It surprising how quickly a new normal can be established in these extraordinary times. For me that’s not just working from home, which I was already doing a lot of, but it’s staying in and not venturing beyond the garden gate on a regular basis. I’m fortunate enough to have a garden to potter in, but there is at least one weekly trip I have being doing, and that is a drive out to check on the STAG Headquarters and Display Centre.
I’m glad to report that the building is fine and the forget-me-nots and daffodils thriving on the path and road edges. The site has been so quiet that I have been able to photograph the 18th century Hall without any cars in front of it for the first time and the scene can be viewed on our twitter account @StagArchaeology. Sadly the dry weather has meant that the medieval moat next door remains rather dry.
Nevertheless, that leaves a lot of time to fill. Our Secretary, Jane Darwen, has at least one suggestion elsewhere in newsletter No. 157 as to what STAG members might be able to do in terms of brushing up your archaeology building survey skills at home. You might like to browse the STAG website, which we continue to expand. One of the projects members might want to take part in, is digitising Browsings. We only have digital copies from 2011, although we have recently put issues number 123 to 150 on the website. If you have paper copies why not photograph them on your smart phone and email them to STAG? We can then turn them into pdfs and post them on the Group’s website. There are 122 issues to choose from!
Finally, I’m happy to report that the wonderful Felicity Wild has finished the Samian pottery report for the Weaver Street excavations at Roman Northwich. This research was funded with a grant from CBA North West. It confirms that this part of the vicus was in use from around AD 80 to AD 140. This research will be published as a specialist STAG report in the next few weeks and summarised in the newsletter in due course.
South Trafford Archaeological Group 