March madness or addictive archaeology?

CBA North’s letter

Dear CBA North members, followers and friends,

Firstly can I welcome new members to the group and its email news of events happening across the CBA North region.

By the time you are reading this it will be spring time – at least it will be meteorological springtime, though the weather may be dismal still. Spring brings to mind mad March hares (in the natural world), other financial end of year madness (in the economic world) and many many events (in our shared archaeological world).

This month’s email gives you details of some of the variety of events – which include the resumption of the Durham Archaeology Day – this month, albeit with a bit of March madness of how many events there are to try and get to. Or is it that – I think we know the answer – archaeology is addictive?

A number of you asked about what the letters after the speakers and their titles are in our last email. These are the acronyms or abbreviations for the organising local group as detailed in the Local Societies and Groups | CBA North (wordpress.com) page of our website.

Thus the Teesside Archaeological Society, a group member of CBA North, whose lectures have been newly added to the website page are noted as TAS. The Border Archaeological Society, whose March talk tomorrow (Monday) night at Berwick on the nearby Lindisfarne, is BAS, and so on. The full list – as far as we know – for the year is still on Events website page (see Events | CBA North (wordpress.com)) and additions welcome.

We can wholly away with these identifiers to put the whole of the group’s name if people want – but do people want?

These abbreviations were, here, originally to reduce the length (and hence printing and postage costs) of the previous newsletters. As options we can keep them, or put the full title of the organising group each and every time. This might mean that the start of the year email is extremely long as the likes of the Architectural and Archaeological Society of Durham and Northumberland, as well as the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne and others again, are typed up in full. There are plusses and minuses with those options.

However I welcome any thoughts and particularly those of any CBA North group member representatives on this, and more specifically from the latter as this is the 80th anniversary of the CBA with its focus for the Festival of Archaeology later in the year. It is over to you as our membership!

Best wishes,

Keith Elliott
CBA North Acting Chair and Secretary

March 2024 Events from across the CBA North Region
4 March, New light on the Early Medieval archaeology of Holy Island, David Petts [BAS]
6 March, Samuel Brown and Union Chain Bridge: its history and restoration, Edward Cawthorn [TILLVAS]
9 March, Catholic Country Houses in Durham and Northumberland 1570-1829, Richard Pears [ARCH & ARCH]
9 March, AGM and Double Bill of Talks: Excavation of a 14th century settlement, David Jones and Richard Carlton [ALTOGETHER]
11 March, Medieval Monastery Hospitals and Care, Sandra Gann [LOWICK HERITAGE GROUP]
11 March, Recent Excavations on Lindisfarne, Dr David Petts [LUNESDALE]
19 March, Recent Excavations of some Prehistoric and Romano-British Sites in Teesside, Jamie Armstrong [TAS]
25 March, Muncaster Castle Wartime Secret, Rob David [KENDAL]
27 March, Discovering African Lives in North East England, Beverley Prevatt Goldstein [SANT]

Hadrian’s Wall Archaeology Forum
This week also includes the Hadrian’s Wall Archaeology Forum on Saturday, 9 March 2024, at the Queen’s Hall Arts Centre, from 0915 to 1615.

David Mason who many of you will know sends us the following details;

This is the thirteenth Hadrian’s Wall Archaeology Forum. The programme this year will include talks on recent excavations at Birdoswald, Vindolanda, Milecastle 46 near Carvoran, and the Carlisle bathhouse as well as the discovery of Turret 3A at Ouseburn, Roman mineral extraction in the North Pennines, and recent work at Corbridge.

The new edition of the Hadrian’s Wall Archaeology Magazine (No. 12) will be on sale at the event along with a selection of other publications, butt please note cash or cheques only.

Tickets are £16 (which includes morning refreshments). Bookings can be made through the Hadrian’s Wall Archaeology Forum | Queen’s Hall Arts Centre (queenshall.co.uk) for the conference, as well as there being a bookable lunch for an extra £10 at Hexham Abbey (with further details on that from the same website page also). 

To book tickets for the event, and lunch if preferred, please contact boxoffice@queenshall.co.uk or phone 01434 652477.

For further information on the day itself, please contact David himself direct at david.mason@durham.gov.uk or by phone 03000 267012.

Durham Archaeology Day
David’s work colleague Nick Boldrini, who many of you will also know, also sends us on details of Durham Archaeology Day’s return – though for the first time this is being held at Bishop Auckland Town Hall. This is on Saturday, 23 March 2024, with all the talks relating to somewhere in County Durham and also with doors opening 0915 as well.

Nick notes;
Topics featured will include excavations at an early prehistoric settlement at Grassholme, a Bronze Age site at Gilmonby, Iron Age/Romano-British settlements at Gueswick and Newton Aycliffe, as well as Medieval occupation at Elvet Riverside, historic building recording in the River Skerne catchment area and an update on discoveries recorded by the Portable Antiquities Scheme. There will also be displays by local societies and archaeological contractors as well as bookstalls.


[Note the Lanchester Diploma isn’t a recent find of those to be discussed, but was recorded by the Portable Antiquities Scheme some years ago – see Record ID: DUR-C3E4FE – ROMAN plaque (finds.org.uk) for more].

In this case bookings can be made through the County Durham Archaeology Day 2024 (bishopaucklandtownhall.org.uk) for the talks, as well as there being an optional bookable lunch as well (to be booked in the same website process in booking your ticket from the same website page as well).

For those that are unfamiliar with Bishop Auckland Town Hall as venue, then this quirky building is a Listed Building and also pictured by the National Heritage List for England as TOWN HALL, Bishop Auckland – 1297550 | Historic England.

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If you would like to submit something to our CBA North news emails, please feel free to do so! It still remains a fact that editors can only work with what they are sent, but we hope for more updates of recent projects soon. If you would like to submit something, please send it in to cbanorth@archaeologyuk.org !

