Summer Visits

Each year we run a series of visits to sites of interest for members. These include guided tours of historic towns and villages, museum visits and tours of archaeological excavations. Some of these are free of charge whilst others are paid-for events.

Recent visits included: a guided tour of Winchcombe by David Aldred, a walk around Uley, a behind the scenes tour of The Folk of Gloucester museum, a tour of Littledean Roman temple and visits to the Archaeoscan excavations at Guiting Power and Slimbridge.

If you would like to lead an evening walk around places of historic or archaeological interest in your home village or local area please contact Mike  Milward at the m.milward1@yahoo.co.uk . He is always open to suggestions.

Thursday 5th February 

This year the “Summer” visits programme started early, with a guided walk in February, led by staff of Archeological Research Services, of the archaeological investigations at the site of the new, southbound road connection to the M5 from the A4019 at Junction 10 outside Cheltenham. The ARS team walked us around the muddy site to show us the main features they have found so far, including Roman burials, a corn drier and Iron Age  ditches. Afterwards we were shown some of their key finds, including a copper bracelet, brooches and coins. Thank you to Alice Short and the team from ARS for showing us around.

Saturday 11th April

On a bright, if blustery, April morning Simon Greenslade and his team from The Halewell Archaeology Project took 26 GlosArch members on a tour of the excavations they are undertaking in a quiet valley outside Withington, Gloucestershire. They are excavating a large Roman villa, which turns out to be the one described by Samuel Lysons in 1811. The Orpheus mosaic he discovered is now in the British Museum. In 2006, Time Team also excavated a villa in a field adjacent to the current dig and decided it was Lysons’ villa. However, evidence from the the current excavation indicates that this one is the villa excavated in 1811. It is a sizeable residence with some surviving mosaics, a bath house and several phases of building. Work is still on-going.

Saturday 4th July

This all-day trip will include a two hour guided walk/talk over undulating, but relatively easy, countryside between the following ancient monuments, all part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site, but there will be no compulsion to do everything, only as much as you feel able to do.

Avebury Henge 

A Neolithic henge monument in Wiltshire containing three stone circles, in the centre of  which, the village of Avebury has grown. It is one of the best-known prehistoric sites in Europe containing the largest megalithic stone circle in the world. 

Avebury Henge dates from around 4,600 years ago. The banks and ditches are almost a mile in circumference, and the ditch must have been originally around nine metres deep. The banks were built up from chalk, dug from the ditch using stone and bone tools, and all of these earthworks  

would have been bright white when new, but for what purpose…?

The outer stone circle is the largest prehistoric circle of standing stones in the world and there are the remains of two other smaller stone circles within it, which may be older. The stones are enormous, the largest weighing at least 100 tonnes, making it the largest and heaviest in Britain. They are locally sourced hard grey sandstone known as sarsen. 

Avebury is within the same UNESCO World Heritage Site as Stonehenge, which is around 26 miles due south, and has, similarly attracted pilgrims for thousands of years and is still a place of religious importance to contemporary pagans.

The Avenue

The ‘Avenue’, near Avebury was originally of around 100 pairs of prehistoric standing stones, raised to form a winding 1-1/2 mile ritual link between the pre-existing monuments of Avebury and The Sanctuary.

The Sanctuary

The Sanctuary, begun in about 2500 BC, was originally a complex circular arrangement of timber posts and standing stones. These components are now indicated by concrete blocks, painted blue for stones and posts, painted red for wood. The stone circles were first recorded by the antiquary John Aubrey, who first visited in 1649 and noted that local people called it ‘The Sanctuary’. In 1723 another antiquary, William Stukeley, also drew the stone circles, but shortly afterwards the monument was destroyed so that the land could be used for agriculture. When archaeologist, Maud Cunnington rediscovered and excavated the Sanctuary in 1930 with her team, she found two concentric rings of stone holes, and unexpectedly, five rings of wooden postholes. 

Silbury Hill 

Silbury Hill, located near Avebury, is the largest prehistoric artificial mound in Europe, comparable in size to some Egyptian pyramids. Made primarily of chalk it stands about 30 meters high and 160 meters wide. While its purpose remains unknown, it is thought to have been built during the late Neolithic period, around 2400 BC.

West Kennet Long Barrow

One of the largest, most impressive and most accessible Neolithic chambered tombs in Britain. Built in around 3650 BC, it was used for a short time as a burial chamber, nearly 50 people being buried here, before the chambers were blocked and it fell into disuse.

Swallowhead Springs

The walk ends here where the coach will be waiting to take us to –

Marlborough

We stop in the pleasant old market town of Marlborough a civil parish in Wiltshire on the Old Bath Road, the A4, or the Great West Road from Londinium to Aquae Sulis. The town is on the River Kennet and the earliest sign of human habitation there is the Marlborough Mound, a manmade, 62-foot-high (19 m) prehistoric tumulus in the grounds of Marlborough College. Recent radiocarbon dating has found it to date from about 2400 BC, similar in age and perhaps a companion mound to the larger Silbury Hill, 5 miles to the west. Unfortunately while putting this trip together a further archaeological survey is being scheduled for the Mound and so there will be no further public admittance allowed this season. There is still the 17th century Merchant’s House to visit should you wish, or there are some great cafes for tea or a late lunch.

