The 1918 flu pandemic was a lethal outbreak of influenza which infected 500 million people around the world, including remote Pacific islands and the Arctic, and resulted in the deaths of 50 to 100 million (three to five percent of the world's population) making it one of the deadliest natural disasters in human history. It killed the young and not the old, and was spread around the world by troops returning home after the First World War.
Due to popular demand a further series of Easter Walks around Epsom and Ewell has been arranged.Contact Bourne Hall Museum for full details.
A full day of visits, with talks, around some of Surrey's finest medieval churches; including Compton, Albury, Shere and Wotton.
See attached programme for details.
Saturday 19th May 2018 - Lullingstone Roman Villa and Eynsford Castle
Brian Philp, Kent Archaeological Rescue Unit, will lead us around both sites. Brian has spent 10 years digging on the Lullingstone Roman Villa and 40 years digging in the area.
The University of Exeter, Wealden Iron Research Group and the Early Metals Research Trust are jointly funding a second three year PhD studentship, following the current successful collaboration, focussing on the Romans, which began in 2015. There is the potential to combine documentary, field and laboratory studies. Details are available from Exeter University: www.exeter.ac.uk/studying/funding/award/?id=3042
Alan Sorrell: the man who created Roman Britain, by Julia Sorrell and Mark Sorrell, Oxbow, 2018 E1
Drawing lithic artefacts, by Yannick Raczynski-Henk, Sidestone Press, 2017 E6
Working with the past: towards an archaeology of recycling, edited by Dragoş Gheorghiu and Phil Mason, Archaeopress Archaeology, 2017 E7
We are pleased to announce that Professor Simon Esmonde Cleary has kindly agreed to chair the forthcoming major conference on the Roman-Saxon transition 'Shining a light on the 5th century AD in Surrey and the South-East: how did Roman Britain become Saxon England'.
Simon Esmonde Cleary is Emeritus Professor of Roman Archaeology at the University of Birmingham and his current research is focused on the Roman to post-Roman transition over much of the western part of the empire . He has written extensively on this subject including on the countryside of Roman Britain in the fourth and fifth centuries, and the Roman to Medieval transition, and is therefore ideally placed to lead discussions on what will be the latest archaeological evidence for the 5th century.
The annual excavation took place at Cocks Farm Abinger in June-July 2017 under the direction of Emma Corke. Volunteers excavated two trenches in an area of high agricultural activity on the hill adjacent to the known Roman villa site. This area was identified during a magnetometry survey looking at the environs of the villa which uncovered a Roman field system, a Roman lime kiln and a concentration of pits.
A conference organised by the Castle Studies Group to be held at the Society of Antiquaries will honour Derek Renn FSA, author of Norman Castles in Britain (1969/1973), and launch a Festschrift, Castles: History, Archaeology, Landscape and Architecture, edited by Neil Guy FSA. Speakers include Oliver Creighton FSA, Bob Higham FSA, Brian Kerr FSA, Neil Ludlow FSA and Pamela Marshall FSA.
A fourth season of excavation at Bookham Courte, a medieval manor house near the centre of Great Bookham. Of the four new trenches, one was an extension of trench 7 in 2016. All the trenches contained medieval pottery suggesting the site went back to the 11th century. The remains of flint and mortar walls were found, but the archaeology showed that there had been various buildings or structures in the area over a long period.
