Arch of Constantine

The Architectural and Archaeological Society of Durham and Northumberland


 
Latest AASDN News...
 


 
Major Excursion to South West Wales
Wednesday 5th June - Tuesday 11th June 2024.

A limited number of places are still available for the Society's major excursion in 2024 which will be a seven-day visit to South West Wales focussing on Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire. Based at the modern Ty Celtic hotel located on the Milford Haven waterfront, the itinerary will include visits to St David's cathedral, Pembroke town and its castle (birthplace of Henry VII), Picton Castle, Dinefwr and Newton House, Carmarthen town and the historic Stackpole estate. Impressive historic sites, wonderful coastal views and good company are guaranteed.

The excursion dates are Wednesday June 5 - Tuesday 11. Prices are: Singles = £1,250, two sharing = £997 per person.

For further information and/or to express an interest please contact David Mason - mason474@btinternet.com.


 


Professor Dame Rosemary Cramp Professor Dame Rosemary Cramp Professor Dame Rosemary Cramp
 
Professor Dame Rosemary Cramp

The Society was saddened to hear of the death of Professor Dame Rosemary Cramp on 27 April 2023, just short of her 94th birthday.

At the age of 12, Rosemary and her sister Margaret discovered the remains of a Roman villa on their family farm in Glooston, Leicestershire, while looking for material to furnish a den that they were building. And thus began a lifelong career in Archaeology. At Oxford she joined the Archaeology Society while pursuing her studies in Old English, which in turn led her to specialise in Anglo-Saxon archaeology.

Rosemary arrived in Durham in 1955, and she recounted how Eric Birley, the first head of the newly-emerging Archaeology Department, urged her to join all the local societies. Accordingly she became a long-term active member of our Society, as well as of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society and the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne. She quickly found her place in the Arch and Arch, being booked to talk in 1957 on Some problems of stone crosses in Northern England, an early indication of an interest that would lead to the establishment of the Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture, for which she was the primary author and General Editor; a project that would last for the rest of her life, covering all the counties of England in sixteen volumes and now nearing completion.

As her career as an archaeologist developed, Rosemary shared her research in many memorable lectures and excursions for the Society, with visits to the sites of her excavations of Wearmouth and Jarrow and coach trips exploring the Anglo-Saxon landscape through its churches and monuments. She also gave lectures on broader themes; What is Northumbrian Culture (1968) and, in honour of Eric Birley to mark his retirement in 1971, The Anglo-Saxons and Rome (subsequently published in the Society’s Transactions). In 1988 she visited China and then gave a talk on 'Archaeology in China Today: a Personal View' when she returned.

Rosemary always took a keen interest in the running of the Society and was an active committee member for many years. In the year 2000 she was elected President for three years and held the post with characteristic dedication and enthusiasm, despite numerous other commitments; at the time she was engaged in the Herculean task of writing up her excavations of Wearmouth and Jarrow as well as continuing her work on the Corpus and commuting to London once a week as President of the Society of Antiquaries. In 2019 she was awarded life membership of the Arch and Arch.

She was an outstanding figure in Archaeology on the national and international stage, with appointments and honours too numerous to mention. But Rosemary also attached great importance to engagement with local communities and their archaeology. Having grown up in Leicestershire, frequently revisiting the area and the family that meant so much to her, she enjoyed a term as President of the Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society, and her Presidential Address New Directions in the Study of Anglo-Saxon Sculpture was published in their Transactions for 2010.

We in the Arch and Arch shall remember Rosemary with gratitude for her commitment to our Society, her dedication to preserving and promoting the heritage of our region, and the warmth and humour with which she shared her scholarship with us all.

Funeral arrangements: St Cuthbert’s Church, Old Elvet, Durham, DH1 3HL, 19th May, 11.00 am

Live Stream Link for the Service Requiem Mass for Prof. Dame Rosemary Cramp

Donations invited to: Dementia Support and Care - Dementia UK

Memorial Service: Recognising the many individuals who may wish to commemorate Professor Dame Rosemary Cramp and celebrate her life and achievements, an Evensong Memorial Service will be held at Durham Cathedral on the 14th July 2023 commencing at 5.30 pm. A reception will follow.

