“We know where we’re going and we know who’s going with us….”, but where have we been?? Scroll down to find out……September 2017 onwards

Monday 27th August 2018 Aylsham Show

What a brilliant day! So many Friends came and saw us and many visitors came to ask about the project and get information for next year. Thank you everyone.

Wednesday 1st August 2018 Open Air Talk Woodgate Nursery

A brilliant evening on the Kiln field with over 60 people enjoying a picnic and a talk by Peter. What a great way to prepare for the start of this year’s adventure!

 

Saturday 28th July 2018 Norfolk Day Aylsham Market Place

We wanted the rain, but why did it have to come just before the Norfolk Day Celebration! We all arrived in the Market Place and set up, only to find gazebos blown away, umbrellas knocked over and cakes getting spoilt by wind and rain. The day was saved, though, by us all going into the Town Hall. Another good morning sharing what we are doing and encouraging people to come and see what we are doing. Our new pull-up posters of the two kilns proved really useful to explain what we have found.

Schools’ Week 2018 Friday 29th June

Day 5 and the final day. It was another warm day and we were joined by children from Beeston Hall who worked really well and tidied all the areas Martin had earmarked for digging. Another tree bowl was found and a possible pit containing Roman pottery. We  also found some imported pottery and pieces of kiln fabric. Thank you for making our last day a really good one.

 

 

Schools’ Week 2018 Thursday 28th June

Day 4, where is the week going? Bure Valley School joined us in the morning and Aylsham High School in the afternoon. Less breezy today so not so much dust eating! Further finds to add to our collection with pieces of burnt and cracked flint, bits of charcoal, Roman and Medieval pottery, slag, kiln lining and a rusty nail. One interesting piece of tesserae also appeared while sieving, well spotted! Another great day, thank you all for coming.

 

 

 

Schools’ Week 2018 Wednesday 27th June

Day 3 and we were joined by Year 2 from Greshams Pre Prep School, Holt. A breezy day saw us all getting dust in our faces, but everyone worked away and found items in both areas. Roman pottery and tile, Medieval brick, square-headed nails from the Roman/ Medieval period, struck flint and cracked flint all appeared. Kiln material was also found – could there be another Roman kiln somewhere in the field? Only time will tell. Thank you for adding to our finds, hope you all enjoyed your day.

Schools’ Week 2018 Tuesday 26th June

Our second day and we were joined by a group from Gresham Senior School, Holt and St Nicholas House, North Walsham. A great day’s sieving and digging brought numerous finds – Roman and Medieval pottery and tile,  another Mesolithic flint blade, 17th century clay pipe stem, some more slag, tiny pieces of charcoal and one very burnt piece of kiln lining, with one end showing it had been almost hot enough to turn it into glass. A further piece of slag turned out to be melted peacock ore, a rare find for this area. Thank you all for coming, hope you had a safe journey back at the end of another hot day.

 

 

 

Schools’ Week 2018 Monday 26th June

It has arrived, our school week has begun and we welcomed two Aylsham schools today, John of Gaunt Infant and Nursery and St Michael’s Infant and Nursery. We had a fantastic day with both schools, who after digging and sieving, found a variety of items – our own Roman grey Woodgateware pottery, bit of Medieval pottery, iron slag, a couple of bits of pipe- stem and part of a bowl – and two flint blades, one Neolithic and one Mesolithic. Wow! Thank you all, you helped get the week of to a great start.

 

 

 

 

June 13th 2018 Mick Aston Award

This must be our lucky month! We applied for, and have obtained, a Mick Aston Archaeology Fund Grant towards buying video equipment. The BBC Voices project we were involved with last year showed us how important short video clips and on-site interviews were to bring everything to life and record what we are doing and finding. The fund is supported by the Council for British Archaeology and Historic England and we would like to thank all for awarding us this grant. Photos of purchases to follow.

 

 

 

 

June 9th/10th 2018 Woodgate Nursery Show

A couple of brilliant days at Woodgate Nursery Show saw us take an astounding £1000 on the stall and get another £1500 from the gate receipts etc. £2500 towards the summer dig is absolutely outstanding. Thank you everyone for your donations, coming to see us and supporting Peter’s show in general. It was a  fantastic weekend all round.