Fare including coach, guides, donations etc £20 each approx.

If you wish to come on the trip, please email events@glosarch.org.uk to book a place.

Saturday 5th September 14:00 – 16:00

A two hour walk and talk with Neil Holbrook, Chief Executive of Cotswold Archaeology, about the Roman town of Corinium, the street grid plan of which, still lies beneath the modern streets. 

We tour the four main town gates by retracing from the original central crossroads, the umbilicus urbis, or town navel where the cardo maximus crosses the decumanus maximus, the forum, basilica, macellum, the early fort, the vicus, the amphitheatre, the theatre, the baths, mosaicist workshops and defensive town walls.

Neil has researched, excavated and written a great deal on Roman Corinium, Roman villas and Gloucestershire’s ancient history and is a national authority on the subject as well as being a member of GlosArch.

Please contact events@glosarch.org.uk to book a place.

A guided tour of the museum for GlosArch members to include the discovery centre and some rarely seen ancient artefacts. The date for this will be announced soon.

Crickley Hill – Revisited  

The earliest evidence of human activity on Crickley Hill dates back to the early Neolithic, around 6,000 years ago, when it was the site of one of the most important causewayed enclosures in the country. Later in the Neolithic around 2500BC, saw the building of cairns and a long mound on the promontory. After the abandonment of the Neolithic site, Crickley may have lain deserted for more than a thousand years. In the Iron Age, from about 700 BC onwards, a hillfort was built on Crickley Hill. This survived for around 100 years before being destroyed. The defences were reinforced and the site resettled around 500BC, but this too was abandoned. The site has seen farming, battles, sacred worship, tribal gatherings and settlements. 

GlosArch have a long association with Crickley Hill going back to the time of Director of Excavations, Professor Philip Dixon MA D.Phil FSA FRHS. We are delighted that Professor Dixon has agreed to lead our walk around this important Neolithic and Iron Age site.

This evening walk is free to attend, but there will be a collection at the end of the evening towards the costs of running this event.

Meet at the Crickley Hill Country Park car park GL4 8JY. 

What3Words location: ///abundance.crowns.washable

Rollright Stones at Long Compton, Oxon/Warks. 

An ancient complex of megalithic monuments with three main elements, The King’s Men stone circle, the King Stone, and the Whispering Knights dolmen. The dolmen is the oldest, dating to the early Neolithic, circa 3,800-3,500 BC. The King’s Men stone circle was erected in the late Neolithic, circa 2,500 BC; whilst the King Stone dates to the early to middle Bronze Age, circa 1,500 BC. All are made from natural Jurassic oolitic limestone, which forms the bulk of the Cotswold hills. Used for millennia as a sacred site, the stones are a great source of myths and legends. The site is managed by the Rollright Trust.

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Roman Villa at North Leigh, Witney, Oxfordshire.

This courtyard villa, managed by English Heritage, is one of the larger villas of Roman Britain. It was at its most extensive in the early 4th century, when it included three bath suites, at least 19 mosaic floors and 11 rooms with underfloor heating. The most important feature of the site is a fine mosaic tile floor dating to the early 4th century.

The visit will include a guided tour with an English Heritage guide and a talk on the relationship of the villa to Akeman Street by Dr Tim Copeland.

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Tea & cake in Witney

From North Leigh we will travel to the historic town of Witney where we will be free to explore and grab a bite to eat or drink.

Coach trip £32 per person starting at 8:15am from the Oxtails campus of Gloucester University and picking up at 9.00am from Cheltenham Racecourse park and ride. Although both venues are admission free, if we have guides, we will be expected to make donations, which are included in the ticket price. To book a place please email David Jones at: garstanforddasilva@gmail.com  (if you have already expressed an interest in this visit you will be contacted to confirm and pay). This trip is open to non-members.

Michael Hare, Mike Joy and Phil Cox will lead an evening visit to Churchdown Hill. Michael Hare will explain the geology of the hill and how it relates to the siting of the church before Phil takes us to the earthworks surrounding the top of the hill, thought to date to the Iron Age and likely enclosing a small hillfort. This will be followed by a visit to St Bartholomew’s church, which has its origins in the 12^th century, led by Mike Joy and Michael Hare.

Meet at the St Bartholomew’s Church car park at 18:30 – Free to members. Post code GL3 2LG. What3Words location: ///nature.record.rats

We will be taken on a guided tour of the recent excavations by archaeologist Simon Greenslade. This site comprises two Romano-British building complexes surviving as buried masonry, with associated field boundaries and trackways, situated on a limestone plateau. The first villa was excavated in 1811 by Samuel Lyons and again in 2006. At this time geophysical survey showed the second even larger building complex nearby which was also excavated. Simon Greenslade is leading the latest excavation of the site.

September/October. Date and time TBC depending on ongoing work.