CBA North: Chair’s New Year’s Message and 2024 Events

Dear CBA North members, followers and friends,

I wish you all a happy and successful 2024.

This time of year gives a point to look forwards to the future year, as well as review the year that has gone. There has been continued growth in our CBA North membership – either through National-to-North members, as well North-only members, and in all categories of our membership. We of course remember those who are now longer with us and their many and varied contributions.

Many programmes of talks and lectures have resumed, as well as fieldwork activities, for 2023-24 seasons, with 2024 seasons yet to start. Across the CBA North region there are many events to look forward to. Queries and questions made of CBA North have continued to be answered behind the scenes and northern representation made of local group issues in various discussions.

This year sees the 80th anniversary of the Council of British Archaeology, with events particularly focussed to the local and regional groups that continue to form such a part of British archaeology, history and heritage. There are now many more local societies across the CBA North region than there was in 1944; there remain challenges for archaeology, but line with 1944 there is much to look forward to after strained times in preceding years. If you would like to get involved with CBA North and CBA National in such events let me know.

As usual a list of the 2024 events known of is now on our Events website page (see Events | CBA North (wordpress.com)).

Please feel free to circulate this email and/or website page link around your friends, family and local group memberships. Last year I invited comments from you as our membership and followers, but there were few messages. Please, as ever, do let me know your comments and views, as well as more particularly any news for all CBA North’s wider membership as we ourselves get back to normal.

Best wishes for 2024,

Keith Elliott
CBA North Acting Chair and Secretary

2024 Events across the CBA North Region
January 2024
7 January, Kelt Fishcakes and Gilse: Net Fishers on the Tweed, Jim Gibson [TILLVAS]
8 January, The Lost Stations between Middlesbrough and Redcar, Michael Thompson [Cleveland Industrial Archaeology Society]
8 January, Stories and story telling in archaeology: analysis of metalwork, Emily Williams [LUNESDALE]
11 January, AGM and Member’s Evening [APPLEBY]
13 January, A North Northumberland Early Anglo-Saxon high-status site: targeted later by the Viking Great Army?, Dr Jane Harrison [ARCH & ARCH]
29 January, Common Ground: the History of Common Ground, Angus Winchester [KENDAL] 
31 January, Understanding the Northumbrians: Cultural Archaeology and the Longue Duree in the History of North East England, Dan Jackson [SANT]

February 2024
4 February, Neolithic kinships in the Cotswolds, Chris Fowler [TILLVAS]
5 February, Reconstructing Hadrian’s Wall: an explanation into how the frontier may have looked, David Breeze [BAS]
10 February, Raby Castle, Richard Annis and Julie Biddlecombe-Brown [ARCH & ARCH]
26 February, Sleech Salt making in Medieval and Modern Cumbria, Bill Shannon [KENDAL]
28 February, The Late Medieval Settlement of Linbrig, David Jones and Richard Carlton [SANT]

March 2024
4 March, New light on the Early Medieval archaeology of Holy Island, David Petts [BAS]
6 March, Samuel Brown and Union Chain Bridge: its history and restoration, Edward Cawthorn [TILLVAS]
9 March, Catholic Country Houses in Durham and Northumberland 1570-1829, Richard Pears [ARCH & ARCH]
9 March, AGM and Double Bill of Talks: Excavation of a 14th century settlement, David Jones and Richard Carlton [ALTOGETHER]
11 March, Recent Excavations on Lindisfarne, Dr David Petts [LUNESDALE]
25 March, Muncaster Castle Wartime Secret, Rob David [KENDAL]
27 March, Discovering African Lives in North East England, Beverley Prevatt Goldstein [SANT]

April 2024
3 April, Fact to fiction: Cresswell Connections, Katherine Tiernan [TILLVAS]
8 April, AGM and Prehistoric finds and the Portable Antiquities Scheme in Northumberland, Andy Agate [BAS]
13 April, Excavation and Building Recording at Egglescliffe Old Hall, Kate Chapman [ARCH & ARCH]
15 April, New Neolithic Explanations on the Island of Sanday, Orkney, Prof Vicki Cummings [LUNESDALE]
22 April, Crime and Society in thirteenth-century Cumbria, Henry Summerson [KENDAL]
24 April, North-East Miners’ Banners, Ken Smith [SANT]

May 2024
1 May, AGM and speaker to be announced [TILLVAS]
11 May, Tour, lecture and AGM at Lumley Castle [ARCH & ARCH]
13 May, Reflections on the 2023 Coronation, David White, Garter King of Arms [BAS]
29 May, The Northumberland Landholdings of the House of Cospatric, Colm O’Brien [SANT]

June 2024
3 June, Making connections: using rock art and excavated material to improve our understanding of the hunter-gatherer past in the Khahlamba-Drakensberg mountains, South Africa, Aron Mazel [BAS]
5 June, topic and speaker to be announced [TILLVAS]
8 June, To be announced in due course [ARCH & ARCH]
26 June, New Discoveries at Yeavering, Northumberland, Sarah Semple and Roger Miket [SANT]

July 2024
31 July, Bishop Auckland: The Growth of an Historic Market Town, Clare Howard and Jules Brown [SANT]

August 2024
28 August, Pregnancy and Childbirth in Nineteenth-Century Tyneside, Jessica Cox [SANT]

September 2024
2 September, Subject and speaker to be announced [BAS]
25 September, Lindisfarne and Archaeological Approaches to Britain’s High Crosses, Christine Cowart-Smith [SANT]

October 2024
7 October, Excavations at Marshall Meadows, David Jackson [BAS]
30 October, Birdoswald Fort Project 2021-2024, Ian Haynes and Tony Wilmott [SANT]

November 2024
4 November, Berrington and the Devil’s Causeway: new work, Bill Blyth [BAS]
27 November, Aspects of Roman Scotland, Fraser Hunter [SANT]

December 2024
2 December, An Iron Age Warrior in a Bronze Age Cemetery, Marshill, Alloa, Susan Mills [BAS]

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If you would like to submit something to our CBA North news emails, please feel free to do so ! It still remains a fact that editors can only work with what they are sent. If you would like to submit something, please send it in to cbanorth@archaeologyuk.org !

