SEDGEFORD HISTORICAL  AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH PROJECT

Weblog Open Day (Sunday 23rd July 2006)

Pauline Fogarty

The 2006 Open Day was a great day for both the public and diggers.  And for the second year in a row the sun shone down all day long!

We had tours round old and new trench by the teams excavating the trenches and visitors were able to see the diggers on the trenches including the trainees who had just started digging that day! There were talks given by members of the team through the day on a variety of subjects from Anglo-Saxon Houses, An Introduction to Practical Archaeology to Cranial Trauma. These proved a firm favourite with the public and will undoubtedly feature in SHARP Open Days of the future.

Children had the opportunity to try on a Saxon costume, have a go at ancient writing, pot making and the archaeological sandpit.  In the marquee we had spinning and weaving demonstrations, along with activities such as Iron Age face painting – another firm favourite with the young ones, SHARP merchandise, displays by the Local History Forum, a bookstall and the ever-popular cake stall.

There was also the opportunity for adults and children alike to learn a bit about the Saxon population of Sedgeford from our human remains team and to learn about the animals and finds we have found on site from our finds experts. We had people dressed up as Pagan and Christian Saxons showing the way that the Saxons would have looked.

The were demonstrations of geophysics and magnetometry, where people learned how archaeologists can see what is under the ground without even picking up a trowel and environmental sampling where the public got the chance to see how even the smallest evidence is uncovered.

We had raffles, in which the chance to spend a day digging on site and the place on a SHARP day course were won and the chance to sponsor a part of the site, to guess where the next small find will come up. We also had some lighthearted amusements such as the pillaries and the most unique archaeological game of Torc-la – which this year proved even more popular than ever.

The day was a fantastic event for the public and volunteers and helped raise funds for SHARP.  Special thanks needs to go to the SHARP team and volunteer diggers who make the open day a magical event and all the people that come back to Sedgeford especially to help out for the Open Day. Thanks also needs to go the general public who attend the Open Day and make the event as enjoyable as it is!