11th December 2013

On Wednesday 11 December Roger organised a workshop for members of UWHG to start thinking about writing up the report for the project.

Attentiveness

Eleven enthusiastic members took part at various times of day – there would have been more but Christmas and colds intervened. Roger began the day by informing us as to what was expected for the report and discussed various queries which arose.

Thoughtfulness

Members then divided into groups, each group volunteering to do the various tasks required – washing and recording finds, inking up and scanning plans, discussing illustrations, photographing finds, etc.

Puzzlement

We were fortified throughout the day by coffee and biscuits 

Cheerfulness

and an excellent lunch at the Falcon (even though we had all taken sandwiches!) Time passed very quickly and we completed all the allotted tasks. We look forward to a further day next year, when we will have the results of the geo-phys. and the bone analysis.

Ruth Spencer

Saturday 30th November 2013 

Local residents and members of UWHG were invited to attend a progress update at Amerdale Village Hall in Arncliffe today. 

Despite suffering from man-flu Roger valiantly gave his presentation on what was found during the geophysics and excavation of the site. We are still waiting for the results from forensic examination of bones and other finds, but it does look as if the Arncliffe project is going to be a significant addition to the recent re-evaluation of the Anglo-Saxon period in the Yorkshire Dales. This is an exciting development as new light is being brought to the "Dark Ages" in the early medieval period of our local region. 

As Roger's voice began to fail he wrapped up his talk and was followed by Jane with her presentation on "What documents can tell us". In a bid to encourage local residents to follow up UWHG's archaeological investigations with their own local history research, Jane offered a whirlwind introduction to a selection of different types of documents that can be used for local historical research, and explained how they can be analysed in several ways to reconstruct the social and economic structure of the parish in the past.

After the meeting some local residents seemed very keen to take up the challenge - let's hope they can get together and start the ball rolling soon. Jane offered to run some workshops in the spring to help them get started. 

Jane Lunnon, UWHG