WELCOME TO THE CHERWELL COMMUNITY ARCHAEOLOGY GROUP.
Spring 2022
Spring 2022
Now that spring has arrived (just about!) and COVID although not gone, seems less of a threat than it was during the last two years, our thoughts can turn to a new season of fieldwork and research.
This year we intend to look carefully for evidence of Kidlington's past that is hidden within the built area of central Kidlington. We hope to discover this by using test-pits to look for buried artefacts and looking for evidence from old wells and remnants of old buildings or walls which may have been incorporated into more modern buildings and gardens.
An article will appear in the the April 2022 edition of the "Kidlington News" explaining the work we have done so far and what our aims are for the coming year. We intend to circulate a leaflet to properties in Kidlington inviting people to participate in a local archaeology initiative (see below).
This year we intend to look carefully for evidence of Kidlington's past that is hidden within the built area of central Kidlington. We hope to discover this by using test-pits to look for buried artefacts and looking for evidence from old wells and remnants of old buildings or walls which may have been incorporated into more modern buildings and gardens.
An article will appear in the the April 2022 edition of the "Kidlington News" explaining the work we have done so far and what our aims are for the coming year. We intend to circulate a leaflet to properties in Kidlington inviting people to participate in a local archaeology initiative (see below).
If you would like to take part in this project, have found an article in your garden or house that intrigues you, or would like to know more about the past history of your home...GET IN TOUCH.
Most of our members have lived locally for many years, but there are always surprising "nooks and crannies" that we haven't come across. This is where the local community, and its store of knowledge and memories is so important.
If you know about an interesting local "site", or if you have come across something interesting (perhaps in your garden) and you would like to share it with us, please do get in touch or bring it to one of our open meetings for us to have a look at. We meet at The Highwayman in North Kidlington - check the web site What's on for our next meeting.
We are a group of enthusiasts who wish to understand the history and past of our local area by active fieldwork, supported by robust and focused research.
We all come from the local community and are driven by a love of, and a fascination with, the landscape and environment we live in.
Our fieldwork includes investigation of the the local environment, field walking and digs (test pits).
Research can involve using varied documentary sources including maps, census returns, historical aerial photography and surveys, as well as modern survey information (such as Lidar mapping), all of which give evidence and clues to the history of our local area.
"If we knew what was there, we wouldn't have to dig" Richard Boisvert (Archaeologist)
Archaeology isn't just the study of the ancient past, but also includes more recent times. For the Cherwell area, this includes the building and use of the Oxford Canal (1780's), the coming of the railways (1850's) and the radical change in the layout and usage of agricultural land brought about during the land enclosures of the early 1800's.
All these events have helped shape the countryside, towns and villages that we live in, and have left physical evidence - sometimes obvious but often hidden or unrecognised - all around us.
It is this physical evidence, from the smallest fragment of pottery to large imposing structures such as canals and churches, that archaeology seeks to recognise and understand. It is not necessarily the story of the objects themselves that is important (although that in itself can be fascinating), but what they tell us about how our ancestors lived, worked and died that is important.
February 2021.
"Archaeology holds all the keys to understand who we are and where we came from" Sarah Parcak