SAHSoc events

Saturday 15th April 2023 – Titterstone Clee: a working landscape. 

A walk led by Roger White. Today’s visit will take in prehistoric remains, and a later industrial landscape in one of the more spectacular settings in Shropshire.  It is a landscape that is an outcome of its geological quirks.  We shall first walk out from the car park to ascend the road that takes us to the remains of the hillfort crowning the hill and follow its circuit, encountering the site of the 1930s excavation by St John O’Neil.  At the summit of the hill we will find the trig point, placed on top of a Bronze Age burial cairn, and the Geodetic radome that is the most obvious feature on the hill.  We will then return to the car park to examine the substantial remains of the quarry landscape that operated for nearly a century from the 1880s. Meet in the car park adjacent to the industrial ruins (SO592776) – this can be reached from the turning off Angel Bank on the A4117 Ludlow – Cleobury Mortimer road. Please wear appropriate footwear and clothing – the Clee Hill is very exposed. 

Saturday 11th March 2023 – “Shropshire Churches” 

This talk by Martin Speight will look at Shropshire churches inside and out before the ‘restorers’ got at them and will examine some of the churches which were newly built or rebuilt in the decades before 1850. It will also look at their plans and internal arrangements, and how they relate to the requirements of worship.

2.30pm, at The Gateway, Chester Street, Shrewsbury, SY1 1NB

Saturday 11th February 2023 – “Ashes under Uricon” .

This lecture by Roger White is an exploration of how the abandoned Roman city at Wroxeter has inspired artists, writers, and poets over the centuries. It explores the relationship between archaeologists’ stories of the site, based on their discoveries, and how these accounts are re-interpreted by society in general and realised in different art forms and new stories.

2.30pm, at The Gateway, Chester St, Shrewsbury, SY1 1NB

Cancelled: Saturday 14th January 2023 – “VCH Newport history”

The Gateway have just informed us that they have had to close the building today (Friday) and tomorrow because of the flood situation, and so Judith Everard’s talk on Medieval Newport is cancelled. Hopefully, we will be able to rearrange this for a future date.

In this talk Judith Everard will be updating us about the work of the Victoria County History (VCH) on Newport (Shropshire). Newport is the subject of a remarkable number of medieval charters. From three main collections – the corporation chest, the muniments of Lilleshall Abbey, and the estate archive of the Newport family – they amount to several hundred original documents, the earliest dating from c.1200. Recording property dealings among people of the middling sort, the charters open a window on the busy life of a medieval town. Shropshire Archaeological and Historical Society has generously awarded funding to Victoria County History Shropshire enabling Dr Everard to publish an edition of the Newport charters as part of a larger project by VCH Shropshire and Newport History Society.

2.30pm at The Gateway, Chester St, Shrewsbury, SY1 1NB

Saturday 12th November 2022 – ‘The lost Regency summerhouse site of Attingham Park’
A talk by Nigel Baker and Viviana Caroli. In 2018, while evaluating the course of new roads near the walled garden, archaeologists found a five-metre square brick building with stone cladding, marble fragments and painted glass in the demolition debris. It was an unknown summerhouse built for the second Lord Berwick c.1813-14 in the Attingham late Georgian Neoclassical style. Four years later it has been revealed as the principal building of a walled enclosure which also contained an oval pool, probably a plunge pool, and a second stone-clad building interpreted as a dedicated service range, all built at the same time and all lost to view since the early/mid-19th century.

2.30pm, at The Gateway, Chester Street, Shrewsbury, SY1 1NB

Saturday 8th October 2022 – “Wellington businessmen and the railway”

This talk by Neil Clarke will cover the work of a group of businessmen (John Slaney, wine and spirit merchant; Thomas Campbell Eyton, landowner and leading town improver; John Dickson, railway contractor and supplier; John Houlston, bookseller and travel agent; and John Barber, auctioneer and surveyor) who helped to promote and develop the railways in and around Wellington in the mid-19th century, and the social and economic impact this had on the area.

2.30 pm at The Gateway, Chester St, Shrewsbury, SY1 1NB

Tuesday 16th August 2022 – Nesscliffe Hill Camp Excavations 

A visit led by Dr Andy Wigley has been arranged for the Society to the 2022 Oxford and Southampton Universities’ excavations at Nesscliffe Hill Camp. The visit has been arranged for Tuesday the 16th of August. Please meet Dr Wigley at the Pines Car Park, Nesscliffe (NGR: SJ 389 198,  Lat Long: 52.77319 -2.90554), at 11:30 am.

Saturday 24th September 2022 – AGM 2.00pm, at The Gateway, Chester Street, Shrewsbury, SY1 1NB

To be followed (2.30pm) by our annual lecture: ‘Nesscliffe hillfort excavations‘ by Gary Lock and Paul Reilly.

Full details with the Autumn Newsletter and AGM papers.

Saturday 9th July 2022 – ‘Poets, artists, and writers at Wroxeter’
Led by Roger White, this will be a guided tour of Wroxeter from the perspective of the poets, artists and writers who have been inspired by the site from the time of its first excavations in 1859. The route will take us from the main public site, across to the forum and then down to the village where the artist Tom Prytherch lived and worked. It will be an opportunity to see the site from a different perspective, and perhaps think about how changes in how the site is managed might once again inspire artistic endeavour at Wroxeter. The tour will be led by Roger White, who has just completed a book on this subject entitled ‘Ashes Under Uricon’. Meet at 2pm at the Wroxeter Roman site car park.

Saturday 11th June 2022 – a visit to Acton Burnell

UPDATE

In organising the Acton Burnell visit, we did check with the church that they had no services on the 11th June. However, we have just been informed that a wedding will be taking place in the Church from 2:30, and so the car park at the Castle (SY5 7PE, SJ 534 018) is likely to be full. We also will not be able to go into the church until after about 3.15pm. It would be useful, therefore, if you are planning to attend, for you to let me know in advance, so that we have a better idea of how many are coming and can contact you with an update on the latest arrangements. We suggest that you park in the village and walk to the Castle. We will then walk back into the village for a short while and discuss its main features, and then return to the Church in the hope that we will then be able to go inside. To let us know that you plan to attend, please email sahsmembership@gmail.com  or ring 07143 246547 

Led by David Pannett, our June meeting will be an exploration of the castle, church and village of Acton Burnell, revealing the contribution of successive owners, in particular Robert Burnell, once chancellor to Edward I, who left his mark on the village with fine buildings, using local stone, which centuries before had also been used at Wroxeter.

Meet at 2.30pm at the car park for Acton Burnell Castle (signposted). Car parking space is limited so car sharing is recommended. To offer a lift or request one, please contact Penny Ward at sahsmembership@gmail.com or 01743 246547