GlosArch October 2025 lecture

Thanks to Dr Simon Draper, editor of the Victoria County History of Gloucestershire for his talk Lordship in the Landscape: Medieval Manors in the Cotswolds on Monday 30th October. GlosArch members can watch the recorded lecture by logging in to their website account and going to the Recorded Lectures Archive on the Resources page.

We are excited to remind you that the next lecture, on Monday October 28th at 7.30pm will be given by Dr Reb Ellis-Haken from the University of York. Her talk, entitled The “Cults of the Head?” Project. Analysis of artefacts from Dean Hall Romano-Celtic Temple will describe her research into the mysterious carved stone heads found at the temple.

As usual you can attend in person at St Andrew’s URC church hall, Montpellier St, Cheltenham GL51 1SP or you can watch live on Zoom. The Zoom link will be sent to members nearer the time. Non members can request the link by emailing mailbox@glosarch.org.uk

Lectures are free to attend, although non-members are invited to make a small donation towards the cost of running the talks – (£5 is suggested). Payment can be made by bank transfer to Gloucestershire Archaeology; Sort code 08-92-99; A/c no. 67285787, or paid in cash if attending in-person

Autumn 2024 Newsletter

The Autumn 2024 Newsletter is now available to download. Go to Publications/Newsletter Home and choose Download Latest Newsletter.

Grant Award by Jockey Club from GC100 Fund

GlosArch is excited to announce that we have been awarded £2000 a grant of from the Gold Cup 100 Community Grant Initiative administered by the Jockey Club and Rotary Clubs of Cheltenham. The grant is to support post-excavation analysis of finds from the excavation of the Cleeve Common Racecourse grandstands and the creation of a digital 3D reconstruction of the building based on the evidence we uncover. This will be available to view via our website and on the Common.

Excavation at Miserden June and August 2024

The excavation at Honeycombe, near Miserden, north of Stroud at the site of a ruined building on a terrace in a steep sided valley is now complete for this year.

We have made good progress over the first two digs uncovering substantial parts of the building and have exposed a well-constructed doorway, floors, a stair and fireplace.

A report on the excavation will feature in the monthly lecture on 25th November.

Excavation on Cleeve Common

Following four successful, if sometimes windy, days of excavation on Cleeve Common, at the site of the first Cheltenham Racecourse, GlosArch members have uncovered the remains of a substantial building, with walls over half a meter thick. We have also recovered polished plaster from the inside of the building, roof slates, nails of various sizes, glass, pottery, a clay pipe stem with he makers mark and .. a racing horseshoe. Altogether a successful dig. We are now recording the site, and will then fill it all in until next year, when we will be back!

Thanks to #cotswoldarchaeology for support with surveying and Jamie Kyte for drone photos.

Winter Lectures and Summer Visits

GlosArch members can access the archive of recorded lectures by logging in to their account on the website and going to Resources>Recorded Lecture Archive.

2024-25 LECTURE SERIES

The programme for the 2024-25 lecture series, is available here. Lectures are free to members and non-members (non-members are invited to make a small donation towards the cost of running the talks – £5 is suggested). Payment can be made by bank transfer to Gloucestershire Archaeology; Sort code 08-92-99; A/c no. 67285787.

As before, the venue for in-person attendance is St Andrews URC church hall, Montpellier St, Cheltenham, GL50 1SP. The lecture will also be broadcast on Zoom. GlosArch members will receive the Zoom link automatically a few days before the lecture. Non members can request the Zoom link by emailing: mailbox@glosarch.org.uk

To get a flavour of the range of topics covered in 2023-4 click on Lectures below and follow the link.

Summer Visits 2024

The 2024 Summer visits are now complete. For reports on them please see the Autumn Newsletter, available to download by going to Publications/Newsletter Home.

If you have a suggestion for a visit in 2025, please drop me an email at mailbox@glosarch.org.uk

Fieldwork

To take part, email fieldwork@glosarch.org.uk (members only).

Excavation

Return to Honeycombe

Five further days of excavation took place at Honeycombe in August. All places were taken and we also had three members who cleaned, bagged and labelled finds on site. We made fantastic progress and have uncovered much of the two-roomed building, identifying entrances, flagstone floors, a fireplace and stair. We had some interesting finds too. Thanks to everyone who took part. We are aiming to return to the site next year. Neil Cathie will be reporting on the excavation at the November lecture.

Excavation at Honeycombe, Miserden. 9/10 and 20/21/22 June 2024.

The second excavation of 2024 took place at Miserden. A preliminary excavation in 2023 had showed substantial building remains in this quiet valley. The excavation uncovered extensive well-built walls of a two-roomed building. For more details see the fieldwork page.

Excavation on Cleeve Hill 14th-15th and 19th-20th April 2024

This excavation has been completed for 2024. For a brief report see ‘Latest News’ above.

We intend to return to the site in Spring 2025 to continue investigating the layout of this interesting site, with the aim of producing an interactive 3D visualisation of the building which will be publicly available.

Excavation at Brookthorpe, 12-13th and 17-18th November 2023

Excavation at Minsterworth, 6-8th August 2023

The excavation at Minsterworth is now complete. A short report appears in the Autumn newsletter. Neil Cathie presented a summary of the findings at the fieldwork update meeting on December 18th. A recording of this talk is available to members in the Recorded Lectures Archive page in the members’ area of the website.

Geophysics

Ground Penetrating Radar Survey at Castlemeads, Gloucester. 19th and 21st August, 2024

This activity is complete.

In collaboration with Exeter University we have undertaken a GPR survey of the features on Castlemeads, Gloucester in the area previously examined by resistivity and magnetometry. we have identified some shallow sub-surface solid structures as well as the electric cables and some other much deeper features. Further work is being considered.

Magnetometry Surveying at Castlemeads, Gloucester 

This activity is now complete.

In rather wet conditions and after having to abandon the original survey due to flooding (it is on a flood plain after all) we managed to complete the magnetometry survey on a chilly, slightly damp December day.

The results show a number of underground electricity cables but also features which appear to correspond to the LIDAR images. The findings were presented at our members update meeting on 18th December.

Geophysics Training

If you are interested in receiving training on our geophysics equipment, please contact Phil Cox via: fieldwork@glosarch.org.uk as a further session can be arranged if there is demand.