Festival of Archaeology 2023

CBA North’s Chair’s Message

Dear CBA North members, followers and friends,

It is a while since the last CBA North news email, however it has not been an uneventful time for history, heritage and archaeology all across the CBA North region. Behind the scenes our membership numbers continue to grow, questions and queries answered of us, the representation of all our members undertaken and some spring-cleaning of the CBA North website.

Undeniably all will have seen some changes from Covid-19, with some changes in audiences, numbers, times and methods of presentation and days happening. However it seems that we are in a newer again normal.

One of these normal events is the Festival of Archaeology, but ever more established with a mixture of both online and on-site things.

More routine news will also be sent out in the next email, but as ever we would welcome more articles, perhaps reviews of sites or places, and content from our members and especially of our local group members. There is already some content culled from various websites for our next issue, but more is always welcome for your own summer activities.

As ever, please feel free to circulate this email and/or website page link around your friends, family and local group memberships. Earlier in the year I invited comments from you as our membership and followers, but there have been only a few messages of thoughts for CBA North. However please, as ever, do let me know your comments and views, as well as more particularly any news for all CBA North’s wider membership as we all get back to or explore the newest normal.

Best wishes for the Festival and the summer,

Keith Elliott
CBA North Acting Chair and Secretary

Festival of Archaeology 2023
This year’s Festival of Archaeology runs from Saturday, 15 July, to Sunday, 30 July, with events across the region and country generally. The Festival website lists all the events registered on-site and online, as well a variety of online resources, with activities, tours, talks and much more from the website. This year’s theme is Archaeology and Creativity.

For more information in what happening for the Festival please visit the website at Festival of Archaeology Council for British Archaeology (archaeologyuk.org) for more details.

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If you would like to submit something to our CBA North news emails, feel free to do so ! It still remains a fact that editors can only work with what they are sent. If you would like to submit something, please send it in to cbanorth@archaeologyuk.org !

CBA North: Chair’s New Year’s Message and 2023 Events

Dear CBA North members, followers and friends,

I wish you all a happy and successful 2023.

The change in year gives a point for a pause to look backwards over the past year and also to look ahead. CBA North has continued to grow in its membership; local society and group meetings have resumed largely in-person and live, but in places hybrid and recordings available; archaeological fieldwork for volunteers has happened; visitor attractions are opening all the more. These all are normal occurrences for the year, but after near three years of unusual conditions from Covid-19 they still feel new, familiar though they are as happenings.

However, there are also new ‘new’ things to look forward to. Some have been held over from 2022 and indeed before. That said things are taking a while to get back fully to normal, with in-person audiences often smaller than before, and new experiments and technologies being taken up. CBA North is no different in those as well, and hopefully we will be able to get back on our feet this year.

As usual this time of year there are many local society and group events to look forward to. A list of the 2023 events known of is now on our Events website page (see Events | CBA North (wordpress.com)) and this is only likely to grow.

Please feel free to circulate this email and/or website page link around your friends, family and local group memberships. Last year I invited comments from you as our membership and followers, but there were only a few messages. Please, as ever, do let me know your comments and views, as well as more particularly any news for all CBA North’s wider membership as we ourselves get back to normal.

More regular news emails to all CBA North’s members, hopefully, will resume as more regular events and news happens this year. There have already been some contributions for the next ‘issue’.

Best wishes for 2023,

Keith Elliott
CBA North Acting Chair and Secretary

2023 Events across the CBA North Region
January 2023
4 January, Ford in the Time of the Waterfords, Linda Bankier [TILLVAS]
7 January, The reconstruction of the former RAF Operations Room at the Imperial War Museum (IWM) Duxford site and What is available at the Fitzhugh Library?, Stephen Wootford and Derek Sims respectively [ALTOGETHER]
9 January, The History of Backbarrow Ironworks, Richard Sanderson [KENDAL]
10 January, Dreaming of Home in Roman Cumbria, Browen Riley [CWAAS]
12 January, AGM, Dig Appleby Report and Dalmally Gravestones Talk, Martin Railton and Richard McGregor [APPLEBY]
13 January, The Silverdale Mine, Warren Allison [CARLISLE]
21 January, Excavations at Vindolanda – exploring the past in the present and future, Andrew Birley [ARCH & ARCH]
23 January, The Discovery and Exploitation of Polyhalite in Yorkshire, Dr FW Smith [Cleveland Industrial Archaeology Society]
25 January, Anniversary Meeting and lecture, Outskirts of a Medieval Town: Berwick Infirmary Excavations 2021-2022, Steve Collinson [SANT]

February 2023
5 February, Cheviot Volcanoes: What were they like? Would you have survived?, Elizabeth Devon [TILLVAS]
6 February, Rediscovering Coria: the Edward excavations at Roman Corbridge, Frances McIntosh [BAS]
6 February, Furness: a hotbed of the slave trade?, Melinda Elder [CWAAS]
9 February, Egyptian Sites and Antiquities, Trish Shaw [APPLEBY]
10 February, Corpse Roads of Cumbria, Alan Cleaver [WCAS]
13 February, Seathwaite Wad Mine, Mark Hatton [Cleveland Industrial Archaeology Society]
13 February, Caithness Broch Project (title to be confirmed), Ken McElroy and Iain Maclean [LUNESDALE]
18 February, WallCAP Community Archaeology on Hadrian’s Wall, Jane Harrison [ARCH & ARCH]
22 February, Pauline Dower and the Designation of Northumberland National Park, Matthew Kelly [SANT]

