The Chairman and Committee wish all FLARE members a very happy new year. We hope that the programme of lectures and visits planned for 2004 will live up to all your expectations and be enjoyed by as many of you as possible. We congratulate Michael Jones, David Stocker, Alan Vince and all those involved in producing certainly the most important and comprehensive single book on Lincoln’s past ever to be published. Its range is enormous – covering the discoveries and results of decades of archaeological excavation and research. The City by the Pool (Oxbow) came out just in time for Christmas 2003 and initial stocks in our local bookshops were soon sold out. If you do not yet have a copy, or are looking for that extra-special present, now is the time to act.

Our 2003 programme of lectures once more lived up to FLARE’s high standards. Topics included:

- Life in the Early Mesolithic
- Millennial Pilgrimage and a study of Anglo-Saxon Whitby
- Unravelling the English Landscape
- Excavations in far-awayAlbania
- Work on Colchester and Roman London
- Gold Prospecting in Dolaucothi (Wales)

Those who went on our trips to Manchester and Whitby not only enjoyed traditionally excellent ‘FLARE’ weather and fellowship, but were soon looking forward to what is in store for 2004. Thanks again to all those involved in the FLARE Christmas Party, and especially to Pamela Hawker and John Wells-Cole for providing the ideal entertainment for the festive occasion. And finally, yet again we look forward to another year of exploration and discovery in our city and further afield as our new programme unfolds. We hope to see you all at St Hugh’s on 14 January for the first lecture of 2004 – see programme for details.

Lincoln Archaeology Centre

Since our September Newsletter we have been informed of a further reprieve granted to the Lawn Archaeology Centre. The proposed closure on 31 December will not now take place, and it may well remain open until after Easter. No date has been given. It is still hoped that when another use for Charlotte House has been found by the City Council a temporary re-location pending the opening of the New Museum will be possible. FLARE will offer what support it can to preserve this valuable resource.

City of Lincoln Archaeology Unit

The City of Lincoln Archaeology Unit, as integrated into the former Planning Directorate in April 2002, is no longer undertaking contract work and as a result will be making its Field Team staff redundant on completion of this work. The remaining staff – the Post Excavation Team – will remain as part of the Heritage Team within the Directorate of Development and Environmental Services and will be undertaking, from April this year, an extensive programme of archive and post excavation work. We wish them all well for the future.

Historical Atlas

It is hoped that The Historical Atlas of Lincoln 1610-1920 will be published towards the end of the year and be available as that special 2004 Christmas present. You will be kept informed (see Mick Jones’ report, below).

David Vale

An inventory of all known reconstruction drawings is underway, and FLARE hopes to produce a companion volume to Lincoln: A Place in Time. This will feature city drawings as yet unpublished. But David’s interests ranged far beyond Lincoln, and over recent years he produced a remarkable collection of over eighty drawings for John Ketteringham. John used these in his many books and articles. He now proposes to bring them all together in a single volume as a personal tribute and appreciation of David’s life and work. They do include some Lincoln and cathedral reconstructions, but mainly comprise Lincolnshire churches and monasteries. Many of them feature some of the county’s most distinctive towers and steeples. Not only FLARE members but all those who have known David will appreciate what John is setting out to do. Because of the cost of publishing, this book will be printed only to prepaid order. If anyone would like a copy they should either telephone John on 01522 888807, or email on john.ketteringham@ntlworld.com for further details. A sample copy will be available at a FLARE meeting for inspection in due course. John and Mary Vale have agreed that all David’s original drawings will be deposited with the already extensive collection in the Library of Lincoln Cathedral.

There will be a major exhibition of selected drawings in the Cathedral Library at Easter. All FLARE members are invited to the opening and launch on 26 March 2004 (numbers are limited; see separate note by Carol Bennett, below). David’s widow, Mary, and members of his family, will be present, and will be awarded with a token of FLARE’s tribute to him – the adoption of a remarkable book published in 1632 illustrating the archaeological remains of Rome as then known. It will be inscribed ‘Liber Sce Marie Lincoln. Adopted in grateful and loving memory of David Vale, Author and Illustrator’.

John Wilford
Chairman

CITY ARCHAEOLOGIST'S REPORT

The organisational and legal framework of our activities is undergoing major upheaval. Since my last report in September, the City Council has sent off two responses to Government consultation documents. One of these refers to proposals for improving (and simplifying) the system for protecting the historic environment: historic buildings, ancient monuments, and conservation areas, now seen in more holistic terms. Next year, a White Paper will follow, and a draft revised Planning Policy Statement will be issued setting out how archaeology and historic buildings should be dealt with in the planning process.

The second consultation concerns Historic Environment Records (including our Urban Archaeological Database), whose maintenance we hope will become a statutory function of local authorities rather than discretionary as at present. We should really like to see the information they contain made more widely available so that users can have easy access, and that would entail putting them on to the internet.

Now English Heritage is reviewing the scope and function of its own National Monuments Record (based at Swindon). It has also issued its second State of the Historic Environment report, entitled this year Heritage Counts. There are separate documents for each of the regions. Copies can be obtained by contacting EH, or by consulting its web-site.

Fieldwork and Publication

Lincoln’s development scene - particularly demands for student accommodation and for residential units of a larger scale - shows no sign of slackening. Investigations north of Brayford Pool revealed a few Roman graves near to Newland, and a medieval building which might have fronted on to a lost street linking that part of Newland to the east and Carholme Road. Sampling of the peats around the Pool for environmental analysis continues, and is providing information on the landscape going back several thousand years.

Extensions to Lincoln College close to Monks Road have turned up more fragments of the Dominican friary to add to the discoveries made last winter. At Beech Close, south of Bracebridge Hall, there were unexpected traces of a substantial Roman building, perhaps part of a villa.

The big news on the publication front concerns the major Assessment volume, The City by the Pool, with its accompanying CD-Rom. It includes a synthesis of the city’s archaeology from the prehistoric period to 1945, as well as a mapped list of research questions which might be answered at sites across the whole of the present city. At £29.95, it is selling fast in the shops and could soon be out of print! In the meantime, the more detailed volumes in the same series on the Upper City and on Saxon and Medieval Pottery should now appear in the first part of 2004. Another eagerly-awaited book will be the Atlas of Historic Maps of Lincoln, 1610-1920. This is a project to which FLARE has made a financial contribution. It will be published next autumn, jointly between the Survey of Lincoln and the Lincoln Record Society. Details of a pre-publication offer will be enclosed in the next Newsletter. Roman Lincoln has now been reprinted with minor revisions, while a new edition of Lincoln: History and Guide is in preparation and could well appear in the spring.

Local members will have seen the publicity about our draft plans for the city’s Roman monuments. We hope to see further progress made on repairs and improved interpretation by the time that the new City and County Museum opens (and you can now see tangible progress on the museum as the building rises above the hoardings). By the end of January you will be able to consult a consultation draft – two volumes, the second a gazetteer - as a basis for giving your views. In the meantime, a copy of a simple consultation leaflet is enclosed, with a freepost return address: please note that you have until the end of February to send in your views, not 30 January as stated on the leaflet.

Further information on some of the above is now available on the Heritage pages of the City Council’s web-site: www.lincoln.gov.uk (see under ‘Living’ - ‘Planning’).

Mick Jones