The community archaeology project in the Pendle Hill LP is now well
underway with plenty of people involved and lots of ideas suggested about what
we could do in the upcoming years. This work is being led by Northern Archaeological
Associates’ (www.naaheritage.com) Community and Outreach Officer, Rebecca
Cadbury-Simmons, who is working as our Community Archaeology Co-ordinator.
Part of the project is a series of training workshops for
local volunteers to take part in and learn key archaeological skills and
techniques. Five workshops have been run this year, focusing on finds
identification, geophysical survey, archiving and desk-based research, LiDAR
interpretation, and how to plan and run a community archaeology project.
Volunteers have been able to try their hand at identifying
different types of 'finds' that are commonly found in archaeological
excavations, and also at reconstructing broken pots from fragments of pottery.
They have also used geophysical survey equipment to
investigate how different features would show up in the results. During the
LiDAR and desk-based research workshops they were shown what resources are
available to them for free, both locally and online, that can aid their
investigations of local archaeology.
Finally, the volunteers brought their ideas for possible
community archaeology projects together and learned how they might be able to
turn those into real projects and what steps they would need to go through to
complete this.
The attendance at all these workshops was excellent and
volunteers brought along their own ideas and suggestions of what work could be
undertaken within the Landscape Partnership area. We are hoping that these
training workshops will equip people with the skills and knowledge to start
planning their own small-scale archaeological research projects.
By giving local individuals and groups the skills to run
these projects themselves, we are optimistic that the legacy of community
archaeology within Pendle Hill will continue and expand beyond the life of the
Landscape Partnership.
In addition to the training workshops, we also ran two open
days during the excavations at Malkin Tower Farm, by UCLan in summer 2018.
During one of these days, volunteers were given the opportunity to have a go at
archaeological excavation. Students taught the attendees what they had learned
about excavating and recording, as well as being able to show off what they had
found so far. The second open day saw groups of interested locals being given
tours of the site at the end of the excavation. This allowed people to see the
progress that had been made before it was all covered over again.
This is just the start though; there is lots more community
archaeology to come within the Landscape Partnership.
On Tuesday the 23rd April 2019, we will be holding an
Archaeology Forum that will feature talks and displays about all the
archaeological work currently being undertaken in the area, as well as
information about how you can get involved. This will be held at Clitheroe
Castle Museum and is free for everyone to attend. We will also be running more
training sessions in the upcoming year, featuring topics such as archaeological
landscape survey and how to use software called QGIS (a very important tool in
recording and reporting on archaeology). If you would like to find out more
about these events, or for information on how you can get involved, please
email Jayne Ashe (jayne.ashe@lancashire.gov.uk).
We are really looking forward to the coming year of
community archaeology within Pendle Hill and we can’t wait to hear what other
ideas the volunteers have come up with!
See more about the Malkin Tower on our short film here
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