Yet another year dawns, and our President and Committee would like to wish our members and their families a very happy and prosperous New Year. It will be a year of change as we say goodbye to the old Archaeology Centre at the Lawn, and welcome our new City & County Museum on Danes Terrace. We also say a sad goodbye to our Honorary Secretary Val Hinkins who is leaving Lincoln for High Wycombe. While we cannot exactly say ‘hello’ to Jenny Jackson, since she too has been a regular supporter of Flare for some years, the Committee welcomes her with gratitude as Val’s successor as Secretary.

The New Museum

Since our last newsletter in September, great strides have been made with the new museum. The name chosen to embrace both the City and County Museum and the Usher Gallery is The Collection: Art and Archaeology in Lincolnshire. It will open in early summer and feature displays from pre-historic to medieval and later times. The Collection is designed to meet the needs of all ages, but will have an exciting new interactive programme for schools. Called ‘Investigate’, this will support the National Curriculum. FLARE is delighted to support this

educational venture and the Committee has voted a grant of £3,000 towards a series of hands-on activities so popular at the Lawn. These all concern archaeological evidence and artefacts, and will include object identification, ancient footwear, mosaic floors, wattling and building, ceramic puzzles, pottery designs and patterns, and jewellery. We have arranged for members of FLARE to have a special evening preview of the new Museum just before it officially opens to the public.

The Lawn Archaeology Centre

As confirmed in the last newsletter, the Archaeology Centre that has served Lincoln so well for so long is to close on 31 March. FLARE congratulates and thanks the City Council for its initiative in setting the Centre up and for its continued support. We have always agreed that the work of the Centre will be assumed by the New Museum, and that its closure will be a time to celebrate a job well-done. FLARE and the City Council are therefore arranging an evening celebration on 30 March, with wine and refreshments, to thank all those involved over the years. There will be an element of reunion, as we hope to see past Presidents and Chairmen of FLARE, past members and staff of the City Council and of the Lincoln Archaeology Unit who played a part, and past and present staff of the Centre. It will be an evening to take a last look at the Centre, look back at its achievements and its impact on visitors and schools alike, and to say our personal thank you to those who made it happen. We hope all members of FLARE will join us at the Lawn Archaeology Centre on 30 March. We begin at 6.00 p.m. Refreshments, and a celebration cake, will be provided by Lincoln City Council. A date for your diary!

Survey Of Lincoln

FLARE is always happy to support projects of historical and archaeological interest in the city, and one such is a new study of the Monks Road area. You may recall that the Survey of Lincoln committee has already published a booklet on the Wigford Suburb. The Monks Road booklet will contain articles by Mick Jones (Prehistoric and Roman Settlement), Alan Vince (Anglo-Saxon and Medieval), Glyn Coppack (Monks’ Abbey) David Glew (Arboretum), Andrew Walker (Cattle Market), Barbara Nield (Wesleyan School), Dennis Mills (City School), Arthur Ward (architecture) and several others. As the archaeological content is substantial, FLARE has agreed to give a grant of £500 towards this publication. With other sources, this should cover the costs envisaged, and we look forward to another informative and interesting contribution to our knowledge of Lincoln.

Valerie Hinkins

It was with great regret and some dismay that the Committee learnt of Val’s pending departure from Lincoln. She has been a member of FLARE since the early 1980s and a long-term member of the Committee. For the past three years or so she has been our Secretary. Val has been one of the ‘doers’, always ready to take a hand. She has organised trips and outings – even abroad, to places like Trier and Rheims – and has enhanced so many of our more local activities and visits.

Val’s interest in archaeology has been in practice as well as theory. Many of us remember her youthful enthusiasm, over twenty years ago, working on sites like East Bight and the Lawn with Pete Rollin et al. She has done her share of trowelling, digging, and pot-washing – and retained that youthful enthusiasm!

Delving into the academic side of archaeology, Val studied for, and gained, her GCE ‘A’ Level under the tutelage of a past Chairman of FLARE, Peter Danks. She has missed very few of our meetings, and also for a while found time to join the Society for Lincolnshire History and Archaeology and serve on the Archaeology Sub-Committee.

Although we are sorry to see Val go, we congratulate her on her appointment as Senior Auditor with High Wycombe District Council. This is a wonderful career move for her, and a great opportunity. On behalf of the President, all the Committee, and I am sure all our membership, I thank her for all she has done for us and with us, and wish her and her family all the very best for the future.

John Wilford
Chairman

CITY ARCHAEOLOGIST'S REPORT

There is not a great deal of space in this edition of the Newsletter to report on recent fieldwork in the city, nor have there been any particularly notable discoveries. I shall bring members up to date next time. One item of news to note, however, was the geophysical survey at Monks Abbey in September. This was successful in involving both the local community and the children of Monks Abbey School. It provided an indication that substantial remains do not exist immediately beneath the ground-surface across much of the site. Ideas are now being discussed for making more of the site for community purposes.

I am pleased to report that the Atlas of Historic Maps of Lincoln, published in October with some help from FLARE, has been very well received and is selling extremely well. Our congratulations must go to our member Dr Dennis Mills and his co-editor Dr Rob Wheeler for the skill and energy which went into this most worthwhile project. Some of you will know that the revised edition of my Lincoln: History and Guide was published several weeks ago, while only a few copies of the reprint of The City by the Pool now remain.

The Roman Monuments Conservation Plan, in its final form, has now been launched and is being distributed. It has already received national recognition through an endorsement by English Heritage. Repairs are continuing this year on some of the monuments with funding provided by the City Council, and a group is being established to agree and monitor a three-year action plan. I hope that in

due course we shall have an opportunity to investigate external funding possibilities for more ambitious interpretative schemes. In the meantime, the City Council is pressing ahead with new information panels for the historic part of the city (the ‘Cathedral Quarter’). This actually covers also the upper part of the hillside including the new Museum, which is now really taking shape. As a member of both the Steering Committee and the Interpretative Committee, I can vouch for the great energy and effort being devoted to this project by a whole range of talented people. It will certainly help to put the city on the map, as a third major attraction together with the Cathedral and Castle.

Programme For 2005

I hope that you will agree that we have another good programme this year, further enhanced by several outside events and visits: at the Archaeology Centre on 30 March, at the Commons on Saturday 16 April, at the new Museum (The Collection) on 15 June, and to South Wales 1-4 July. Please note that the date of the Museum preview evening is subject to final confirmation in your next Newsletter. At the time of writing, we are trying to arrange an extra talk on Friday evening 15 April as an introduction to the Commons tours.

Mick Jones