March 2023
6 March, Climate Change, Sustainability and Circular Economy – inspirations from later prehistory, Tanja Romankiewicz [BAS]
6 March, Folk-Speech: the Victorians and Cumbrian Dialect, Professor Matthew Townend [CWAAS]
6 March, Crucible of Nations: Rethinking the Viking Age in Southwest Scotland, Adrian Maldonado [KENDAL]
9 March, The Roy Ashley Garage excavation Appleby, Sue Thompson and Kevin Mouncey [APPLEBY]
10 March, Lost Stories from the Medieval Cult of St George, Sam Riches [CARLISLE]
10 March, Medieval forgers, Nuns of Armathwaite, Harry Hawkins [WCAS]
13 March, Early Neolithic in the North West (title to be confirmed), Gill Hey [LUNESDALE]
18 March, Archaeological Work at Bamburgh Castle, Graeme Young [ARCH & ARCH]
20 March, The Summit Tunnel Fire, Alan Halfpenny [Cleveland Industrial Archaeology Society]
25 March, Archaeology of the River Wear Conference, Various speakers [ARCH & ARCH]
29 March, Facing the Enemy? Using ‘Big Data’ to Analyse Flavian Fortifications in Scotland’s Landscape, Andrew Tibbs [SANT]

April 2023
3 April, A ‘holy cross’ of the early Northumbrian Church: signs and mysteries, Prof John Hines [BAS]
3 April, AGM and Tocketts Mill, Peter Morgan [Cleveland Industrial Archaeology Society]
3 April, Thomas Machell, Jane Platt [KENDAL]
13 April, Walls in the Westmorland Landscape – Russendal, David Johnson [APPLEBY]
14 April, Beadles, Dunghills and Noisome Excrements: Regulating the Environment in Seventeenth-Century Carlisle, Leona Skelton [CARLISLE]
15 April, Textile Manufacture, Taxation and Tradition in Late and Post Medieval Durham City, Gary Bankhead [ARCH & ARCH]
17 April, Update on High Carlingill excavations and results (title to be confirmed), Bob Abram/Jan Hicks [LUNESDALE]
29 April, A Review of the Historic England funded South-East Northumberland Air Photo and Lidar Mapping Project, Alison Deegan [SANT]

May 2023
31 May, The Remarkable Anne Fisher (1719-1778): Not Simply a Printer’s Wife, Barbara Crosbie [SANT]
Date to be decided – [ARCH & ARCH]

June 2023
6 June, Excavation in the archives: some new old environmental remains from Carlisle, Don O’Meara [BAS]
28 June, Recovering Herstory: the Hidden Women in Geography at Newcastle from 1928, Helen Jarvis [SANT]
Date to be decided – [ARCH & ARCH]

July 2023
3 July, Speaker and topic to be confirmed [BAS]
26 July, “The Way, The Word and The Water” – Aspects of the Archaeology of Seventeenth-Century Newcastle, Pam Graves [SANT]

August 2023
30 August, Hadrian’s Wall in urban Newcastle – excavating Turret 3a, Scott Vance [SANT]

September 2023
11 September, Boulby Mine – Looking back at the first 50 years, Neil Rowley [Cleveland Industrial Archaeology Society]
27 September, Bede and the Theory of Everything, Michelle Brown [SANT]

October 2023
25 October, A Black History Month lecture: Arthur Wharton, Shaun Campbell [SANT]

November 2023
29 November, Developing a Cultural Programme with the Vindolanda Trust, Morag Iles [SANT]

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If you would like to submit something to our CBA North news emails, please feel free to do so ! It still remains a fact that editors can only work with what they are sent. If you would like to submit something, please send it in to cbanorth@archaeologyuk.org !

CBA North Christmas card 2022

Dear Members and Friends of CBA North,

Thank you again for your continued support of CBA North throughout what has been another challenging year. Behind the scenes there have been many activities and happenings, in addition to work and other challenges, for all of us.

As is traditional at this time of year we send you a seasonal picture with some history, heritage or archaeology as is our wont. This year’s picture shows some of the rig and furrow earthworks above Redesdale, Northumberland, pictured as spring 2022 was emerging. As can be seen clearly, some of the rig has been partly ploughed, but across the CBA North region extensive field systems of all periods remain.

This year has seen something of a resumption to a normal – a newer one again than the days of Covid-19 lockdowns with more in-person meetings and office-work, local societies and friendships  resuming again, but with their own variants of hot-desking, hybrid meetings and more besides. Wherever you are history, heritage and archaeology, and friendships from them, are present across the CBA North.

Please take a moment to check we have your contact details correct for you and your group’s contacts, and send on your group’s programme for 2023 so we can circulate it to the widest possible audience for you. History, heritage and archaeology doesn’t stop, and certainly has not stopped in 2022.

Best wishes for Christmas, the New Year and beyond into 2023 – stay safe and well !,

CBA North Committee, 24.12.2022

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If you would like to submit something to our CBA North news emails, please feel free to do so ! It still remains a fact that editors can only work with what they are sent. If you would like to submit something, please send it in to cbanorth@archaeologyuk.org !

CBA North: September events – are we into a newer normal again?

Dear CBA North Members and Friends,

The change in month gives a point of time for reflection, with now many more events happening in person (as well as some still online) across the region of our local groups and more.

The summer has seen many events, but now many local society meetings are also resuming in person. These start off this afternoon with our group member the Arch & Arch in Durham on Excavations at St Nicholas’ Cathedral, Newcastle, with those of our local group members hot on it’s heels next week and throughout the month. So back towards a newer normal?

Perhaps. However, there have been some changes of speakers, topics and dates since our last email which have been added to our Events website page, but please let us know of any additions to the listing and any other news to be spread across the region.

