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The
Stoke-on-Trent Archaeology Service at The
Potteries Museum provides opportunities for
people to get involved in archaeology with its
annual ‘community dig’. These provide
training for volunteers in real archaeology on a
variety of sites. Beginning in 1987 at the
Cistercian monastery of Hulton Abbey, these digs
have covered several periods and different parts
of Stoke-on-Trent. After Hulton Abbey we dug in
the back yard of Ford Green Hall, a yeoman
farmer’s house and recovered material from
several centuries of activity. More recently we
have excavated a medieval moated site, Lawn
Farm, as part of the Berryhill fields
regeneration project. This year (2003) we plan
to look at a very different site on Berryhill, a
small farm, in use till recently, to find its
origins and understand its place in the local
landscape. See the Field
Archaeology
section of the Museum website for more details.
For those
interested in archaeology but don’t want to
get dirty there are occasional opportunities to
volunteer in the museum working on the excavated
material.
Most
archaeological sites have to be covered over
again after excavation as this is the best way
to protect any remains. At all of the sites
mentioned above, though, there are still things
to see. Some of the stumps of walls at Hulton
Abbey are visible and various publications on
the abbey enable the layout to be understood
from these remains. Ford Green Hall still stands
complete and operates as a museum of 17th
century life. No building remains are visible
above ground at Lawn Farm but the moat itself is
still a significant part of the landscape. |
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