SOUTHWELL ARCHAEOLOGY • MEMBERS PAGE

Southwell Community Archaeology Group
Minutes of Third Annual General Meeting

Held             7.30pm Wednesday 19th January 2011 at The Reindeer, Westgate.
Present        16 members plus 3 guests.

Apologies    Kate Sartain, Roger Dobson, Barry Austen, Caroline Butler, Marian Durbridge, Angela Elmore, Dave Johnson, Judy Phillips, Jenny Sterland, David Willetts.

A)     Minutes of Previous Meeting
Minutes of the previous meeting held on 18th November 2009 were approved and signed by the Chairman.

B)     Chairman’s Report
1 Church Street

1.1 The planning application for housing development has still not been put forward for decision. The latest position is that the application will be considered by NSDC Planning Committee in March. There is no indication at the time of writing whether officials will be recommending approval or refusal.
1.2 Having appraised the findings by Pre-Constuct Archaeological Services[PCA] and having heard the County Archaeologist, Ursilla Spence on the importance and significance of the finds, in August SCAG objected to the proposals and stated that we were categoric in the view that there should be no housing development on the site. We emphasised the national importance of the site, the need for statutory protection and were critical of the developer’s mitigation strategy.
Critical views and objections were also put forward by Southwell Town Council, Southwell Civic Society and the Southwell Heritage Trust.
1.3 Given the dramatic change in circumstances brought about by the PCA investigations, and the amount of archaeology now known to be present across the site, we were astounded that both English Heritage and Ursilla Spence advised in September that development was acceptable.
Again SCAG responded with a detailed critique of the advice, as did STC, Southwell Heritage Trust and the Civic Society.
To date, no response to the criticisms has been forthcoming from either English Heritage or Ursilla Spence. It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that both are reluctant to reverse their decision to support development in 2003 despite the dramatically changed circumstances.
1.4 Peter Kent has written to English Heritage’s Policy Advisor, Paul Bodenham, on behalf of the Heritage Trust, SCAG, and Civic Society, spelling out our frustrations with English Heritage’s apparent indifference to this site dating back to 2003. It remains to be seen whether this provokes any response.
1.5 In the meantime an attempt has been made to open a dialogue with the owner of the site via the Heritage Trust. Whilst the owner initially appeared amenable to discussions he left it with his agents, JWA Architects, to consult with us.
JWA have recently indicated, having considered the Heritage Trust’s ideas for a Heritage Park on the site, and following discussions with their client, that there would be little mutual benefit in meeting at this time. The owner wishes to see the planning application determined prior to any discussions.
1.6 There are two areas of action which we will be considering under the auspices of the Heritage Trust :-
a] preparation of a request for the application to be called in for determination by Govt. Minister once we know that the District council is “minded to approve”
b] consideration of further publicity to try to win more support for our opposition to the development of the site for housing.

2 Projects and talks
2.1 Despite the constant and frustrating distractions presented by Church Street, we did manage satisfactory progress on both projects and getting people to talk to us about actual archaeology work.
Fieldwalks and surveys
2.2 In December 2009 an initial ‘taster’ fieldwalk was carried out in Southwell under the guidance of Emily Gillott, NCC Community Archaeologist [this is included here as the last AGM was held in November 2009] A report of that excercise is now on the website.
2.3 In July, members were involved in a training geo-physical survey over the playing fields behind the Church Street site under the direction of Gareth Davies of Nottingham University. Despite our lack of expertise in using the equipment, some intriguing data did result and we will want to follow-up the survey with more sophisticated equipment, hopefully this year. Again a report of the survey is on the web-site.
2.4 In September members carried out two days of fieldwalking at Osmanthorpe on land owned by Tim Farr. We had invaluable support and guidance from the County Council’s Archaeological staff. Although conditions were not ideal, results were good.
From SCAG members’ viewpoint, we gained considerable experience and the confidence to now undertake this kind of survey on our own. This is also an area we want to revisit as the more interesting finds were in a part of the field where only one transect was done. A report of the field walk and the finds is now on our website.
2.5 Also in September members had the opportunity to assist in surveying and recording of a peat basin near Upton under the direction of Richard Jones of Leicester University. The report of the findings is awaiting analysis by James Rackham of the core samples taken by augur across the peat basin.
The considerable amount of hard work by Peter Kent in contacting landowners and arranging timetables and schedules for members to participate made sure the fieldwalks went smoothly and were an enjoyable experience.