Josie McChrystal, Secretary of the Border Archaeological Society, has done that to invite CBA North members and friends to the talk below. She notes that this talk is a special public one to help celebrate the 25th anniversary year of the Border Archaeological Society, based in Berwick, and with the vital details as below;

Border Archaeological Society 25th anniversary talk. 
This talk will take place on Monday 5 September in the Guildhall Berwick, commencing at 7.30pm.
The title of the talk which will be given by Steven Collison, lead excavator of the project is;

Berwick Infirmary Excavations: Footsteps Through a Medieval Town

Some interesting findings from post excavation analysis could really add to the existing body of knowledge of Mediaeval Berwick and similar small towns.

Admission is free although donations are welcome. 
N.B. The Guildhall is an eighteenth-century Grade 1 listed building and access may be difficult for people with limited mobility. Please get in touch in advance if you will require assistance.

Josie McChrystal, secretary, BAS

If you have any questions on this, please follow this link to Border Archaeological Society  details of the lecture.

In case you or your own local group/s would like to submit something that you think deserves wider notice or publicity, please send it in to cbanorth@archaeologyuk.org. Hopefully things may resolve themselves for a newer normal all the more again, so better still have a catch-up and a chat for what you would like CBA North to do for you and your local group/s, and let us know!

Best wishes,

Keith Elliott
CBA North Acting Chair and Secretary, 03.09.2022

CBA North: Festival of Archaeology events 2022

Dear CBA North Members and Friends,

…or should that be Friends, Romans and Countrymen?

This year is the 1900 anniversary of Hadrian’s Wall and we are now over half the way through the year. Hadrian’s Wall cuts the CBA North roughly into two parts and looms large across the archaeological landscape and literature of our region.

This Saturday sees the start of Festival of Archaeology (details are below), but I dare not say at the start or end of ‘The Wall’ to avoid any east-west rivalries!

Festival of Archaeology:
Journeys in and around the CBA North region

This year’s Festival of Archaeology is to be launched on Saturday, 16 July 2022, at Segedunum Roman Fort, at Wallsend within the CBA North region. This year’s theme is Journeys and we very much hope that you can make your own journey to Wallsend where a full day of events awaits you from 10 to 5. The timetable of events at Wallsend are listed here.

However, there are many other events and happenings across the country and including other events in the CBA North region, some in conjunction with the Hadrian’s Wall 1900 anniversary.

One of those events – the exhibition of the Edwardian excavators of the Corbridge Roman Town – follows on from one of one news stories reported in one of our earlier emails to you. That also featured within, and on the front cover, one of the latest British Archaeology magazines circulated nationally to CBA National members.

Edwardian excavators at Corbridge Roman Town, Northumberland (C) English Heritage

That project has, also, made its own journeys from just photographs and a few names, to fuller life stories of those involved in the 1906-14 excavations.

…And at Corbridge Roman Town recalls our own CBA North journey for our 2016 AGM was held in Corbridge. As things slowly resolve themselves to a newer normal, then let us know where you think our next AGM should be for our next journey and your thoughts for the future. We tend to have the business first in the morning, followed by something else (either visit or talk). Suggestions are most welcome.

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If you would like to submit something to our CBA North news emails, please feel free to do so ! It remains a fact that editors can only work with what they are sent. If you would like to submit something that you think deserves wider notice or publicity, please send it in to cbanorth@archaeologyuk.org or better still catch-up and have a chat with us at Segedunum on Saturday!

Best wishes,

Keith Elliott
CBA North Acting Chair and Secretary

CBA North’s Chair’s New Year Message

Dear CBA North Members and Friends,

And so we find ourselves and CBA North in 2022! Happy New Year and all best wishes to you and your local groups this year. For some today this is the first working day of the year, but for others this it still part of the holidays.

However beyond that it is hard to say what this year will bring, as indeed it was last year, in these unusual times. However, as usual there are many local society and group events to look forward to – albeit perhaps still through virtual and remote means for a while longer. A list has been prepared of what organised and we know of so far, which is also live on our Events website page (see Events | CBA North (wordpress.com)) which is only likely to grow.

One that this year brings is the celebrations of the 1900th birthday of Hadrian’s Wall; a key feature of our CBA North region ‘The Wall’ is perhaps what most might think of for archaeology in our area. Well studied and known about in earnest from the earliest antiquarians, such as the Venerable Bede in the early 8^th century, there remains many finds and features that are displayed, still being teased out and indeed yet to be found or even noticed. Even if you are not an ardent Romanist, the message is the same for all parts of the CBA North region; the more you look at or get involved in archaeology, the more you get out of it. There is much to do and get involved with, as well as much to celebrate, this year.

Please feel free to circulate the email or website page around your friends, family and local groups memberships. Last year I invited comments from you as our members and friends, but there were only a few messages. Please, as ever, do let me know your comments and views, as well as more particularly any news for CBA North’s wider membership.