St Cuthbert’s is quite a small church, but there will be no space problems at the Cathedral

 



 
New AASDN Monograpgh published!

Textile Manufacture, Taxation and Trade in Late- and Post-Medieval Durham City.
by Gary Bankhead

We are delighted to announce the release of our first monograph for 14 years with a research report based on objects recovered by underwater archaeologist Gary Bankhead from a submerged riverbed, positioned just downstream of the twelfth century Elvet Bridge in Durham City. This 280-paged colour hardback book, published as an Architectural and Archaeological Society of Durham and Northumberland monograph, in association with Durham City Freemen and the Finds Research Group, represents a cultural, scientific and technical study of 334 lead cloth seals recovered from the River Wear between 2008 and 2022. These small, enigmatic objects represent the largest assemblage of such material available for analysis outside of London and, as such, are of crucial significance for understanding the cloth trade during the period to which they have been ascribed.

For more information see:diveintodurham.uk or contact Gary Bankhead at gary.bankhead@durham.ac.uk.


 






 
SOLD OUT!

Archaeology of the River Wear Conference.
Saturday 25 March 2023.

Calman Learning Centre • Durham University, Kingsley Barrett Lecture Theatre, Lower Mountjoy, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE.

Booking information see: eventbright.com/riverwear_conference

Conference Programme.

Session 1: Weardale

Martin Roberts – ‘Slipping Down the Ladder’: The decline of Weardale’s Elizabethan and Jacobean Gentry Houses.
Ian Forbes – Weardale: the impact of mineral exploitation.

Session 2: Before the Romans

Rob Young – Pollen and Prehistory: Change and continuity in the Wear Valley landscape from the Mesolithic to the Iron Age.
David Heslop – Later Prehistory: Settlement and Society in the Wear Valley.

Session 3: The Romans and After

David Mason – Roman.
John Castling – Early Medieval Aucklandshire.
David Petts – The Wear Valley in the Early Middle Ages.

Session 4: Auckland Castle and Bishop Auckland Big Dig

Jamie Armstrong – Recent Discoveries at Auckland Castle.
Caroline Smith – Contemporary Urban Archaeologies: Results from the Auckland Big Dig.

Session 5: Durham City and County Durham

Gary Bankhead – Elvet Bridge, Durham: Investigating a multi-period underwater archaeological site.
Adrian Green – Medieval to Post-medieval Settlement and Housing in County Durham.

Session 6: Modern Times

Ronan O’Donnell – Crisis and Opportunity: Built environment between the wars.
Robin Daniels – Defending the Wear.


Booking information see: eventbright.com/riverwear_conference


Standard ticket £15 + £1.96 booking fee

Concessions (students, retired, unwaged) £10 + £1.55 booking fee

Optional buffet lunch £7.50 + £1.33 booking fee

Vegetarian and vegan option available.



 



 
Annual Research Grant 2023-24

The application process is now open for our annual research grant. If you are fully paid-up member of our society then you can apply for an award of £500 conditional upon receiving qualifying applications (31st December deadline following invitation to apply).

Click on the .pdf icon to download the research award guidelines document.


 
County Durham Archaeology Day
Saturday 24 September 2022 9.50am – 4.00pm

County Durham Archaeology Day has been reinstated and will take place on Saturday 24 September 2022 (Doors open at 9.15am) Council Chamber and Durham Room, County Hall, Durham. If you are interested in archaeology, come along and find out more.

Below is a list of this year’s fascinating talks:

   • The Excavation of a Bronze Age Site at Middlestone Moor, Spennymoor.

   • Investigations at a Romano-British Settlement at Hurworth, near Darlington.

