News

Bristol & Avon Archaeology Volume 21

Volume 21 of the Society's journal - Bristol & Avon Archaeology, has now been issued to members. Our Editor, Bruce Williams would welcome articles from members and non-members for possible inclusion in Volume 22. Bruce can be contacted at Bristol & Region Archaeological Services, St Nicholas Church, St Nicholas Street, Bristol BS1 1UE. Tel. 0117 9039010.

Bristol University library Cards

As a service to members, BAAS will be extending for a further year its corporate membership of Bristol University library. This provides the Society with a supply of five interchangeable "swipe" cards allowing access (for reading and reference only) to the Arts & Social Sciences Library in Tyndall Avenue. Cards are issued to members for limited periods by our Hon. Secretary, Mike Gwyther. We have noted a significant drop in applications for cards in 2006-07, and the level of interest shown during the current year will determine whether we can continue to offer this service. If you would like to make use of this service please contact Mike at mike_gwyther@tinyonline.co.uk

Programme Secretary Urgently Required!!

Since Geoff Charter sadly died last October BAAS has been without a Programme Secretary. The post involves approaching and booking potential speakers for the winter lecture programme, maintaining contact with them prior to the meetings and supervising the lectures themselves. At present the other officers and members of the Committee are doing their best to finalise the 2007-08 programme on a collective basis. This is however far from ideal and we urgently need a volunteer to come forward to take on this demanding but interesting role if the quality and frequency (currently an average of two events per month between September and April) of the programme is to be maintained. If you are interested in helping the Society in this way our Hon Secretary, Mike Gwyther will be pleased to hear from you. Mike can be contacted at mike_gwyther@tinyonline.co.uk

Training Excavation: The Blacklands Project

The Bath & Camerton Archaeological Society will be continuing for a seventh season its award-winning training and research excavation (featured in the last series of Time Team) on an Iron Age and Roman settlement site at Upper Row Farm, 5Km north of Frome, under the direction of Jayne Lawes, an experienced professional field archaeologist. Five-day training courses will be run Monday-Friday, 13 August to 14 September. Charges £110 for five days or £25 per day. For more details contact Mrs Margaret Nuth, 59 Vallis Road, Frome BA11 3EG (Tel. 01373 463821, Email: margaret@margaretnuth.freeserve.co.uk)

Bristol Excavations

Excavations by professional archaeological units are currently in progress in several parts of central Bristol, particularly in the Redcliffe and Temple districts south of the Avon. In Temple Street, opposite the Fire Station, Bristol & Region Archaeological Services (BaRAS) has recently completed a small but productive excavation, revealing well-preserved medieval and later tenement boundaries, floor surfaces and pitched stone hearths. Similar structural features are currently being exposed in a larger excavation being carried out by Cotswold Archaeology at the northern end of Recliffe Street, west of St Thomas' Church. Further south, on Redcliffe Wharf next to Redcliffe Bridge, Cotswold Archaeology has excavated in a known area of 17C and 18C pottery and glass manufacture (kiln remains were found here in 2005). On the former Courage Brewery site, north of Counterslip, Oxford Archaeology are engaged in a major 12 month programme of excavation which should reveal much new evidence for the development of the Temple area. Across the Avon, Cotswold Archaeology are currently excavating the south side of Anchor Road, opposite Lower College Green and within the former outer precinct of St Augustine's Abbey. Finally, at the junction of Pipe Lane and Trenchard Street, BaRAS have excavated the site of an 18C house, sacrificed to make way for the "exciting" Colston Hall extension. The extension site lies within the precinct of the medieval Carmelite Friary, some archaeological evidence for which (burials, floor tiles and fragmentary wall footings) was recovered by the antiquary John E. Pritchard when the area was last redeveloped in 1904.

Bristol Museum - What Future for the Local Archaeology Displays??

I t is likely that the South Western British Archaeology Gallery at Bristol City Museum will be closed and completely dismantled in the next few months. The existing displays, covering the Prehistoric and Roman periods, have remained largely unaltered since they were created in the late 1960s by our founder member Leslie Grinsell (whose centenary BAAS celebrated on 14 February) and his assistant Max Hebditch. While now undoubtedly in need of updating and refurbishment these displays were "state of the art" in their day and still form a worthy reflection of Mr Grinsell's high standards of curatorship and scholarship; you are urged to have a good look at them before they disappear.

We understand that when the dismantling scheme was first mooted last Autumn the Museum's Senior Management Team intended that the area vacated by the Archaeology Gallery should be used for an indefinite period as additional temporary exhibition space. However, it now appears that some sort of replacement display will in fact be provided during 2008. From the limited information so far available it seems this will consist of a general introduction to the Museum's "human history" collections, displaying a mixture of archaeological and ethnographic material as "examples of human creativity" and presented, according to Collections Manager Ray Barnett, "in a new and lively way to appeal to a very broad range of visitors" (which sounds suspiciously like a euphemism for "dumbing down!!").

It must be seriously questioned whether this will be either an adequate or an appropriate substitute for the existing displays. In a major regional museum such as Bristol priority should surely be given to the display of local archaeology, providing residents and visitors alike with a coherent, chronologically structured overview of the development of human settlement within the region, in the same way that local " earth history" is systematically dealt with in the Geology Gallery upstairs. As well as the Prehistoric and Roman material shown in the existing displays adequate treatment badly needs to be given to Bristol's urban archaeology, currently represented at Queens Road by scarcely more than a case or two of medieval pottery. Visitors to the Museum can have little conception of the huge quantities of artefactual evidence generated by over 40 years of major excavations in what was one of the richest and most important maritime and industrial centres in medieval Britain. It would be a grave mistake to assume that this deficiency will be remedied by the new "Museum of Bristol", due to open in 2009. Through the clouds of portentous jargon which envelop this much-hyped project ("championing the concept of civic dialogue, the museum will engage with communities in new ways to explore the past, and create a catalyst for debate on contemporary issues") it is becoming clear that the displays here will be heavily skewed towards recent social history, with only a very limited archaeological content.

Obituary: Jon Brett

J on Brett's sudden death from a heart attack on 23 March, aged only 40, was a great shock to all who knew him and represents a tragic loss to Bristol archaeology. For over a decade, as assistant to Bristol City Archaeologist, Bob Jones, Jon had worked tirelessly to develop the city's Sites & Monuments Record to its present high standard. This comprehensive database provides both an essential planning tool for determining the archaeological response to development proposeals, and an invaluable resource for researchers. Jon played a major part in preparing the Bristol Urban Archaeological Assessment, due to published in the near future. Quiet and unassuming, Jon was always ready to share his encyclopaedic knowledge of local archaeology with others, and the large attendance at his Memorial Service amply demonstrated the great respect and affection with which he was regarded by his many friends and colleagues. A fuller appreciation of Jon's life and work will appear in Bristol & Avon Archaeology.

Recent Publications (June 2007)

Excavations at St James's Priory, Bristol. Reg Jackson. (Oxbow Books 2006). ISBN 9781842172070. Obtainable from Oxbow Books, Park End Place, Oxford OX1 1HN, £30 + £2.95 postage.

This major monograph provides a comprehensive and well illustrated account of axcavations undertakenin and around St James's Priory between 1989 and 1997. The largest of these, in which many BAAS members helped as weekend volunteers, took place in the spring of 1995 at the eastern end of the Priory church. While structural evidence for the church proved to be vestigial in the extreme, it was possible to examine a substantial part of the surrounding monastic cemetery, which yielded 245 articulated skeletons and much valuable information on burial practices. In addition large and important groups of 17C and 18C finds were recovered from rubbish and cess pits.