Best wishes for 2022,

Keith Elliott
CBA North Acting Chair and Secretary

2022 Local Society and Group Events
January 2022
5 January – The Battle of Carham, Dr Alex Woolf [TILLVAS]
10 January – The Poulton Project: rewriting the archaeology of north-west England, Kevin Cootes [KENDAL]
10 January – William Cowe & Sons and the Berwick Cockle, Cameron Robertson [LOWICK]
12 January – Criminal Spirits: Gin and Whisky Smuggling in the Borders, Graeme Watson [Glendale LHS]
13 January – AGM and Member’s Evening [APPLEBY]
14 January – Local History Through Advertising, Jenni Lister [CARLISLE]
15 January – Holy Inappropriate or the Holy Grail?: The risqué playground of Medieval parish church art and architecture, Emma Wells [ARCH & ARCH]
15 January – Lives at Bell View: Our Stories: Discoveries made during Lockdown [North Northumberland Genealogy Group]
15 January – Lord Carlisle’s Railway, Graham Brooks [South West Cumbrian Historical and Archaeological Society]
17 January – From Railway Engines to Toilet Cubicles, Alan Betteney [Cleveland Industrial Archaeological Society]
17 January 2022- How heritage can promote positive mental health (tbc), Rich Bennett [LUNESDALE]
24 January – “How To Be a Seventeenth-Century Patriarch”: The Memoirs of Sir Daniel Fleming of Rydal Hall, Dr Scott Sowerby and Noah MacCormack [CWAAS]
25 January – TAS and Friends: An evening of varied archaeological projects [TAS]
26 January – A Scandalous Trough and other Tales of Romano-British Sculpture, Lindsay Allason-Jones [SANT]
29 January – Digs at Scarborough and Richmond, Recovery excavations of WW2 American aircrafts in Arundel and Sicily, Tees Pottery, Faye McLean, Inga Dorczynska and Tony Metcalfe respectively [ALTOGETHER]

February 2022
2 February – Talk by the Treasure Trove Officer [TILLVAS]
7 February – Recent Excavations at Yeavering Palace in light of new data, Sarah Semple [BAS]
14 February – Maintaining Offa’s Dyke (tbc), David McGlade [LUNESDALE]
21 February – Cleveland’s Innovative Engineers, Sue Parker [Cleveland Industrial Archaeological Society]
21 February – England’s Northern Frontier in the Fifteenth Century Scottish Marches, Dr Jackson Armstrong [CWAAS]
23 February – Scandinavian and German Merchants in Newcastle, 1840-1920: Integration, Business Connections and Success, Daniel Riddell [SANT]
26 February – Cockfield Fell and The Western End of the Stanhope and Tyne Railway, Jeanette Newell and Chris Mills, and Brian Page respectively [ALTOGETHER]

March 2022
7 March – The Archaeology of the Victoria Cross, Andrew Marriott [BAS]
14 March – Topic to be confirmed, Dr Rob Young [LUNESDALE]
21 March – The man who could have built the Forth bridge, John Dixon [Cleveland Industrial Archaeological Society]
26 March – An update of the Gueswick Hills Excavation and Gueswick Bone Finds and Regional Evidence for Livestock Husbandry, Members of the excavation team and Louisa Gidney respectively [ALTOGETHER]
28 March – Cumbrian Field Names, Professor Angus Winchester [CWAAS]
30 March – A most Egregious Misappropriation: The Wretched Coupling of Hadrian and Wall, Rob Collins [SANT]

April 2022
4 April – Circular Lives: Investigating later prehistoric roundhouse settlements & agricultural practices, Tanja Romankiewicz [BAS]
9 April – The Stockton & Darlington Railway, the railway that got the world on track: new research and plans for the bicentenary in 2025, Niall Hammond [ARCH & ARCH]
11 April – Aethelfrith and the Battle of Chester, Dr David Mason [LUNESDALE]
25 April – AGM and Member’s Evening [Cleveland Industrial Archaeology Society]
27 April – New Light on the Neolithic in North-West England, Dr Gill Hey [CWAAS]
27 April – Early Medieval Embroidery and the St. Cuthbert Maniple Re-creation Project, Alexandra Makin [SANT]

May 2022
9 May – Excavations at Bollihope Common, County Durham, Rob Young [BAS]
25 May – Newcastle upon Tyne: Mapping the City 1250-2021, Mike Barke [SANT]

June 2022
6 June – Cresswell Pele Tower: from Reivers & Ruin to Restoration, Barry Mead [BAS]
29 June – Hadrian’s Wall Collections, Frances McIntosh and Elsa Price [SANT]

July 2022
27 July – Latest Fieldwork on the Early Medieval Monastery at Lindisfarne, David Petts [SANT]

August 2022
31 August – The Blacketts: A Northern Dynasty, Greg Finch [SANT]

September 2022
5 September – On the results of the excavations at the Berwick Infirmary [BAS]
12 September – The Anatomy of Yorkshire’s Lead Smelting Mills, Richard Lamb [Cleveland Industrial Archaeological Society]
28 September – Update on Birdoswald, Tony Wilmott [SANT]

October 2022
3 October – On a possible Viking army site in the Coquet Valley, Jane Kershaw [BAS]
26 October – The Galloway Hoard, Martin Goldberg [SANT]

November 2022
7 November – On recent excavations at Birdoswald Roman Fort, Ian Haynes [BAS]
30 November – Death on the Wall: Romano-British Burial Practices on Hadrian’s Wall, Dr Trudi Buck [SANT]

December 2022
5 December – On a Hadrian’s Wall topic, Rob Collins [BAS]

CBA North: Christmas card 2020

Dear Members and Friends of CBA North,

As is traditional at this time of year we send you a picture of a wintry scene of some history, heritage or archaeology. This year’s snap is a wintry scene of Hume Castle, Scottish Borders, which may be visible to you in northern parts of the CBA North region.

Albeit this is from outside the CBA North region, but limited movements have only been possible this year as everyone well knows. Hopefully next year things might resolve them for a newer normal.

Please ensure that we have your contact details correctly for you and your group contacts, so we all might feel refreshed, recharged and good to go in 2021 – we have some, but not all, of the programmes of our local group members for 2021. History, heritage and archaeology doesn’t stop, and certainly has not stopped in 2020.

