Category: Uncategorized

Hello again! While I fully intend to inject some more archaeology into this blog in due course, I’d like to flag up a companion website which is the new home … Read More “A summer read” »

Way back in December 2020, the FeedSax project held a virtual conference, attended by hundreds from around the globe. We’re now excited to announce that the proceedings of this conference … Read More “Book news: Crop, Stock and Furrow” »

Ipswich, in Suffolk in eastern England, is a town brimming with archaeology. Anglo-Saxon evidence is particularly abundant, as Ipswich’s urban origins can be traced back to the 7th/8th century AD, … Read More “Days of Beer and Iron” »

Cereal farming emerged around 11 or 12 thousand years ago, in the so-called Fertile Crescent of the Middle East. Over the next 5 or 6 thousands years, arable farming ploughed … Read More “We’re going on a bere hunt” »

George Ewart Evans (1909-1988), British folklorist and oral history pioneer, has left a rich legacy of insight and information concerning rural life in England before the mechanisation of farming. His … Read More “An unusual use for ale” »

So there was Earth. And on Earth formed the oceans. In the oceans grew simple-celled life, and these are the prokaryotes. From the prokaryotes grew complex-celled life, and these are … Read More “A brief history of my breakfast” »

I’m thrilled to say that, although I haven’t been able to write much of this blog over the past few months (or even years), I have managed to write a … Read More “Farming unearthed… and transformed” »

Raise the song of harvest home! The harvest festival is not, it seems, an official fixture in the Church of England calendar. It is deemed a local celebration and permissible … Read More “Come, ye thankful people come…” »

Of course I had consulted it. Of course I’d cited it. But it’s taken a while to sit down and read it – properly, finally – from cover to cover. … Read More “The History of the Countryside” »

My phone started ringing before I had unlocked the door. It was my dad. “Quick,” he said. “Turn on the news.” Whatever’s happened? I wondered. Has the Isle of Wight … Read More “What’s up on the Downs?” »