Buried Under Bidford
Buried under Bidford is a Warwickshire County Council project, supported by the English Heritage Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund (ALSF). The project will deliver a public consultation exercise which addresses the issues of mineral planning and people's concerns and queries of the process involved.
The consultation will be designed and created via an Historic Environment Record (HER) outreach programme, which will engage communities affected by past and future aggregate extraction.
The project will include:
- A public consultation exercise/public debating exercise which will involve an expert panel. There will be two exercises, the first will be aimed at school children and the second at an adult audience.
- Training sessions teaching people the basics of documentary research. The Local Studies Toolkit (created during our previous ALSF project Extracting Warwickshire's Past, project number 4653) will be used as an aid in the sessions and will lead researchers through the history and archaeology of Bidford on Avon and its hinterland.
- Public events will be organised on land surrounding Bidford which will aim to teach people how to conduct fieldwalking and metal detecting surveys and deal with post-excavation work.
- Working with project participants to create a four panel traditional exhibition. The exhibition will incorporate the findings of the documentary research and systematic fieldwalking and metal detecting.
- The creation of an archaeologically themed 'comic' aimed at 7-11 year olds (Key Stage 2). This publication will be based on archaeology dating to the Romano-British period found as a result of quarrying in the Bidford area.
- The creation of a final report detailing the results of the project.
This project will run from the beginning of May 2007 to the end of February 2008.
Museum Exhibition
A number of objects from Bidford are currently on display in Warwickshire Museum. The majority of these objects can be seen on the exhibition panels that the Historic Environment Record produced (and recently dropped off with the Parish Council Clerk) however people may wish to see the actual objects on display.
The objects that are currently on display are as follows:
- One Bronze Age penannular ring (acquired through the Treasure Act)
- One silver dog-headed Anglo-Saxon terminal (acquired through the Treasure Act)
- One gold and garnet pendant (acquired through the Treasure Act)
- One Great Square-headed gilded bronze brooch from the Anglo-Saxon cemetery site
- One Small Square-headed gilded bronze brooch from the Anglo-Saxon cemetery site
- A pair of gilded bronze saucer brooches from the Anglo-Saxon cemetery site
- A bronze penannular brooch from the Anglo-Saxon cemetery site
- An iron shield boss and handle from the Anglo-Saxon cemetery site
- Gold and niello late Anglo-Saxon polyhedral terminal (acquired through the Treasure Act)
Please be aware that these objects are on display in the archaeology gallery which is on the first floor of the museum. Unfortunately at this time there is not access to the gallery for mobility-impaired people. Access is via a flight of stairs.
You may also be interested to know that on display at Roman Alcester is the following from Bidford cemetery:
- A pair of gilded bronze saucer brooches from the Anglo-Saxon cemetery site
- A pair of bronze short-long brooches from the Anglo-Saxon cemetery site
For more information please contact Christina Evans at Warwickshire Museum Field Services on 01926 418023 or christinaevans@warwickshire.gov.uk
You may also like to read our Buried under Bidford Poster
See Buried under Bidford web site for more information.