   • Excavations at the Deserted Medieval Villages of Archdeacon Newton and Walworth.

   • Investigations at Auckland Castle and the Discovery of Bek’s Chapel.

   • The Portable Antiquities Scheme, New Discoveries.

There is ample free parking at County Hall, and it is well served by public transport. Durham City Park and Ride Scheme buses also stop here. Cost: £18.00 which includes a buffet lunch and tea/coffee mid-morning. £14.00 for full-time students.

To book and pay for a ticket online go to durham.gov.uk/service/archaeology_day_order_tickets or call 03000 260000 to book and pay over the telephone. Alternatively, send a cheque made out to Durham County Council along with your address to:- Archaeology Section, Durham County Council, County Hall DH1 5UQ. Please note that requests for tickets to be sent out in the post will incur a £1 postage and packing fee. There will be displays by local societies and archaeological contractors as well as bookstalls in the Durham Room.




 
The twelfth Hadrian's Wall Archaeology Forum
Saturday May 21st 2022.
The Queen’s Hall, Beaumont Street, Hexham (9.45 - 4.15pm)


The programme will include the following talks:

Recent excavations at Vindolanda and survey work at Magna (Andrew Birley and Marta Alberti).

A community archaeology project at High Rochester (Richard Carlton).

An update on fieldwork undertaken as part of the Wallcap project (Rob Collins).

The quarries along the central sector of Hadrian’s Wall (Katy O’Donnell).

New excavations at Birdoswald in 2021 (Tony Wilmott).

Excavating the bathhouse at Carlisle (Frank Giecco).

Tickets £16.00 (includes mid-morning tea/coffee/orange juice. Please note we are unable to provide lunch on this occasion but hope to offer this option for the 2023 event). The new edition of the Hadrian’s Wall Archaeology magazine (No. 11) will be on sale at the event along with a selection of other publications (CASH OR CHEQUES ONLY). For more information, email:boxoffice@queenshall.co.uk Website: www.queenshall.co.ukTel: 01434 652477 For further information please contact Dr David Mason david.mason@durham.gov.uk or phone: 03000 267012.

Click on the image to download the flyer.


 

 
Archaeological excavation at Archdeacon Newton shrunken medieval village, Darlington, Co Durham.

Between 14th June and 9th July, 2021

Volunteer archaeologists are invited to take part in a 4-week excavation on the site of a deserted medieval village at Archdeacon Newton near Darlington between 14th June and 9th July, 2021. The excavation will be supervised by The Archaeological Practice of Newcastle for The Bright Water Landscape Partnership (www.discoverbrightwater.com) which is promoting a variety of environmental, archaeological and historical projects in the River Skerne catchment area, working with local farmers and communities.

The site of the excavation is ‘Village Field’ on the east and north-east side of the present settlement of Archdeacon Newton, which falls within the Scheduled Area of the Archdeacon Newton medieval settlement. The site comprises a moated site and deserted manorial settlement where the surviving earthworks include a series of E-W aligned toft compartments and a triangular platform standing around 2m high, suggested as the site of a medieval chapel.

Following geophysical survey, Scheduled Monument consent has been granted for the work which will involve excavations in several positions amounting to around 200m2, examining toft enclosures and house platforms, a suggested chapel site, the street frontage and other features.

County Durham contains some of the best-preserved medieval village earthworks in the country, but very little investigation of these sites has taken place and their history – foundation, growth and reasons for desertion, etc – is poorly understood. This programme of excavation will help fill these gaps in our knowledge and will give local people an opportunity to participate in that process as archaeological volunteers working under professional supervision.

The excavation will take place daily between 10 AM and 4 -30 PM. Excavation equipment will be provided along with health & Safety guidance and essential facilities. Excavation will run from June 14th until July 9th.

