SURREY ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY'S LATEST SYMPOSIUM

High-powered researchers from Oxford, Cambridge, Cardiff, Durham, Kent and  Newcastle universities will all be speaking at the next conference of the Surrey Archaeology Society on Saturday, 5 May at Ashtead Peace Memorial Hall. The topic will be Shining a light on the 5^th century AD in Surrey and the South-East: How did Roman Britain become Saxon England?

Further details can be found at www.surreyarchaeology.org.uk, via the ‘Events’ link.

The Leatherhead & District Local History Society was represented at the latest conference by Fred Meynen and Nigel Bond. The Society's stand - shown above - included posters from the Leatherhead Museum, publications for sale, and pieces from Fred’s collection of mysterious artefacts. Visitors were invited to try identifying them if they could.

The event, also at Ashtead Peace Memorial Hall, took place on Saturday, 24 February. There was a steady flow of visitors to the L&DLHS stand during breaks between the main business of the day, a series of talks on findings from recent excavations and research within the county. 

The ages of material discussed ranged from 11,000 BC to early 20th century AD. Among topics covered was the internationally important assemblage of 13,000-year-old late Upper Paleolithic flints from the Guildford Fire Station site, now being studied at Oxford University. Use-wear analysis shows some flints were used as projectiles, some as scrapers for preparing hides, and others for working bone and antlers. Struck flints are being painstakingly reassembled to recreate the original core from which they came. This helps our understanding of how knappers produced the tools, the technology used and the expertise of those involved. Was this the work of a single individual or several people with different levels of expertise?

Speakers came from Oxford University, Surrey County Archaeological Unit, Surrey Archaeological Society, Fetcham U3A, and commercial archaeology firms Pre-Construct Archaeology and Archaeology South-East. Nigel Bond, L&DLHS Archaeology Secretary, said: "We are very fortunate to have such important meetings taking place within our area, presenting and discussing current scholarship.  These meetings are open to anyone who wants to attend."

New Museum Managers Appointed

L&DLHS President Alan V Pooley has confirmed the appointment of a new joint team to manage the Leatherhead Museum on behalf of Museum Curator Lorraine Spindler. 

He said: "I am very pleased to advise that Peter Humphreys and Duncan Macfarlane have agreed to work together as joint Managers of the Museum. 

"Peter is well known through his involvement with the Leatherhead Institute and is a volunteer steward at the Museum. Duncan is also local, well known and a volunteer Museum steward for at least the past decade. Another great asset to the team.

"Lorraine and I are both delighted to have their enthusiasm and expertise on board."

The Treasure below those Surrey fields

Journalist, author and veteran metal detectorist Mark Davison wowed the crowd at this month's L&DLHS lecture in the Letherhead Institute as he showed some of the incredible finds he has made during decades of digging in fields outside Dorking.

Mark, who has worked for the Leatherhead Advertiser since the 1970s and written countless books on Surrey as well as his pet hobby, has also been supplying the British Museum with coins, tokens, brooches, buckles and other metal finds unearthed using his trusty metal detectors in locations throughout the Home Counties.

The devices themselves have risen in value from just £30 when he started to £900 today and have located rare ancient coins as well as medieval and slightly more recent ones up to a foot below the soil of fields. Although previously buried deeper, he suggested that some finds might have been disturbed over the centuries by burrowing moles and brought nearer the surface.

More than 1000 items Mark has found over the years were recorded for future researchers by the late David Williams, head of Surrey's Portable Antiquities Scheme, who was to have given the lecture on 16 February but died suddenly in December. Mark stepped in late in the day in tribute to him.

Gold coins dating from an ancient British King around 2000 years ago and King George III after 1760, silver ones from Marc Antony in 41BC, King Richard II after 1477 and William III in 1700, and many pennies, halfpennies and farthings from across the centuries were among the finds shown.  

Unearthing Ancient Treasures in the Surrey Hills

Metal detectorist and Leatherhead Advertiser journalist 

Mark Davison (above) will  talk about the ancient and medieval finds unearthed  on what was once the home farm of Dorking’s Denbies estate. Featuring coins and artefacts painstakingly recorded with the British Museum's Portable Antiquities Scheme. Talk 8pm, Friday, 16 February 2018.  

Letherhead Institute, High Street, Leatherhead.

Coffee at 7.30pm. Entrance £2. Non-members will be very welcome