Newsletter Autumn 2024
The societies latest newsletter is available online
(and can be downloaded) Here
Newsletter
Author: Doug Stuckey
BAS AAG evening meetings
Thursday 13th Feb 2025 19:30
Reclaiming the Chancel at Bletsoe St Mary’s
David Baker (former Beds County Archaeologist)
Insight into the work to restore access to the Chancel at an early, grade II listed, Church (evidence of Pre-Norman construction).
Register for this meeting Here if you want to attend via zoom, otherwise please come to the Museum.
We will open the Museum (back gate) at 19:00.
Saturday Lecture
Saturday January 11 2025 2pm: The Landscape at Shardeloes: discoveries new and old
Speakers: Marian Miller and Edward Copisarow
Exploring the development and use of the extensive grounds at Shardeloes, Amersham.
Please come to the Discover Bucks Museum or Register now for the online lecture Here (We will email the Zoom meeting invitation to you).
Tea and Coffee will be available as will the BAS pre-loved book stall.
Summer Outing – Seer Green/Jordans July 2024
Taplow Court
Sunday 8th September, a group visit to the Taplow Court Heritage Open Day with Sarah Gray
We’re not organising a coach and public transport takes ages to this far-south corner of the County. Anybody stuck for a lift or indeed offering a lift should contact Sarah Gray sarahgray707@btinternet.com and we will put people in touch. Taplow Court is next door to Cliveden National Trust so you might like to combine visits on the day. Taplow Court is hard to find on the HODs website as its listed under Berkshire, just the other side of the Thames. Taplow Court Open Day (heritageopendays.org.uk)
Something for everyone here. In the grounds is the 7c Taplow Burial mound, within a former hillfort and staring down at the Thames. There are replicas of the superb grave goods (British Museum) in the house and a reconstruction of the burial chamber. From the Grenfell family’s time, life sized and moving group portraits by CRW Nevinson of the two sons killed in WW1 and their contemporaries at Oxford.
Register for this excursion Here.
Any enquiries to Sarah on sarahgray707@btinternet.com.
The What Three Words location of the entrance is off Cliveden Road at https://w3w.co/diner.doors.chill .
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A series of walks around Seer Green, Hodgemoor Woods and Jordans
Led by Nigel and Janet Rothwell
Saturday 20th July, 10.00-12.00 and 14.00-16.00 – Seer Green – The Seer Green walks are each about 2.5km, mostly pavement, but some short stretches of woodland path.
Sunday 21st July, 10.00-13.00 and 14.00-17.00 – Hodgemoor Woods – The Hodgemoor walk is on rougher woodland paths, which can be muddy if wet, and is about 3.5km
Saturday 27th July, 14.00-16.30 – Jordans – The Jordans walk is about 2.5km, mostly pavement, but some short stretches of woodland path, and has one field stile.
The walks are arranged as part of the CBA ‘Festival of Archaeology’ and are also advertised on their web site. Each walk is limited to 20 people. There is a charge of £5 for non BAS members
More details and booking for each walk can be found Here
Buckinghamshire’s Heritage Portal
The new County Council have launched the long awaited update to the online Heritage Portal for Buckinghamshire. The new online service has a current search engine and is linked directly to the HER database – so new entries are available via the portal immediately.
Access the new portal Here
Bedfordshire Local History Association
Click on the poster to access the booking site.
Website: www.lbdahs.org.uk
Email: lbdahsofficial@gmail.com
BAS Saturday Lecture (online)
Saturday 9 October: From Cuneiform to Codex
Speaker: Michael Ghirelli, Editor of the BAS Newsletter
The earliest books were written by impressing signs on flat squares of soft clay that were then baked hard under the sun.
Register now for this online lecture Here (We will email the Zoom meeting invitation to you).
You can find the full BAS Lecture programme Here
Our lectures are free and (normally) located in the County Museum, Church Street, Aylesbury HP20 2QP starting at 2.30pm. Lasting about one hour plus time for discussion. Refreshments are available after the event.
Hs2 conference-on-the-web has audience of 200+
Two hundred people signed into the society’s first Conference-on-the-Web on Saturday 4 April. They heard and watched new archaeological discoveries across Buckinghamshire ahead of the construction of the HS2 high-speed rail line. They were all sitting safely in their own homes.
The speakers told of a Saxon longhouse excavated at Great Missenden, what appears to be a ceremonial circle on the route through the Chiltern escarpment at Wendover, Roman farm buildings in the Colne Valley, and a Saxon ‘sunken-floor’ building at Chetwode.
The on-line conference was a joint effort between the Bucks Archaeological Society and Fusion, who are the main archaeological contractors for HS2. Fusion provided the speakers and organised the ‘webinar’ technology which delivered the four-hour conference into people’s homes. Applause is difficult to project on-line, but a stream of email messages followed the end of the conference complimenting the speakers and the organisers.
The society’s members led the way by assessing the impact of HS2 on the county’s archaeology as soon as the HS2 project was announced in 2010.
- You can read the full conference-on-the-web report here.
- View earlier BAS reports on archaeological sites affected by HS2 here.
The online conference was recorded. We will try and bring you a link to it as soon as we can.
Professor’s talk on hillforts draws 180 to Amersham
The talk by Professor Barry Cunliffe, acknowledged expert of the Iron Age, was attended by around 180 people in Amersham last Saturday. For full details click here
Lectures in Marlow
Thursday 6th February 2020, 8.00 p.m.
Kings, Power and Conversion in Anglo-Saxon England
Dr Gabor Thomas (Reading University), new archaeological perspectives from the Kingdom of Kent.
Main Hall, Liston Hall, Chapel Street, Marlow, SL7 1DD. Members of AIM& MAS £3.00, non-member £4.50, students £1.50
Thursday 20th February 2020, 8.00 p.m.
The Archaeology of HS2 in Buckinghamshire
Lucy Lawrence (Bucks County Council Archaeology Officer) will outline how the Archaeology of HS2 is helping to answer some longstanding questions about the development and use of this historic landscape.
In the Garden Room, Liston Hall, Chapel Street, Marlow, SL7 1DD. Members of AIM& MAS £3.00, non-member £4.50