It seems no time since the last Newsletter that came out just before our June Annual General Meeting. As there were no meetings during the Summer holiday months of July and August there is little for me to report. Our Autumn lecture series begins on 20 September with Richard Buckley on recent work in Leicester.

Holiday season or not there has been a lot of archaeology going on in Lincoln. I have watched the digging of the huge new University Pond with great interest, and at Mick Jones’ invitation I have visited the excavations on the site of St Catherine’s Priory. Another piece of the jigsaw picture of the Priory is revealed, including the remarkable remains of an elaborate water supply and distribution system through glazed ceramic pipes. Mick is providing some details in his report given below.

Perhaps the high-light of the summer season, for those of us who joined Ken Hollamby, was the trip he organised to Bristol and places around and en-route. There is a tremendous amount of work and organisation involved, including arranging sites to visit, venues for speakers and guides, getting to the right places on time, and being held responsible for everything from transport to accommodation. Ken not only excels in all this, but seems to love it. We were already bombarding him with questions about next year’s trip before we arrived back in Lincoln.

For those of us who knew Bristol some time ago the changes have been dramatic. We heard about and saw for ourselves the evidence of centuries of change and development. And the process is continuing today with major city redevelopment schemes. We saw so much, from Roman Villa to Medieval Castle, from Clifton Gorge and Suspension Bridge to new outstanding museums and old cathedrals and churches. But the experience many of us will most vividly remember was our visit to the Floating Docks and the SS Great Britain. The rotting hulk that Mary and I visited some years ago has been transformed in more ways than I can list here. The word is ‘experience’ and to appreciate this a personal visit is essential. FLARE is extremely fortunate to have someone like Ken to offer us this quality and range of places to visit, and to find the guides and experts who can bring them alive for us. Well done Ken, and our sincere gratitude and thanks. What’s next?

Finally, if any member has ideas for places to visit, especially one-day trips, please let us know. The same goes for talks. If you have a speaker or topic you would like to include in our programme, we will do our best. Special requests are welcome. On behalf of the Committee we look forward to seeing you on 20 September at St Hugh’s for the beginning of our Autumn series of talks.

John Wilford
Chairman

CITY ARCHAEOLOGIST'S REPORT

It is very rare these days that we manage to set up excavations of any scale in the city, but in recent weeks there has been more to report. You may have seen coverage in the local press of the work at the new University pond – being provided primarily for flood alleviation rather than for wildlife – which has revealed evidence for the earliest human activity to date in the city. As the environmental archaeologist James Rackham had predicted from his analysis of the many boreholes sunk around the campus, the pond proved to be at the eastern edge of a sand island in the greater Brayford Pool. At the point where the sand gave way to peat, remains of bog-oak trees were found. These have been dated to approx. 1000BC, in the Bronze Age. Remains of flint-working in the form of small chips – microliths – were found in the top layer of sand close to the former water’s edge. These are about 4,000 years earlier, dating primarily to the late Mesolithic period.

Flints of similar date have previously turned up at Burton Waters on the edge of what was then the valley of the River Till, and off Nettleham Road, close to the stream emerging from the Roaring Meg spring. In both these cases, the flint flakes were found by sieving the ploughsoil rather than the natural sand.

Evidence of prehistoric occupation in the city is very rare, but as I write, the same unit, Lindsey Archaeological Services, is revealing a prehistoric land surface at St. Catherines, on the east bank of the Witham. The site here is to be developed for a block of apartments, and already excavations have revealed walls of both the medieval priory and the succeeding grand town-house of the Grantham family, where King James I was entertained on a visit in 1617. But the site is only on the fringes of both building-complexes. The most impressive survival has been the water supply system, which is formed of sections of green-glazed ceramic pipe, encased in clay and protected by stone lining. There is more to come from this site.

Lindsey Archaeological Services, has also been busy revealing the southerly continuation of medieval St Leonards Lane on Greetwellgate.

Among other excavations planned shortly are investigations on the line of the aqueduct on Nettleham Road, where our Chairman John Wilford worked with the late Ken Wood in the 1970s.

The former Unit headquarters, Charlotte House at the Lawn, is likely to be converted into a hotel. Some of the exhibits in the former Archaeology Centre have been removed to the Museum store, others to Bishop Grosseteste College, where they will grace the planned new archaeology laboratory.

The work of publishing past excavations costumes, and the two long-awaited volumes on the Upper City and on Saxon and Medieval Pottery have now appeared. So has a long article on Medieval and Later Glass, of which we shall soon have off-prints for sale. Among other notable works I must mention David Stocker’s new book on the East Midlands in the English Heritage Landscapes series, and his forthcoming joint volume with Paul Everson on Saxon-Norman church towers in Lincolnshire, Summoning St Michael, which is to be launched on 20 September.

I look forward to seeing many of you at our first talk of the autumn, on the same day.

With this mailing we are also sending information regarding this year’s Lincolnshire Archaeology Day, due to be held on 14 October.

Mick Jones