Category Archives: Projects

Projects I am working on.

Cleveland Archaeology | News Update October 2018: Posters, Funding and Geofizz

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Spencer Carter, Projects Co-Director, will present and talk about the ICE AND FIRE rescue archaeology project on Teesside’s Eston Hills, at the Palaeolithic & Mesolithic Conference being held at the British Museum, 25-6 October 2018.

Learn more about the project »

In the meantime, we have applied to Teesside Philanthropic Foundation for funding so that we can print more of the ICE AND FIRE 2018 Report booklet for distribution across schools and community outlets. Wish us luck!

Results!

We’re also delighted to have received the REAPING TIME geophysical survey report by Archaeological Services Durham University for the summer survey of more than 30ha as part of the initial Explore and Evaluate phase.

Learn more about the project »

The results are tremendously exciting and add much detail, as well as questions, to our observations of crop and soil marks from satellite and LiDAR (aerial laser) imagery. The report, in addition to the field-walking finds and surface observations, will influence our proposals for community engagement in 2019-20, subject to review and funding. Discussions will take place through November in the hope that we can kick-off more field-walking and finds processing in Spring 2019, followed by summer test pit excavations of selected features.

Thank you for reading — more news soon!

– Spencer
Cleveland Archaeology Project Team

ICE AND FIRE | Project kick-off and finds already!

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◊ Dear Microburins

The Eston Hills rescue archaeology project has kicked off and, three days in, we have features and flints. The weather has been mixed, but the hearty project team are delighted with progress, well-informed by previous geophysical work kindly provided by AOC Archaeology Group.

Read the ICE AND FIRE Week 1 Site Diary »

In other news, Mesolithic Spence has a job interview scheduled. Cross your fingers and roast a hazelnut for me?

♦ Spence

ICE AND FIRE | Taskforce meeting at Cleveland Police HQ | School visits scheduled

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◊ Dear Microburins

Momentum continues across local government, emergency services and community groups to coordinate sustainable solutions to problems on Eston Hills – devasting fires, burned out vehicles and illegal off-roaders. Friends of Eston Hills campaigner Craig Hornby is adamant that solutions ‘are not rocket science’ but need the will, resources and concerted effort to put in place. Watch the video and read the Evening Gazette 10 May article »

“I think the biggest problem is not allocating sufficient funds and resources fast enough to tackle the issues. I have been lobbying the authorities for three and a half years for robust barriers to be installed at the points of access being used by illegal vehicles.

Barriers are now in place at Lazenby and Eston but the Flatts Lane barrier and plans for an earthwork barrier have been delayed six months, so the problems have persisted.”

Cleveland Police Commissioner, Barry Coppinger, has called the first meeting of an action group at Police Headquarters on Ladgate Lane at 1.30pm, Monday 15 May 2017.

School Visits

Adam Mead, ICE AND FIRE project director, has also scheduled talks in local primary schools and a further visit to the hills:

  • Whale Hill Primary School, Eston | Talks on Fri 12 and Fri 19 May
  • Parkend Primary School, Parkend, Middlesbrough | Visit to Eston Hills on Mon 22 May

Look out for a feature article on Teesside’s archaeology in the forthcoming Council for British Archaeology Newsletter no. 40!

♦ Spence | Get Involved!

ICE AND FIRE | Public Meeting with Anna Turley MP & Cleveland Police Commissioner | Fri-28-April

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◊ Dear Microburins

The ongoing problems on Eston Hills and neighbouring farmland will be the subject of a Public Meeting hosted by Anna Turley MP at the Cleveland Inn, 37 Cleveland St, Normanby, Middlesbrough TS6 0LX at 5.30pm on Friday 28 April 2017. Cleveland Police Commissioner Barry Coppinger and ICE AND FIRE project director Adam Mead will also be in attendance.

The meeting is intended to discuss and explore, in an open community forum, both the issues and how cooperation between local government authorities, the emergency services, landowners, schools, residents and businesses might work together more effectively.

Acts of fire-setting, the burning of abandoned vehicles, illegal 4×4 and off-road vehicles, fly-tipping and other anti-social behaviour persist on an increasingly frequent basis, despite ongoing efforts by local services and voluntary organisations, including the Friends of Eston Hills, and media coverage.

The ICE AND FIRE project team and its stakeholders also believe that shifting public opinion – across generations from school children, their parents and people who benefit from tourism and economic footfall – is a local and regional priority. While the project aims to rescue archaeological and environmental assets where they are at risk, the longer term solutions must involve a coordinated effort to make anti-social behaviour entirely unacceptable in a community that values its rich historic, archaeological and natural environment.

More about the project and summer fieldwork »

♦ Spence

ICE AND FIRE | 2017 Community Rescue Archaeology Project on Teesside

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◊ Dear Microburins,

I’m delighted, as TimeVista Archaeology, to be part of this project team: a HLF-funded community project on Teesside, North-east England – supported by the local MP – ICE AND FIRE! Volunteer opportunities for outdoor fieldwork and indoor activities will be announced soon – all with training, so no previous experience is needed. You can register your interest via the website. The rescue project will look at the prehistoric archaeology of this fragile upland landscape from the end of the last Ice Age. Most fieldwork will take place in summer 2017 but with seasonal fieldwalking too. DOWNLOAD THE BROCHURE »

Project director Adam Mead is a Durham University archaeology student and we’re grateful for considerable support from the department and Teesside Archaeological Society.

♦ Spence

TimeVista Archaeology | Updated projects

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TimeVista_Logo_BW2◊ Dear Microburins,

My sister website at TimeVista Archaeology has been updated with the latest information about what I’ve been up to. It’s a very busy time with the new commercial aggregates project at Black Cat Quarry, entering its third week now, and with enough archaeology to welcome two diggers (of the trowel kind) for two weeks to record the current features. There are ditches, possible pits and, other than a sprinkling of tree-throws and animal burrows, a dark deposit on the gravel terrace edge which contains decorated Anglo-Saxon pottery sherds and animal bone. We’ve one worked flint blade fragment too — not easy to spot since the gravel is full of it, knapped by the digger’s bucket!

Post holes from the recent racing track circuit – still visible on Google Earth – are also evident, many containing 21st-century plastic bottles (still full), cola and beer cans, and modern debris. Top- and sub-soil stripping is continuing apace, constantly monitored, in what will be a 34 ha quarry extension over the next two years. We hope to sign-off the first area for gravel extraction before the Christmas break, if the county archaeologist agrees. The alarm is set for 5am and another week.

TimeVista projects »

♦ Spence