Talks
2.6 In February we had an excellent presentation on flint tools from David Budge Archaeological Assistant, Notts CC. As there was only a brief opportunity to handle samples David came back for a further handling session in April to give us more chance to familiarise ourselves with flints and flint tools, and to attempt to make our own, utilising our newly acquired knapping skills.
2.7 In March we heard a fascinating presentation from Laurence Platt of Trent and Peak Archaeology, regarding investigations at Girton Quarry. The work involved fieldwalking, geophysical surveys and evaluation trenches. The results and finds-several kilns and other evidence of industrial type activity- strongly suggested that Girton was the site of a Romano-British ‘industrial area’
2.8 In May Ursilla Spence gave a presentation to SCAG of her views on Church Street based on the investigations carried out by PCA. Members of the Civic and History Societies were also present.
A full report of that presentation has already been circulated to members. We did get the impression that Ursilla Spence was moving closer to our view of the importance of the site.
2.9 In September Richard Jones from the Centre for English Local History, University of Leicester, presented his proposals for a detailed exploration of the history and archaeology of Southwell and the surrounding villages including research already underway. In view of the wide scope of his project members of the Civic and History Societies were invited to join us for Richard’s presentation.
The project, entitled ‘Landscapes of the Peculiar’ will be long term and involve staff and students from the Universities of Leicester and Nottingham and from Brackenhurst. Richard is also keen to involve local interest groups and we hope to follow up some of his ideas in the coming year.

3 Other activities
3.1 During the latter part of the year John Lock devoted a considerable amount of time and effort compiling a grant application for funding to help us take forward a number of projects in the coming year. The application was to have been supported by, and involved, the County Council’s Community Archaeology staff, and financed via the Heritage Lottery Fund. Unfortunately, the increasing uncertainty regarding the future of archaeology services within the County Council has led to our application not being progressed.
3.2 In November 2010 we wrote to the Minster asking for some geophysical surveys SCAG were planning to be included in a bid for funding which the Minster were preparing in respect of the Great Hall and the Archbishop’s Palace. The application including our ‘bid’ is now with Heritage Lottery Fund for consideration.
3.3 Members responded brilliantly to the request for a financial contribution towards the purchase of the Orchard land between the Church Street site and the Archbishop’s Palace. This is a key piece of land possibly containing important archaeology in addition to the mosaics found by Charles Daniels and our contribution will enable us to influence what happens to it in the future.

4 Summary
4.1 This has been a year where we have developed some expertise and gained experience in practical field work which should enable us to develop some new projects in the coming year.
4.2 The guest speakers last year added to our knowledge and understanding of archaeology and we should continue to invite people to share their knowledge and experience with us.
4.3 These and other activities will be a matter for the new committee. The development of a progamme of events and projects will be its first task.

C)     Financial Report

1.     2010 Accounts

In the Treasurer’s absence the following accounts were presented by the Chairman and approved:

Bank Balance at 18.11.09                                                                                £580.00
Income
Subscriptions – 28 paid up members @ £10.00                        £280.00
                                                                                                                         £280.00
                                                                                                                         £860.00
Expenditure
Establishment of Website                                                          £ 36.66
Geophysical Services – Expenses to Gareth Davies                  £ 60.00
                                                                                                                         £ 96.66
Bank Balance at 19.01.11                                                                                £763.34

2.     2011 Subscriptions
The retention of an annual subscription of £10.00 per member for 2011 was proposed by John Lock, seconded by Chris Kent and unanimously agreed.