Best wishes for Christmas, the New Year and beyond into 2021 – stay safe !,

CBA North Committee, 24.12.2020

CBA North: News of October and November events

CBA North News

Dear Members and Friends of CBA North,

Today is the start of the Festival of Archaeology – this year in these unusual times for Part II, though these remain unprecedented times in all sorts of ways in the on-going pandemic circumstances. It remains still uncertain when normality might resume. However local and regional groups (including in our own CBA North network) have rallied in starting to investigate and use – very successfully – virtual meetings, as have other national groups, and further digital content been prepared and online to all. Some places have physically opened or re-opened or in different ways for the year, whilst other places have always remained open to the elements and new insights been gained, whether in closer examination of one’s local area or as in viewing online content. There has been lots of archaeological activity across the CBA North region, as elsewhere in this or any other year, though not perhaps as we would have expected back in January.

This has been a mixed period – some have been furloughed, others have been laid off, whilst some have been busy continuing their archaeological work (and also being borrowed for extra duties in support of assistance in the fight against CV-19 and its varied health and economic effects) whether professional or personal. Much work on your behalf has been carried out behind the scenes as well, which we hope will bring dividends in the future as well. Furthermore CBA North has since our last email has gained new members and a special welcome to all of them and thanks to you all for sticking with us!

It remains heartening that there is continuing interest – through whatever forms that may be – of the region’s archaeology, history and heritage, as well in the local societies and groups. Above all we hope you, your family and friends are all well and stay safe into the future. We hope that the range of digital content and links are of interest and/or use – please feel free to circulate to your contacts.

Best wishes

CBA North Committee, 24.10.2020

Notes and news of our local group members
CV-19 has affected many of the local societies and groups programmes in changes of speakers and dates, so a wholesale review of our website events pages is needed. The Appleby Archaeology Group, the Architectural and Archaeological Society of Durham and Northumberland, the Teesside Archaeological Society (see details below) and the Till Valley Archaeological Society of our group members have carried out and continue with virtual meetings. The Bamburgh Research Project has continued on also (see details below for them also) and for some fieldwork and outdoor activities have proved possible, but somewhat in more of a constrained manner.

Other groups have paused including the Border Archaeological Society and the Northumberland Archaeological Group their programmes of lectures and normal events eschewing virtual means (so far though), though this doesn’t necessarily mean activities stopped – mystery location and picture quizzes, extra newsletters, objects of the week and more emails circulating further details of events, as well as fresh, revised digital content and websites, have all been seen as well in these unusual times. Groups outside our network as the North East Ancient Egypt Society and the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne have also carried out virtual meetings with extra newsletter and digital content circulated around their members also. Indeed, as with CBA North, new members have joined such groups.

CBA North remain keen to promote your local events and news – it would be useful to have a summary paragraph or line on what happening with your group for everyone else to know, whether paused, changing formats or dabbling in virtual meeting methods. Please can all group members check their entries and contact details, as well as let us know what changes may be needed for our Events website page.

Festival of Archaeology Part II events
The Festival of Archaeology for this year – and its special Part II – starts today Saturday 24 October and runs to Sunday 1 November. Full details of the programme can be found on the Festival of Archaeology website. You will need to register for some events, though some are more generally available (such as through YouTube).

These include an event by our group member the Bamburgh Research Project on the first Sunday of the festival (during the afternoon of 25 October), with discussion of the famed Bowl Hole Cemetery, discoveries within the Inner and West Wards of the famed castle, as well as of the Bamburgh Ossuary project.

The next Teesside Archaeological Society virtual lecture – as the usual last Tuesday evening of the month (27 October) – also falls within the timescale of the Festival of Archaeology. They, too, are also a group member, and have launched a new style of virtual memberships to facilitate such with the next lecture on Rievaulx Abbey.

What has CBA North been up to lately?
CBA North has been full of busy behind the scenes as well since our last email, though admittedly – through circumstances – not always outwardly so. We have continued to prioritise home-schooling and researcher enquiries made of us as before.

Behind the scenes we have been through all our membership lists and tagged you all. There are two levels to this; the first level indicates how you have joined us – whether National-to-North or North-only direct – and second is your membership type – Individual, Joint, Family, Group and/or Student. You can have a number of tags, for example your CBA North Acting Chair and Secretary is National-to-North and an Individual. Please let us know any changes as necessary, especially in any changes for our group representatives through any changes in office. It is usually a pair of names that we have to raise and circulate our information to you!

As noted we have, like other societies, gathered new members and with a variety of tag to date. Welcome to all of them! We may consider other tags in the future, but this may help us focus materials with the thought that we may be able to send you targeted emails. However one of the key things of being in the CBA North and National network is so we can spread the knowledge, skills and experience of topics from around and from outside the CBA North region. We are keen to know what your thoughts are for such tagging as well.

Work is also going on towards our next five year plan and with CBA National following your responses, and others, from the surveys we carried the links for in Recharging British Archaeology – but we are still keen to hear your views for the future of CBA North, your contributions are most welcome for the next news and towards where you think the group should be going to both promote your work and projects to others, as well as what you would like to see in these emails also.

A new society and its journal: the Roman Roads Research Association
Mike Haken, as Chairman, of the newly formed Roman Roads Research Association has written to us of their plans for its journal, and similarly seeks your help. He writes;

‘The Roman Roads Research Association is launching its own peer reviewed journal, Itinera, which will be devoted to publishing material that contributes to a better understanding of the Roman road network and its place within the wider context of Roman studies, both in Britain and internationally. It will be published both digitally and in hard copy. 

We are keen to accept contributions from anyone whose work or research may involve a Roman road. The Journal will welcome longer peer-reviewed contributions, which could include accounts of newly identified roads, or papers exploring the wider context of roads as related to military and civilian activity, forts, planning, surveying and all aspects of Roman life. In a similar fashion to Britannia, Itinera will also contain a section (Roman Roads in XXXX) designed to provide an overview of all archaeological work and discoveries involving Roman roads in the previous year. In short, if it involves a Roman road, it will find a home in Itinera. Since our readership is unlikely to duplicate that of most other societies, we are happy to consider papers that have been previously published or submitted for publication elsewhere, subject of course to the agreement of the other publisher.

