NEHHAS - Recent events

February 2010

Our planned talk for Friday 12th, "The Looting of the Wanborough Hoard", had to be postponed at short notice. Fortunately Richard Hoyland had two short presentations prepared and other members had brought in a large amount of local pottery for inspection. The presentations were on a visit to Cresswell Crags in Nottinghamshire and on a Reading University short course which involved augering at Avebury in Wiltshire.

January 2010

With the 8th January meeting cancelled due to snow, our first talk of the New Year was held on Friday 22nd. This was an excellent PowerPoint presentation by Sarah Fry on the excavations at Outsheets Farm and Tower Hill carried out some years ago. The audience included members who had dug and collected finds, many of which were on display at the meeting.

December 2009

On Friday 11th December John Paddon gave a talk on his waterways holiday in Germany and Holland. The annual 'seasonal snacks' followed, this being the last meeting of the year.

November 2009

Our Friday 13th November talk was by Phil Stevens on the history of nearby Surrey Heath during the 18th century. This was a period of great change which had effects widely felt at the time.

October 2009

On Friday 9th October, Rosemary Rawcliffe gave her presentation on the Farnborough Workhouse entitled: Living on the Breadline. The talk drew together many of the elements she found in her research of what proved to be a very extensively documented local history subject. The level of interest was evident in the large turnout at the talk and the invitations she has received to repeat it at other venues. Her display boards on the workhouse, originally produced for our CBA Festival event in July, have already been shown at Fleet and Camberley.

September 2009

Friday 11th September was the first meeting of the Autumn season entitled: Summer Snapshots. This included three short illustrated talks. One by John Paddon on his visit to Athens, another by Sarah Fry on archaeological sites by the Amalfi coast and finally a short account of our summer CBA Festival event 'Local Studies Day'.

On Tuesday 15th members were present when the Heritage Gallery opened in Camberley's shopping mall. NEHHAS had provided a set of display boards featuring the Farnborough workhouse.

The meeting on Friday 25th September was a member's evening. Members evenings are informal gatherings to discuss current projects and topics of interest and ideas for future events. It is a chance for everyone to have their say.

August 2009

On Thursday 20th August NEHHAS members and their families made a summer visit to the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum at Singleton, W. Sussex. Initial concerns about the weather were soon dispelled and all had a good day's outing.

July 2009

Our CBA Festival of British Archaeology event on Sunday 19th July at Farnborough Community Centre was the Local Studies Day. During the four hours scores of visitors came to view our information boards and take part in the various activities. It was good to see several children enjoying the experience of trowelling for finds and then cleaning them for subsequent marking. Apart from the wide range of pottery on display there was much interest shown in the photographs, maps and documents relating to local history. We hope that many of those who went away with application forms will be seen again in the autumn as new members!

June 2009

On 12th June Pam Taylor gave an illustrated talk entitled Rock Art in Southern Libya. Pam's recent holiday showed something of the wealth of both painted and chiselled artworks in that part of North Africa, stretching back to pre-historic times. Her adventures were slightly restricted by the uneasy border situation between Libya and Algeria into whose region the rock art extends. Nevertheless, Pam showed us many fine examples of this ancient traditional art form.

After tea, Richard Hoyland and Sarah Fry gave a short presentation on the excavation at Tower Hill.

During the evening of 26th June, despite a poor weather forecast, 16 members enjoyed a leisurely summer walk to Caesar's Camp near Hale, via the abandoned settlement at Bricksbury Hill. The remains of dwelling walls and trackways showed evidence of the settlement which ended when the army bought the land in mid 19th century. Defensive banks and ditches mark the SW extent of the hill-fort, the origins of which are still debated. Returning to our cars parked on the Odiham Road we passed the remains of gravel extraction sites and a 60cm narrow-gauge industrial railway line.

May 2009

On 8th May Paul Goodenough gave a very interesting talk on The Development of Early Christian Churches, 4th to 8th Centuries. Among other things his presentation showed how the evolving baptismal practices of the early church influenced the layout of buildings as evidenced from their archaeological remains. Much re-use of earlier buildings, such as Roman Mithraeums and mausolea, temples of Romano-British cults and early Saxon churches, also took place. Some of our oldest churches, in their architectural features, reveal elements of their diverse origins.

In the middle of the month the 'watching brief' that NEHHAS had taken on at Tower Hill suddenly became a rescue dig! A number of interesting features came to light resulting in a visit from the County Archaeology office and the brief cessation of the contractor's site clearance work. The photo below shows some of the group who carried out the dig at very short notice. However, the sun didn't always shine!

At the members evening on 22nd May, John Paddon, with help from Richard Whaley, planned the route for the June 26th walk to Caesars Camp. Others gave some thought to the types of display material required for the Local Studies CBA Festival event in July. Further finds from the Tower Hill site were on show.

April 2009

Following our AGM in March, the next meeting on April 3rd was an illustrated talk by Tony Wright: The History of Elvetham Hall. This talk was well received by a large audience, many of whom had either visited or worked at the Hall over the years as it changed from private estate to training establishment and finally hotel and conference venue.

See our Programme page for details of future events.

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You can contact us via e-mail at nehhas@hantsweb.org.uk

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This page last updated in Feb. 2010