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Past Events -
Summer 2005 |
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Red Rail Ford,
August 27th
Following visiting the site on
August 17th, Ross
Sub Aqua Club dived at the site of the old river
crossing at
Red Rail Ford, Hoarwithy. |
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Click image to view Red Rail project |
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Transcribers'
meeting, August 12th |
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On the afternoon of Friday
12th August, members of the group met to examining old
documents relating to the project area. Copies of several
documents were examined, both English and Latin, and David
Lovelace took the group through each. Members then
volunteered to transcribe selected document sets for the
project.
The initial transcription
will be of documents relating to the medieval
Eaton Treagoz estate, the Mynde material in the
National Library of Wales,
the Aramstone archive and material from the tithe
apportionments for the parishes of
Ballingham,
Brockhampton and
Sellack. |
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Pengethley and
Hentland, July 21st
On
Thursday July 21st, as part of National Archaeology Week,
we walked around Pengethley and Hentland deserted medieval
villages and associated network of old roads. |
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The group on the public footpath, still visibly an old
road, running south-west from Hentland church. |
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The group
approaching Hentland church. In 1835 five roads led from
here, now there is only one. |
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Inspecting an old spring or
holy well on the slope below Hentland Church. |
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Caplor Farm,
14th July
On Thursday 14th July we had a
second session of identifying archaeological sites in the
landscape and introduced some of the volunteers to some
principles of archaeological surveying. We also looked at
the material collected by field-walking on 30th June.
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Caplor Farm, 30th June
A three-hour walk-over survey at
Caplor Farm introduced a group of volunteers to techniques of
field-walking, identifying earthworks and dating hedgerows by
counting species. Several different hedgerows were walked and
large lynchets beneath some of them were identified.
The fieldwalking, between rows
of young potato plants, produced a number of finds, including
medieval and post-medieval pottery.
photograph
courtesy of Roz Lowe
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Other Past Events
The first public meeting of
the Landscape Origins of the Wye Valley Project
was held in Sellack Village Hall at 7.30pm on 16th March
at 7.30pm. There was a large turnout
of over 80 people in attendance.
The meeting was
addressed by Simon Dereham of the River Wye Preservation Trust, David
Lovelace, technical adviser to the Project, Huw Sherlock
of Archenfield Archaeology and Heather Hurley, a local
historian. There was a display of the results of
some of the documentary research, old maps of the
area, aerial photographs of archaeological sites and archival
photographs.
The second public meeting was held at Brockhampton
Village Hall on Tuesday 29th March at 7.30 pm.
Despite heavy and incessant rain an audience
of 25 mainly local people heard talks about how
the project is working to identify the gaps in
our knowledge of the history, archaeology and environment
of the area in general and Brockhampton Parish in
particular.
The history of transport
on the Wye was addressed by Heather Hurley who has found
some fascinating documentary evidence in the cathedral
archives relating to the operation of barges on the Wye.
Previously unknown archaeological crop-mark sites and the
exciting possibility of investigating these for the first
time using geophysics, with the active participation
of volunteers, was discussed in the talk by Huw Sherlock.
David Lovelace
explored the rich vein
of documentary evidence that the work of the project
is making available to local people now that it
is possible to use digital cameras in the Public Record
Office. This includes many medieval documents such
as inquisition post mortems and the Wool Tax returns,
and also very detailed government land-use
and woodland surveys carried out in the 1950s.
A third public meeting was
held at Kings Caple village hall on April 6th. |
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Sunday
10th April - a walk around Capler hill-fort and
its Environs
A
guided walk open to the
general public, took
place on 10th April
2005. This started
at Brinkley Hill Car Park at 14:00 and followed
the course of the River Wye to view the quarries below Capler
Camp. The stone from these was used for the construction of
many buildings including Hereford Cathedral. The walk then
skirted
around the west and north of Capler Camp before entering it
from the east. Following a walk around the Camp, the footpaths
were
followed back to Brinkley Hill Car Park.
The
walk was
led by Heather Hurley, a local historian,
Huw Sherlock of
Archenfield Archaeology and David Lovelace.
The
walk was
approximately 3 miles (5km). |
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aerial photographs
courtesy of English Nature
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Huw Sherlock explaining the role of
aerial photography in interpreting earthwork features
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Following the first succesful guided walk around
Capler and environs (see below) a second walk took place
around
Sellack and Caradoc on
Sunday 17th April -
The
second guided walk, open to the general public,
took
place on Sunday 17th April 2005.
This started
at
Sellack Church at 2:00pm (parking by kind permission of the
landowner). It visited
the river crossing, once a ferry but now a foot suspension
bridge, before passing along the riverside towards old
quarries at Sellack. Then it returned
to the centre of the shrunken medieval settlement before going
up the lane to Caradoc Court. From the court the walk passed
the northern edge of Riggs Wood before returning to the river
to pass along the meadows back to the church.
The
walk was
led by Heather Hurley, a local historian,
Huw Sherlock of
Archenfield Archaeology together with a number of fellow
archaeologists and David Lovelace. Landscape features in the
area were
pointed out and discussed.
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aerial photographs
courtesy of English Nature
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An
exhibition of the work of the project formed part of
'Bluebell Walk - Arts and Crafts Weekend' at Brockhampton
Parish Hall, Brockhampton, near Ross-on-Wye,
Herefordshire, on Sunday 1st and Monday 2nd May
2005 11.00am til 4.00pm
The walk and and exhibitions were presented by Brockhampton
Parish Hall and
Trackways to Remember
- A collaboration between local artists and
Archenfield Archaeology
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On Monday 20th June there was
a walk by
Trackways to Remember - Artists and Archaeologists in
Archenfield. This was- 'Trackways, Artists
& Archaeologists on Midsummer Eve' and
formed part of the
Herefordshire Walking Festival. It began at Overdine Farm
near Fownhope at 5.00pm and visited
Bridget Drakeford's studio
- porcelain,
Nicky Hopwood - stained glass,
Jane Smith -
greenwood chair sculptures and back to Overdine for
Caroline
Hands' painting and textiles. There was an exhibition of the
work of the Landscape Origins of the Wye Valley team at Caplor
Farm.
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Current and coming events
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