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