To register interest please email Laura Lynch at the Brightwater Landscape Partnership: laura@bwlp.co.uk





 
Roman County Durham - The Eastern Hinterland of Hadrian's Wall
David J P Mason

This book is the first ever comprehensive study in print of County Durham during the Roman period. Perhaps overshadowed in popular perception by Hadrian’s Wall, the network of roads, forts and farming communities in its eastern hinterland formed a vital part of the infrastructure that supported the linear frontier and its garrisons as well as exerting a major influence upon the history and development of the county itself.

The county’s wealth of Roman military archaeology has long been known comprising no fewer than seven forts with their attendant civilian settlements – including some of the best-preserved Roman buildings in the whole of Britain – as well as a range of other installations. Supplementing this, discoveries made during the last twenty years have transformed our knowledge and understanding of life beyond the military communities revealing a previously unsuspected intensity of settlement along with a range of settlement-types including villages, villas, and farmsteads.

557 pages, 485 illustrations 350 of which in full colour and including reconstruction images and plans especially prepared for this publication. Proceeds from the sale of this book will be reinvested in archaeological research and publications.

From 6 April until 3 May 2021 this book can be ordered at the reduced pre-publication price of £30.00 (including packaging and delivery). Full price thereafter will be £37.50 (including packaging and delivery). UK orders only. Orders will be despatched following publication on 4 May.

To place and pay for your order please visit the Durham County Record Office online shop: https://recordofficeshop.durham.gov.uk/pgHome

Click on the 'pre-publication offer' flyer image to download a copy.

For enquiries please call 03000 267 012



 



 
Incredible signet seal found at Hornby Castle!

Signet seal for William Booth, Archbishop of York (1452 to 1464).

A signet seal for William Booth Archbishop of York from 1452 to 1464 and builder of the second tower in Hexham Market Place. It was carried by his private secretary on a belt or purse and was used to authenticate his private correspondence. The seal was recovered from the waste generated by recent drainage works on the site of the Hornby DMV adjacent to our Hornby site: perhaps lost by someone visiting our site. Given it's importance the Archbishop would have been less tghan impressed by its loss!

For more information on our ongoing excavations at Hornby Castle, North Yorkshire, see: Hornby Castle excavations

 

 
'Archaeology and the small finds of North-East England'

Friday 20 April 2018

A special one-day interdisciplinary conference held at the University of Durham Science Site

The Finds Research Group in conjunction with the Material and Visual Culture Research Group (Department of Archaeology, University of Durham), Council for British Archaeology North (CBA North) and the Architectural and Archaeological Society of Durham and Northumberland present a special one-day interdisciplinary conference to be held in the historic city of Durham, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and home of some of the finest medieval architecture in Europe.

The theme of the conference ‘Archaeology and the small finds of North-East England’ aims to highlight recent archaeological discoveries in the North-East of England – a sprawling region of beautiful countryside encompassing several major cities, towns, rivers and coastal ports. Steeped in history itself, Durham City will provide the perfect backdrop for a conference which brings leading academic experts across the disciplines of the Anglo-Saxon and Viking periods, medieval pilgrimage, late- and post-medieval material culture, conservation of artefacts, researching artefacts, community archaeology and museum exhibitions. Together they will explore the lives of the people who lived in the region through the weapons, traded goods, tools, household and everyday objects they left behind to be rediscovered as chance finds or in controlled archaeological excavations.

See www.aasdn.org.uk/NEarch18 for full details...
 


 


Proposed Durham History Centre consultation.

You are invited to have your say on proposals for a new history centre for Durham.

Having considered a number of options Durham County Council proposes to seek a significant contribution of up to £4 million from the Heritage Lottery Fund towards the cost of a new history centre at Mount Oswald manor which would house the archive and Durham County Record Office, currently in County Hall, as well as other similar services across the county.

The proposal would creating a new wing to the manor house bringing together Durham's historic records, archives (and potentially other collections) in excellent environmental conditions to preserve, store and display collections for generations to come. It would allow space for over five miles of shelving for records held in the archives alone with space for growth into the future.