D)     Election of Officers
The following officers were duly elected:
         Chairman      Trevor Wight             proposed Peter Kent, seconded John Lock
         Secretary       Peter Kent                   proposed Stewart Todd, seconded Shirley Hutchinson
         Treasurer      Kate Sartain                proposed Joy Brook, seconded Will Bowden
E)     Election of Committee
The following members were proposed by Shirley Hutchinson, seconded by Beryl Calthrop and duly elected to serve on the committee:
                     Frederick Ardron
                     Will Bowden
                     Chris Knight
                     John Lock
                     Stewart Todd

F)     Other Business
There was brief discussion on the Church Street site and possible activities for the coming year.

G)     Next Meeting
Next AGM January 2012.

Southwell Community Archaeology Group
Meeting Notes 6th February 2010

Held: 10.00am The Old Court House
Present: 19 Members
Apologies: Paul Birks, Stuart Blackwood, Rodger Dobson, Dave Johnson

1. Chairman’s Report
Trevor Wight gave a brief report on developments since the last meeting:

Future Events
Meetings were provisionally planned for 20th March, 5th May, 17th July, 18th September and 20th November. This year it was hoped to have a number of talks, do more field walking and carry out a geophysical survey of the old Minster School playing fields.
Members’ attention was brought to hands on archaeological training under University supervision available at the Langford excavation. A 5 day minimum commitment is required between April and November 2010. Further details are available on w.

Caroline Butler
SCAG had been contacted via our website by the daughter of the new Bishop of Southwell who is undertaking a Masters in Professional Archaeology at Oxford. She was keen to speak to us about the title of her dissertation and subsequently decided on “The Archbishop’s Palace at Southwell: the challenges of historic non-ecclesiastical buildings owned by the Church of England”. She was interested in getting involved in our research on the Roman villa.

Subscriptions
Members were reminded that 2010 subscriptions were due.

Church Street Site
Representatives of SCAG, as one of the consortium of heritage groups in the town, had met JWA Architects on 4th February. They were shown radically revised plans which allowed for preservation of the high status archaeology west of the recently discovered wall in an undeveloped “green strip”.
The new proposals had been prepared following consultations with NSDC Planners, Southwell Minster, English Heritage and Nottinghamshire’s County Archaeologist. The archaeological report was due 6 weeks from 4th February and it was expected that a planning application would be made during March.
Questions remaining unanswered were:
Who will be the eventual builder/developer?
Who will own the open space green strip?
What is in the archaeological report?
What will be the mitigation strategy for the area to be built on?

Southwell Heritage
After encouragement from NSDC and Notts CC, considerable work had been put into an application to East Midlands Development Agency for a feasibility study into the tourism potential of an “Outstanding Heritage Area” incorporating the Minster, Archbishop’s Palace and Roman Villa. Unfortunately the application to EMDA had been unsuccessful and NSDC were now looking at alternative funding sources.

2. Flint Handling Session
The Chairman then introduced David Budge, Archaeological Assistant, Notts CC, who gave an excellent presentation on flint tools followed by a brief opportunity to handle samples. Unfortunately there was insufficient time to have a full handling session but David has agreed to come back soon for another session.
In his presentation he explained that flint was formed from the remains of sea urchins and sponges living in the Cretaceous Period. Silica from them leached out of the contemporaneously deposited chalk and tended to gather around nuclei such as sponge skeletons producing layers of nodules of black silica with a white surrounding cortex.
Flint’s property of conchoidal (conical) fracture was demonstrated as were the telltale signs of worked flint (platform, bulb, scars, ripples and evidence of intent and methodical fracturing).
*
The differences between primary (chalk nodule) and secondary (pebble) sources of flint, between impact and pressure flaking and between core and flake tools were explained.
There was a brief history of the development of tool making from crude Palaeolithic hand hammers through disposable hand axes, scrapers, and blades to Bronze Age barbed and tanged arrow heads.