The remains of the Roman road now usually as Dere Street, near the Golden Potts, on the Otterburn Ranges, Northumberland, can be seen as the central agger mound flanked by the low ditches either side as pictured in the low vegetation and lambing break of Spring 2017.

If your work, research or study has recently involved a Roman road and you feel that can make a contribution to our exciting new project, please contact Itinera‘s Editor, Robert Entwistle. The deadline for submissions is 15th November 2020, but please let us know as soon as possible if you are thinking of submitting a paper.

Further details, including Notes for Contributors, can be found on our website.

Best wishes, and thanks’,

Mike Haken,
Chairman, RRRA

Further digital content from CBA National and others
The number of digitally available and free to all publications from CBA National has increased again. These include a number of the recent Research Reports series with further examples of regionally relevant publications, including The Archaeology of English Battlefields, Cartimandua’s Capital on the 1980s excavations by Durham University at Stanwick and Thornborough henges the location of 1990s fieldwork by Newcastle University amongst others. These can all be found online through the ADS Library, along with much else, including the scanned versions of Archaeologia Aeliana and the Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society.

We’ve already sent on the likes to the Arbeia Journal links to their volumes here, whilst other societies proceedings can be found online on other websites including the History of the Berwickshire Naturalists Club and Yorkshire Archaeological Journal.  All these societies have been at times been part of the CBA North network, the likes of 1974 boundary changes are as comparatively recent events in the archaeology and history of our region.

Fresh publications continue to appear, also, to be produced with CBA North-land relevant finds, sites and landscapes across the range of period, theme, location and specialist national and international literature. As British Archaeology article readers will have seen Ingleby Barwick, near Stockton, appears, as does Whitton Hill, near Milfield in Northumberland, appear in an article on Bronze Age human remains heirlooms (see here for the full Antiquity article), whilst in the forthcoming Britannia, as the almost the horizontal opposite of Stockton and diagonally so from Whitton Hill, appears the rare Roman period Dig Hole Cave burials from near Haverbrack in the Arnside and Silverdale part of Cumbria (which is this). Others are doubtless out there and await finding – though these two are also freely available to all at the moment when other articles in the same issues are behind paywalls…

A Final Word?
…and that perhaps takes us to where we started on the value of local society and group’s events when, and however, they happen. To take an example of just one of our group members two of Northumberland Archaeological Group of earlier lectures publicised to you have been on Early Bronze Age axe-hammers across Northern Britain and burials at Staarvey Farm, on the Isle of Man, have  now appeared in recent articles – behind paywalls in the Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society here and Antiquity here also.

Whilst there are changes in such pricings at the moment, these prices for an article are often the same and if not more than the subscription to a local society or group for the full year, with all the benefits that these can bring.

When normality returns – whenever and however that is – remember to support your local and regional groups and their activities. As ever let us know your news and views, thoughts and comments. Our next email to members will hopefully be out in early November to you – contributions most welcome at any time! Stay safe!

Christmas card 2023

Dear Members and Friends of CBA North,

Once again, we thank you for your continued support of CBA North another challenging year to our more regular members. We also welcome many of you to the CBA North membership as new members or the new representatives of our local society and group members.

For everyone everywhere across the CBA North region, there has been continued work behind the scenes to regain strength and numbers, to resume events and activities, after the disturbance of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Please take a moment to check we have your contact details correct for you and your group’s contacts, and send on your group’s programme for 2024 so we can circulate it to the widest possible audience for you. History, heritage and archaeology doesn’t stop, and certainly has not stopped in 2023, but our New Year’s email with the link to all the events we know for the year ahead is becoming a traditional item. Already there are many events listed through to December 2024.

As is also traditional at this time of year we send you a seasonal picture with some history, heritage or archaeology as is our wont. This year’s picture is of Twizel Castle, Northumberland, which a later 18th century folly – a reminder of the fun (and challenges) of ruins – as well as the parties and festivities of the past, present and future.

Best wishes for Christmas, the New Year and beyond into 2024 – stay safe and well !,

CBA North Committee, 24.12.2023

Tailpiece
If you would like to submit something to our CBA North news emails, please feel free to do so ! It still remains a fact that editors can only work with what they are sent. If you would like to submit something, please send it in to cbanorth@archaeologyuk.org !

CBA North Christmas card 2021

Dear Members and Friends of CBA North,

Thank you for your support of CBA North throughout another challenging year. Behind the scenes there have been many activities and happenings, in addition to work and other challenges, for all of us.

As is traditional at this time of year we send you a seasonal picture with some history, heritage or archaeology as is our wont. This year’s snap is of the Royal Tweed Bridge, between Berwick upon Tweed and Tweedmouth, Northumberland. This was constructed in the 1930s and is of unusual concrete construction, a Bronze Age cist being found at its southern end, and a familiar sight in to many in and passing through the north of the CBA North region.

Again only limited movements have been possible this year as everyone well knows, with this quickly snapped last week on the way to a Covid-19 vaccination appointment. Hopefully next year things might be resolved for a newer normal, but keep your eyes out for history, heritage and archaeology whenever and wherever you may be.

Please ensure that we have your contact details correctly for you and your group contacts, so we all might feel refreshed, recharged and good to go; please send on your group’s programme for 2022 so we can circulate it to the widest possible audience for you, as well as any updates you would like others to know about in 2021. History, heritage and archaeology doesn’t stop, and certainly has not stopped in 2021.

Best wishes for Christmas, the New Year and beyond into 2022 – stay safe and well !,

CBA North Committee, 24.12.2021

Tailpiece
If you would like to submit something to our CBA North news emails, please feel free to do so ! Regardless of Covid, it is a fact that editors can only work with what they are sent. If you would like to submit something, please send it in to cbanorth@archaeologyuk.org !