Past events, walks, field visits

January 23rd 2022 Members' and Friends' Day

Members met at the village hall in Chewton Mendip for their annual event which features projects being undertaken by members as a part of CAMP activities or independent of them. This year was the first time we have met in person since the start of Covid and there was a good turnout with the customary buffet lunch. The first speaker was Andrew Buchanan, assisted by Pete Missingham, who introduced us to the excavations taking place on a Roman farmstead site near Westbury-sub-Mendip, Somerset. Some of our members regularly dig there. We were also able to view some of the finds from the site. 

Our next guest speaker was David Savage, who runs an excavation at Siston, South Gloucestershire, in which several of our members will be involved in this spring and summer. The site has intriguing resistivity anomalies, as yet unexplained, and it is hoped that excavation will throw light on the nature of the archaeology there. Zillah Savage hosted a finds table from limited excavations in 2021. 

Lastly we invited Andy Mayes, who leads the Burledge Hillfort Community Project, to talk about progress on assessing the potential of landscape analysis at this under-rated Iron Age site. We hope to work with him in the future, in particular in regards the old Chewton Poorhouse which once stood on the site.

Above: Members and friends gather outside Chewton Village Hall after event

Burledge Hillfort Visit August 4th 2021

Now we can get out and about freely this was a good time to go discovering a little known about Hillfort almost on our doorstep. Professional archaeologist Andy Mayes is running a Community Project researching not only the Hillfort, but its immediate environs and led us round the site. We were struck by the amazing views and one of the topics of discussion was the intervisibility with other hillforts, such as Dolebury Warren and even as far away as Worlebury Camp. We were particularly interested in the Chewton Poor House that abutted the outside rampart on the east side. This was news to at least some of us that it even existed!

Below left : Andy Mayes explaining what the roundhouses might have looked like within the ramparts

Below right: Kay and Gareth considering the intervisibility of Dolebury Warren and Worlebury Camp hillforts

June 2020

Circular Walk Chewton and Greendown, Litton. 

Six of us spent a very pleasant afternoon led by Pip, looking at archaeological features in the landscape. The topics were medieval sheep management, 18thC field names, lead mining activities, plus manorial boundaries; a richly historical landscape. 

Below: Taking a breather on the top of Hare's Down where the views are quite magnificent.