The collections would include:

  • Durham's 900 years of archives now stored in outdated and unsuitable facilities in County Hall
  • local history books and photographs
  • the historic archaeological and environmental records

The facility would also allow Durham County Council to think about housing other collections which are of great importance to Durham. One of these could be the Durham Light Infantry (DLI) Collection, offering a long-term home for the objects beyond their current five year arrangements.

Click on the .pdf icon to download the Durham History Centre relocation form.


For more information see: Proposed Durham History Centre consultation

Consultation will close on Sunday 18 February 2018.




 
Hadrian’s Wall Archaeology Forum

Saturday October 21st 2017

At The Queen’s Hall, Beaumont Street, Hexham.

The Hadrian’s Wall Archaeology Forum is an annual day-conference featuring talks for the general public about new discoveries in the northern frontier zone including the Cumbrian coast. The subjects of this year’s talks include the ongoing excavations at Vindolanda, new investigations at Benwell and Piercebridge, the results of geophysical surveys at Netherby, and the discovery of a unique (for Britain) discharge diploma near Lanchester.

Click on the .pdf icon to download the information leaflet/flyer.




 
Evidence of early husbandry and gardening at Hornby Castle found!

Lead 'Montabon Peach' planting label found

A small exploratory trench, opened to try to locate the moat gatehouse at Hornby in the general location shown in the 1650 and 1765 plans was not able to locate it because of subsequent activity and the dense pattern of vegetation in the area. However, a lead planting label referring to a species of peach, possibly dating from the early as the 17th century, was found.

The Montablon peach would normally be ready in English gardens during the month of September. The fruit is described in John Laurence's (Rector of Bishop Wearmouth) 1727 guide 'A New System of Agriculture: Being a Complete Body of Husbandry and Gardening', as "one of the best peaches we have, being a beautiful, high-tasted, hardy, and never-failing bearer on a South-East or South-West Wall".

Curiously the holes you can see have been caused by someone shooting at it with a pistol or pistols. The owner in the early 17th century was one of the principal Royalist commanders in the North of England in the Civil War. It might well be connected.

For more information on our ongoing excavations at Hornby Castle, North Yorkshire, see: Hornby Castle excavations


 


 
Following a limited reprint copies of 'Roman Piercebridge: Excavations by D W Harding and Peter Scott 1969-1981' are now available!
Edited by H E M Cool and D J P Mason

ISBN 978 0 9510388 57

This handsome 362-page hardbacked volume describes the results of the extensive excavations carried out by the late Peter Scott at Piercebridge in the 1970s which explored parts of the Roman fort, the adjacent civil settlement and the remains of a previously unsuspected bridge revealed during gravel extraction. It also includes a report on the excavation by Dr (now Professor) Dennis Harding of a villa at nearby Holme House, one of the most northerly in the whole of Britain. There are full accounts of the vast amount of pottery recovered along with the coins, metalwork, animal bone and high quality glassware. Thus, finally, there is what one hopes is a fitting testament to all the work done by Peter Scott, Dennis Harding and all their helpers.

AASDN Research Report - 7

£25.00 (£22 Members) + p&p

For details of how to purchase publications please email: archandarch.dandn@gmail.com




The Architectural and Archaeological Society of Durham and Northumberland
Cannon Greenwell plaque


Canon Greenwell plaque.
Notable Durham antiquarian honoured


Good things are they say worth waiting for. Over half a century ago the Society considered marking both the life and former residence of Canon Greenwell, and the Society's centenary by the erection of a plaque on North Bailey in Durham. Sadly the good intentions came to nothing. As the 150th anniversary loomed a similar plan was devised and after much debate over wording, an application for listed building consent, gaining the approval of the building's owner (St.Cuthbert's Society to whom our thanks are extended), and the Estates and Buildings Department of the University, a plaque was cast and unveiled at our 150th AGM.

Now with a slight delay, the plaque has been fixed to the wall of 27 North Bailey as a hopefully permanent marker to a notable antiquarian, and the longevity of the Arch & Arch.











