freke Mind the Gap: Celebrating the 300th 2500 years of high level activity anniversary of the Birth of the at Warmington, South Industrial Revolution at Warwickshire Coalbrookdale 7th December 2018 Annual 12th October 2018 General Meeting - this will Nigel Page Recent Investigation commence at 7.30pm - then at Baginton Warwickshire Mike Glasson Walsall, town of a Hundred Trades 26th October 2018 Dr Malcolm Dick Slavery, Anti- Unless stated otherwise, Slavery and the Black Presence lectures are held in the in the West Midlands 1700 to Guildhall, Bore Street, Lichfield 1838 WS13 6LX, starting at 8.00pm. The doors are open from 9th November 2018 7:30pm when refreshments are Shane Kelleher Staffordshire available. Matters: Including the WWII ‘Stop Line’ HLF project, an Admission is free to members. update on Chase Through Time, Visitors are welcome: £3 and an overview of archaeology at Ironbridge https://www.sahs.uk.net/ On Ancient Tracks New archaeology gallery opens at County Museum at Hartlebury Castle On Ancient Tracks introduces the story of Worcestershire's early inhabitants using archaeological finds, stunning visuals and handling objects. The new exhibition begins over half a million years ago when the ice stood hundreds of metres tall above the Worcestershire landscape, with the earliest evidence of hominids, a different species to modern man, who lived in this area of Britain during the Ice Age. Iron Age in Worcestershire is a story of hillfort strongholds, tribal war and massacre on Bredon Hill, but also one of farms and villages in the countryside below, that prospered from agriculture and from industry such as iron and salt production. The Roman army, on its way to Wales, passed through Worcestershire in the 40s and 50s AD. Britain prospered under Roman rule and the area that is now Worcestershire was no exception, with rapid expansion of important industries, including iron working in Worcester and pottery manufacture in Malvern. Finally, the medieval period is dominated by the rise of the church with the Cathedral in Worcester at its heart, and also the rise of towns and their marketplaces where the county's agricultural produce was bought and sold. During this period the pottery kilns of Malvern became active once more and the Droitwich salt industry flourished. The cloth, and later the leather and gloving industries, added to the county's increasing prosperity and at the height of its powers the River Severn became one of the busiest shipping highways in the world. Hartlebury Castle is open 1 February – 23 December, Tuesday – Friday 10am – 5pm, Saturdays, Sundays and Bank Holidays 11am – 5pm. For more information please call the County Museum at Hartlebury Castle on 01299 250416 or visit www.museumsworcestershire.org.uk What Did the Romans Do For Us? Market Hall Museum, Warwick – Thursday 23rd August 10am – 3pm Try your hand as a Roman architect for the day. Design a mosaic and see if you can build a Roman arch that will stand for two thousand years. Then try on our Roman clothes and make a laurel leaf headdress to complete the look. Take part in our museum trail and quiz. £2.50 per child, no need to book just drop in. All children must be accompanied by an adult. More information - http://heritage.warwickshire.gov.uk/summer-holiday- activities-3/ What Did the Romans Do For Us? Relaxed Opening Market Hall Museum, Warwick – Thursday 23rd August 4pm – 6pm Discover our ancient Roman activities and explore our collections at your own pace whilst the museum is closed to the general public. All welcome, suitable for those who would benefit from a quieter museum experience. Take part in our museum trail and quiz. Book online at www.warwickshire.gov.uk/heritageboxoffice , £2.50 per child payable on the day. All children must be accompanied by an adult. Dino Dig Excavation Family Activity Birmingham Museum – 26th May to 9th September on every Saturday and Sunday during the Dippy on Tour exhibition, and every Tuesday and Thursday during Birmingham School Summer holiday. Experience what it is like to be a palaeontologist in this fun family activity. Using tools to excavate bones, fossils and fragments, uncover our own dinosaur skeleton buried in our giant sand pit. More information http://www.birminghammuseums.org.uk/bmag/whats-on/dino- dig-excavation-family-activity Virtual Saxon Wolverhampton As part of a recent Viking and Saxon exhibit at Wolverhampton Museum and Art Gallery, a digital simulation was created of what Wolverhampton may have looked like during the Saxon period, that could be explored like a computer game. The column outside St Peter’s church is the only physical evidence relating to Anglo- Saxon Wolverhampton, but we can reconstruct what the settlement might have looked like from a range of other sources. Within the model, the topography was generated from lidar data from the Environment agency; the boundary is based on studies of old maps and would typically have been marked with a deep ditch. The church was generally on the highest part of the settlement, overlooking the hinterland. The first church at Wolverhampton was likely to have been made of timber, although the one in the model is based on the surviving Anglo-Saxon church at Escomb, co Durham. Virtual Saxon Wolverhampton The settlement would have had an agricultural economy, supported by various farmsteads and enclosures, and the land around farmed in long strips, with teams of oxen pulling the ploughs. Nearby woodland would have been carefully managed as a valuable resource for timber, underwood and wild game such as deer and wild pigs, and pools and rivers will have provided fish. As well as keeping sheep, goats, chickens and oxen, the Anglo-Saxons were keen beekeepers, using wicker hives to collect honey and wax for many purposes. Salt, essential for preserving food for the winter months, will have been obtained from the salt-producing area around Droitwich to the south. The focus of the settlement would have been the lord of the manor’s great timber hall with a central fire. Lyres and flutes would provide music. Cloth would be woven on looms. Poems and epic sagas such as Beowulf which celebrated loyalty to one’s lord would have been recited as entertainment. The houses are based on reconstructions at West Stow in Suffolk and Bede’s World (Jarrow), and would have been made of timber and wattle and daub, with thatched roofs. The exhibit is now closed but it is hoped that a demo version of the simulation will be on display at News from the Past next year, so attendees can explore ‘Virtual Saxon Wolverhampton’ in real life! Blists Hill Victorian Town ‘in steam’ Blists Hill Victorian Town is one of the museums operated by the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust within the World Heritage Site. It was opened in 1973 on the site of a former industrial complex that included a brick and tile works blast furnaces, and coal, iron and fire clay mines. Some of these buildings have been incorporated into the open-air museum, while other original buildings have been relocated here. The museum has three districts – a town area with shops, bank, and post office; an industrial district with a blast furnace and wrought iron works; and a countryside district with buildings such as a squatters cottage an tin roof church. Visitors can meet the Victorian townsfolk, watch demonstrations in their workshops, and buy curious goods from the traditional shops. Blists Hill Victorian Town will be ‘in steam’ on Saturday 18th and Sunday 19th August, giving people a rare chance to get up close and personal with an array of Victorian Steam powered machines, all of which will be in their full working splendour.