 

 

 

 

June 7th 2018 BBC Radio Norfolk

Last summer we were involved in a BBC Voices project, led by Gary Standley from the BBC, and 17 hours of filming have produced a great 15 minute video which will very shortly be on the Norfolk on Film website. Yesterday afternoon we were at BBC Radio Norfolk on the Matthew Gudgin show talking about the project. Many thanks to Gary, Dominic and all at BBC voices for making this possible.

 

 

 

 

June 6th 2018 Cawston WI

Thank you to all at Cawston WI  where Peter gave a talk about the project. It was a lovely evening with lots of interest and questions. We do hope you will come and see us in August.

May 24th 2018 Tesco Blue tokens

Brilliant news! We have come first in the Tesco’s #BagsofHelp initiative. This is to support our Schools’ Week in June and is absolutely fantastic. Thank you to everyone @tesco_aylsham and all you Tesco shoppers out there who posted your blue tokens in our box. Your support is so important to us.

May 4th 2018 Sheringham Breathe Easy Group

Sheila gave a talk to the Breathe Easy Group at Sheringham Community Centre. There was a lot of interest shown, with many having been to the Nursery to buy their plants but not realised what was there as well.

April 30th CBM with Andy

Andy Fawcett, Britannia Arcaeology talked to a small group about recognising, sorting and recording the tile etc that we have from the past two years. The talk was really informative and has given us the help we need to look through all our bags and see what we really have. Thank you, Andy. Martin and Dan were here as well, walking around the site with Peter to decide where we will be digging this year. All will be revealed soon!

 

 

 

 

April 26th and 27th 2018 Geeophysics with Britannia Archaeology

Matt and Louisa from Britannia Archaeology were here to complete some more geophysics, this time the whole area to the north of the lake. Some interesting features, suggesting further ditches, enclosures and trackways. Thank you both for sharing your expertise and allowing some of our Friends to have a go. The weather was very mixed, sunny but breezy the first day and very wet the second! Sable, as usual, managed to dig a hole and find bits of pottery and tile. Matt believes she has found a ditch, clever Sable!

 

 

 

 

 

April 26th 2018 Binham Local History Group

Peter gave a talk about the project to the group at Binham Village Hall. Thank you, Pennie, for making us very welcomed.

April 21st 2018 Bric-a-Brac Sale Part 2!

Thankfully no rain this time, the sun came out in the afternoon and we had a busy time. Thank you to all who came and helped, bought, donated and became a Friend. Name the Bear winner was Mrs Toplis, head of John of Gaunt Infant and Nursery School, Aylsham.

 

 

 

 

 

April 17th 2018 CBM and Kiln Fabric

Progess! Teams Sable and Gronmoad have now completed the sorting, counting, weighing and recording the CBM and kiln material. This information has been added to the concordance sheet, along with the pottery information. While this has been happening, Colin has been going through the final boxes from August 2016, finding interesting markings on many pieces.

 

 

 

 

 

April 2nd 2018 Bric-a-Brac Sale

It poured all day, the marquee was flooded so we set up in the Nursery shop at Woodgate. Thank you to everyone who came and saw us, bought something and signed up to be a Friend and to participate in the summer. We really did appreciate it.

March 16th 2018 Quiz Night

What a fantastic night. Eighty people came to the Friendship Hall in Aylsham and made it a night to remember, full of fun, laughter, good quiz and good company. Fourteen teams battled it out and it was a very close fight at the top, with Be Afraid Lurcio just pipping Thorns and roses for the top spot and Hadrian’s Lot just a couple of points behind. Thank you to all who took part or helped to organised. It was such a busy night that no photographs were taken!

March 15th 2018 David Kirkham

David Kirkham, Fisheye Images, visited today and took some great photos of some of the coins, metal work, tiles and our lovely big waster. We hope he will visit again and take further photos , some of which we hope to use when building an online datebase. Thank you for your time, David.

