Notices and future events
Birmingham and Warwickshire Archaeological Society, Lecture programme Autumn 2011-Spring 2012
Now available online
Presentations from CBA Community Archaeology Workshop held
on Saturday 12 September 2009
2009 Beatrice de Cardi lecture, given on Friday 16 October
2009
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Birmingham and Warwickshire Archaeological Society, Lecture programme Autumn 2011-Spring 2012
Lectures are held at the Birmingham and Midland Institute, 3 Margaret Street, Birmingham 3,
at 7.00 p.m. except for the January lunch-time lecture (Central Library theatre, 1.00 p.m.).
Non-members are very welcome to attend for a small fee (£2, but no charge is made for
talks in the Library Theatre).
For more details of the lecture programme visit the
BWAS website.
October 4, 2011: 'Anglo-Saxon Tamworth: a reappraisal', Mike Shaw, City Archaeologist, Wolverhampton City Council.
November 1: 'Reconstructing historic floods on the lower River Severn catchment, UK', Professor Lindsey McEwen, Professor of Physical Geography, University of Gloucestershire.
December 6: Annual General Meeting. Followed by lecture:
'Shakespeare's final home: archaeological excavations at New Place',
Kevin Colls, Research Fellow in Archaeology and Heritage, Institute of
Archaeology and Antiquity, University of Birmingham.
January 10, 2012: Joint Lunchtime Library Lecture: 'Birmingham and its Workhouses', Chris Upton, Senior Lecturer, Newman University College, Birmingham.
February 7: 'Sutton Park: the archaeology of a special landscape', Mike Hodder, Birmingham City Archaeologist.
March 6: 'The Pass of Pedmore: Pedmore prehistoric site'., John Hemingway, former Archaeological Officer for Dudley.
April 3: 'The development of the Chester townscape through its architecture', Stephen Dean, Principal Archaeologist, Staffordshire County Council.
Now Available Online: Presentations from CBA Community Archaeology Workshop
Nine presentations from some of the UK's specialist community archaeology outreach workers are now available, covering a diverse range of projects and issues.
On Saturday 12 September, the CBA organised a workshop on community archaeology at the Jewry Wall Museum in Leicester, in partnership with the Leicestershire Museums Archaeological Fieldwork Group (LMAFG). The intention was to bring together professional archaeologists involved with community archaeology and public engagement from across the UK in order to share experiences, discuss challenges and identify some ways forward. In addition, the CBA is keen to use the advice and experience of those attending such events to help inform our own activities in supporting and training the community sector.
Community Archaeology Workshop participants admiring some of Leicester's built heritage Presentation themes included the development of Community Archaeology in Northern Ireland, the recent formation of the Barkby Fieldwalking Group in Leicestershire, and archaeological outreach provision in the county of Warwickshire.
Discussions on the day were extensive and covered numerous issues. For example, when it comes to providing training to suit the needs of volunteers in archaeology, should there be a nationally-recognised standard to work to? What happens to the finds collections and archives generated by intrusive activities such as excavation and fieldwalking when there is already a real storage challenge across the sector? And, what can be done to increase community involvement in developer-led archaeological work? While there are successful examples out there (such as The Butts project in Worcester, also discussed in the workshop), there are still barriers to participation in many developer-funded projects, not least issues such as time constraints and health and safety.
As often happens with such events, there were probably more questions arising than conclusions drawn, but many of these observations will feed into the findings and recommendations of the forthcoming CBA report on community archaeology, due out soon.
The presentations are available to view via the Community Archaeology Research page on the CBA website.
The news story is available at http://www.britarch.ac.uk/news/091022-workshop.
Now available online: 2009 Beatrice de Cardi lecture
CBA News: 2009 CBA Beatrice de Cardi lecture recognises 50 years of industrial archaeology
Marilyn Palmer, Emeritus Professor at the University of Leicester, gave the annual Beatrice de Cardi lecture at the CBA Weekend Event in Shrewsbury on 16 October. In an address entitled, 'Fifty Years of Industrial Archaeology', Marilyn stated that the importance of the UK's industrial heritage should be better-represented in university teaching. Though the discipline has grown in recognition through the work of volunteers, national agencies and contracting units, resulting in a number of industrial sites being on the UK's World Heritage Site list, there are still very few undergraduate or postgraduate courses which take industrial archaeology into account.
The lecture also recognised the pivotal role played by the Council for British Archaeology in establishing the discipline of industrial archaeology in 1959, and the work the organisation carried out throughout the 1960s in establishing a network of volunteers to record many hundreds of buildings under threat.
The full text of the lecture and the accompanying PowerPoint presentation can be found on the CBA website at http://www.britarch.ac.uk/news/091019-decardi.
