Council for British Archaeology — East Midlands Group: Archaeology for all  Charity No. 1082287 Would you like to explore the main CBA national site? Click here for archaeologyuk.org The Roots and Development of Bingham, Nottinghamshire Bingham Heritage Trails Association is carrying out a three-year project examining the historic core of Bingham, and how it developed through time. This follows on from, and supplements, a successful field-walking project which examined all 2,000 acres of arable land in the parish. The current project has now dug 60 1m-     holes, pits, drains and floors that date square test pits in central Bingham, and is     back to medieval times in some cases. All finishing off by digging a larger trench to     last year’s finds were entered on a database explore some of the remains found last year.     over the winter, and plotting of their Roughly 10,000 sherds of pottery and other     distribution suggests that a previously finds have been found in the pits from the     unidentified Roman settlement existed in Roman period onwards, as well as post-     the centre of Bingham, near the church. Much of the pottery has now been identified by specialists. The medieval assemblage gives a good indication of where people were living in Bingham immediately after the Norman Conquest. It looks as though there are also some Anglo Saxon sherds — did the Roman settlement continue into Anglo-Saxon times? The animal bones, bricks and tiles are currently being studied, and these will provide further information about how people lived in historic Bingham. There is still plenty of work left to do unravelling the centuries of history that lie just below the surface of people's gardens. Guidelines for setting up fieldwork projects, based on BHTA’s experience over the last decade, can be found here. The first two test pits are begun, under the watchful eye of staff from Trent and Peak Archaeology East Midlands Made with Xara Web Designer Excavation at Robert Miles School, Bingham, Nottinghamshire As an adjunct to the ‘Roots and Development’ project (see above), the Bingham Heritage Trails Association decided to extend a test pit it dug in 2012 and explore the stone surface and posthole that had been revealed, as part of the CBA’s 2013 Festival of Archaeology. Excavation began in July with the aid of a mini-digger, taking the topsoil off a 4x7m area and removing a compacted layer of burnt shale that probably formed an access road when the school was built. Underneath the road was a layer of rubble from when the old rectory had been demolished in 1964 — this was also removed with the mini-digger.      16—18 diggers and sievers spent the next five days working      under the guidance of Laura Binns of Trent & Peak Archaeology,      including three pupils from Toot Hill School. A steady supply of      pottery, animal bones, clay tobacco pipes and a whole range of      other finds kept everyone interested — especially when some of      the animal bones turned out to be the skeletons of two hunting      dogs, probably belonging to a 19th-century rector who was      keen on hunting.  The stone surface that was found in the original test pit ended up covering the whole  trench, subsiding at one point into a medieval sand pit that lay underneath it. It may  have been the floor of a large barn, or perhaps an external yard surface. No more  postholes were discovered, but a pit was uncovered that once held a flagpole that can  be seen on a late 19th / early 20th-century photo. A calendar coin belonging to the Rev  John Walters was found in the bottom, dating to 1764 — these gave not only calendar  dates, but also details of the ecclesiastical year. Council for British Archaeology 18th/19th-century drain made from medieval stone roof tiles Post-hole at the corner of a stone floor to a 17th-century timber building Stone foundation layer to the 13th-century tiled floor of a manor house Gazebos allowed the digging to carry on come rain or sunshine — mostly rain in summer 2012! Fieldwork in the East Midlands Covering five counties, the CBA East Midlands group is in a great position to bring the activities of other archaeological groups in its area to a wider audience. Whether you’re recording gravestones, fieldwalking, digging test pits or running large excavations, this page is available to publicise your work. We welcome anything from a single paragraph of text to a fully illustrated report, or even just a link to your project’s website if one exists — please send any material for inclusion to david.cba-em@albiondi.plus.com. Fieldwork guidelines CBA East Midlands has published guidelines for volunteer groups wishing to undertake programmes of fieldwork. They are based on Peter Allen’s experience of running such projects for the Bingham Heritage Trails Association and can be accessed here. Castleton’s Medieval Hospital, Derbyshire Members of the Castleton Historical Society and archaeologists from Sheffield University have been researching the medieval hospital on the outskirts of Castleton since 2007. Find out about what has been found here. Croxton Kerrial Manor House, Leicestershire Following a successful geophysical survey of the area near Croxton Kerrial church in an attempt to find the lost manor house, the Framland Local Archaeology Group (FLAG) has excavated the remains of the manor. Click here to see what the excavations discovered. Ice Age Journeys: Farndon, Newark, Nottinghamshire and Bradgate Park, Leicestershire Ice Age Journeys is continuing its project to learn more about Ice Age hunter-gatherers in the Newark and Leicester areas. Click here for information on the group’s activities. Burgage Manor Revealed: Southwell, Nottinghamshire Southwell Community Archaeology Group and its partner Southwell Town Council received a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) for an exciting project, Burgage Manor Revealed, in Southwell, Nottinghamshire. The two year project started in May 2015 with the professional leadership of Trent & Peak Archaeology, and has made a significant contribution towards understanding how this intriguing part of the town was occupied in the past. Click here to visit the group’s website and find out more.   Dig for Victory at St Anns Allotments, Nottingham St Anns Allotments in Nottingham, started in the early 19th century, is the oldest and largest area of Victorian detached town gardens in the world, comprising approximately 700 plots individually enclosed by 32 miles of hedgerow on a 15 acre site. The site is Grade II* listed. Many plots had elaborate summer houses and greenhouses, supported by underground water cisterns and wells — one summerhouse even had a wine cellar. Census returns show that as many as 200 people lived on their plots right through to the 1930s. STAA Ltd was formed in 1998 by a group of allotment holders to protect and improve these historic gardens. This charity now manages the site on behalf of the City Council. With financial support from the Heritage Lottery Fund and professional support from Trent & Peak Archaeology we ran our ‘Dig for History’ project, from April to November 2015. The project included setting up a GIS database, recording information, excavating a 19th-century well system, a series of community-based excavations in individual gardens, and evaluation of the project.