 

 

 

 

 

 

March 6th 2918 Tesco Bags of Help

Calling all you Tesco shoppers out there! Please come and shop @TescoEastAnglia  store in Aylsham, ask for #bagsofhelp blue tokens and pop them in our box. It will be there throughout March and April. Remember, every little helps!Thank you very much.

 

 

 

 

 

 

February 16th 2018 Blakeney U3A

Our latest visit was to the U3A group at Blakeney Village Hall. 50-60 people enjoyed Peter’s talk about what we have been doing and we left with a very kind donation, thank you. We look forward to seeing many of you during August this year, do email us and confirm your visit so we can meet and take you around the site.

 

 

 

 

 

 

January 24th 2018 Erpingham WI

Peter was at Erpingham Village Hall updating the WI and other visitors to the meeting about our discoveries to date. There was a lot of interest and we hope to see some of you in August at our  summer dig.

January 22nd 2018 Colchester Archaeology Group

Martin, Britannia Archaeology, presented a talk about our finds during one of their lecture evenings. Diana and Sheila were there to answer further questions, Peter, unfortunately, unable to come due to a bad back. Thank you to all at CAG for making us welcome. Please come and see us in August if you can, we would love to show you around. Not quite so much Roman here as you have, though….

 

 

 

 

 

 

December 6th 2017 Awards Night

We had a good time at the Stars of Norfolk and Waveney Awards held last night at St Andrews Church in Norwich. We didn’t win, but came away with another trophy for the display cabinet and a big promotion about the project from Nick Conrad, the compere, following his visit in the summer. Congratulations to all winners – well deserved for all the work they do. We were a little bemused, though, that after Peter having sent in photos of himself dear old Martin appeared in the brochure and on the huge display screen!

 

 

 

 

 

 

December 5th 2017 Gresham’s School Talk

Peter and Sheila gave a talk to Gresham’s Pre-Prep Year 2 children about what has been found in Aylsham, supporting their work on the Romans this term. Various pieces of Roman pottery, tile, iron ore etc were passed around and Gronmoad made another appearance  as well. Many thanks to the head and staff for inviting us and welcoming us into their school, we enjoyed meeting you all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

November 16th 2017 BBC Voices progress

Colin and George met Gary Standley from the BBC Voices project at The Forum and spent a couple of hours sorting out a story line. There’s still a good way to go before we see the final result, but they will keep us up to date with progress.

 

 

 

 

 

 

November 15th 2017 Social Event

Just under 60 people were at Aylsham High School to hear a review of the year, audio and video recordings taken during the summer and a presentation of the August Dig by Peter. Refreshments were prepared in the school with the help of students Libby and Albert. It was a good to meet up again and to talk and reflect on how the year had gone. Thank you, AHS, for providing a good venue and excellent refreshements. Perhaps we should do this again?

 

 

 

 

 

 

November 2nd 2017 Aylsham Rotary

Peter gave a talk to the Aylsham branch of Rotary at The New Forge in Aylsham about this year’s dig. Great interest was shown and questions asked.

October 12th 2017 Fantastic news!

At the Broadland Community at Heart Awards 2017, held at The Space, Norwich, Peter and Woodgate Nursery won the award for Business Community Supporter of the Year. The award was given for involving the community in the Aylsham Roman Project, working with schools throughout the year and the annual garden show which has raised thousands of pounds for local charities and good causes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

October 10th 2017 Team Gronmoad

Our second week, with Team Gronmoad, and already things are calmer! We have many weeks ahead with this year’s finds, but already we have the system up and running.

October 3rd 2017 Organisation out of Chaos Team Sable

Our first Tuesday session with Team Sable and it was a case of moving many boxes and bags from the floor and table in order to start checking what still needed to be washed, cleaned and sorted, but we did.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

September 7th 2017 Aylsham WI

Peter gave a talk to the Aylsham WI in Aylsham Town Hall about the outcomes of this year’s dig. Some of the finds were on display and there was a chance for the ladies to buy some of the promotional items.