The Architectural and Archaeological Society of Durham and Northumberland


Local Romano-Celtic deity
Exciting discovery at Binchester
Stone head of a local Romano-Celtic deity


Durham University archaeology student Alex Kirton has recovered a carved stone head which had been buried amongst late-Roman rubbish within what was probably a bath house. The sandstone head, dating from the Second or Third Century, is thought to have been worshipped as a source of inspiration and intercession.

The head, which is made of sandstone, was found in a dump of late Roman refuse that had been thrown into one of the rooms of a probable bath-house in the civilian settlement that lies outside the Roman fort at Binchester. This building was terraced into the hillside and all the rooms we've looked at have been filled with massive deposits consisting mainly of alternate layers of butchery waste and rough stone surfaces. These dumps are around 6' in depth. The head was part of one of these stone layers and as such is clearly not in its original context

Removal of the fill in the larger of the two chambers had revealed a blocked-up doorway in its north wall as well as a section of masonry on the east side which may represent the limits of the chamber on this side or possibly some internal feature. This fill also produced the object that has generated much media interest in the last week namely the small stone head seemingly representing a local Romano-Celtic deity. Carved in a style not unlike that of the head belonging to the life-size statue of Antenociticus found in his temple at Benwell this may represent a god local to Vinovia.

Perhaps the rest of the statue, and more importantly an inscribed base, may come out of the remaining fill! For more information and images see our Binchester Roman Fort webpage.













The Architectural and Archaeological Society of Durham and Northumberland
HMS Trincomalee, Leda class frigate, launched in 1817

151st Annual General Meeting
Hartlepool Historic Quay


The 151st Annual General Meeting took place on 11th May 2013 at the Hartlepool Historic Quay home of the 1817 Frigate HMS Trincomalee. Belinda Burke took great delight to mentions in her Secretary’s Report that the society has gone from strength to strength since the last AGM.

The year began with the extended weekend excursion to Chester, expertly organised and led by David Mason, and it looks like these trips further afield are set to become a welcome addition to our annual calendar.

Again there was a full and varied programme of lectures, beginning with the fascinating presentation on the Gristhorpe Man Project by Janet Montgomery and Nigel Melton, complemented by a trip to Scarborough to visit the man himself. Andrew Millard continued in a scientific vein with his lecture on radiocarbon dating, to be followed by another successful joint meeting with the North East Ancient Egypt Society, and a return of the ever-popular Paul Bahn to talk about the archaeology of the Atacama Desert.

Coming closer to home for the Members Meeting before Christmas, Gary Bankhead enthralled us with finds from the River Wear while Adrian Green led us round Bishop Cosin’s library, where the Society was accustomed to meet in the days of Greenwell’s presidency

Here's to an action packed 2013!













The Architectural and Archaeological Society of Durham and Northumberland
Roman Chester, David J.P. Mason

New book launched...

Roman Chester - Fortress At The Edge Of The World

David J.P. Mason

David Mason has been involved in the investigation of Chester’s archaeology in one capacity or another since the late 1960s. A member of the city council’s archaeology service for many years, he built up a particular expertise in Roman archaeology which he developed further with his doctoral thesis, subsequent research projects and various publications.

Since becoming County Archaeologist for County Durham in 2003 he has played an instrumental role in securing the publication of reports on the 1970s investigations at Piercebridge and Binchester Roman forts, initiated a new campaign of excavation at the second of these sites and also managed the preparation of a Research Framework for Hadrian’s Wall. He is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London, an Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Archaeology, Durham University and is the former President of the Architectural and Archaeological Society of Durham & Northumberland.

AASDN members can collect copies direct from David Mason at a discounted price of £15 if they call in to County Hall, Durham to collect (normally £18.99).

For further details of how to purchase Roman Chester - Fortress At The Edge Of The World, email: david.mason@durham.gov.uk















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