This year, we teamed up once more with Council for British Archaeology for their Festival of Archaeology. Working together, we delivered four activity days for young people across the country.
Beeston Before the Castle
We kicked off our festival events on 25th July at Beeston Castle, Cheshire. The day started with a guided tour of the crag, where we learned more about the discovery of flint Neolithic arrowheads dating from 5,500 years ago. The arrowheads provide unique evidence of prehistoric human activity at Beeston thousands of years before the castle was built there!
We also got the opportunity to undertake a behind the scenes tour of the site, including a replica Bronze Age roundhouse which was built by the site’s volunteers. We had a go at milling flour and boring holes using replica tools, and at flint knapping in a session led by James Dilley from Ancientcraft.
The day ended with a metalworking demonstration by James, where he cast a socketed Bronze Age axe head. The axe head is similar to the prehistoric examples found at Beeston and after the event, James donated to the site to be displayed in the museum there.
Fashion and Place
On the 27th of July we visited Stott Park Bobbin Mill for our Fashion and Place event which explored the relationship between fashion and the environment over the last 250 years.
We went on a guided walk up through the landscape surrounding Stott Park to High Dam, to see how the local area was shaped by the fashion industry. On our walk, we collected flora to use during print making activities later on in the day. Following on from our walk, we toured the Bobbin Mill to see a working demonstration of the machines.
In the afternoon, we all took part in a sewing-bee inspired challenge to create our own printed textiles. Using the natural objects gathered on our walk, we created cyanotype prints, using the suns UV rays to make patterned fabric, as well as chlorophyll prints, which were created using historic techniques with a hammer stone. The activities for this day were partially inspired by the recommendations of the participants of the Fast Fashion 1 project.
Photography and Archaeology, Wrest Park
On 25th September at Wrest Park, we explored how archaeology and photography influence one another. Working with a photographer, we started off by using cameras to photograph a variety of old and new objects found in the Wrest Park handling collection.
Once we had learned some tips and tricks, we then explored the grounds of Wrest Park, taking part in a series of creative challenges which helped us to think about how photography can be used to re-interpret heritage. We also visited the England’s New Lenses exhibition. At the end of the day, we selected our best images to be printed and shared with the other participants in a pop up photo studio
Photography & Archaeology, Boslover Castle
Unfortunately we had to delay our final activity of the the 2021 Festival of Archaeology and it ended up takin place in 2022! Our final event saw photography take over Bolsover Castle, again overseen by an experienced photographer and like the event at Wrest Park, it explored the links between archaeology, photography and the natural world.
We took part in a number of creative photography challenges within the grounds and buildings of Bolsover Castle in Derbyshire. With spectacular views over Derbyshire, the fairy-tale Stuart mansion, Bolsover Castle, was designed to entertain and impress. The buildings vary from the lavish rooms of the Little Castle, to the riding school and the ruined terrace range.
“Such a great opportunity for young people when there is usually less focus on them… Perfect venue choice too!”
Helen, Feedback for the Photography & Archaeology day at Wrest Park