Previous Events

On Saturday there was a full house as 270 people packed into the hall at Marches School in Oswestry to hear a series of talks given by renowned archaeological experts. Oswestry is rapidly becoming a focus for archaeology and a recognised venue for one of the most interesting conferences on Hillforts taking place in Britain, and we welcomed groups from Cheshire, Stockport, North Wales and Oxford University, all of whom are actively discovering new things about their local hillforts and were coming together to compare ideas and theories at the Marches School.***The day was started by Dr Andy Wigley, a Shropshire County Council Archaeologist whose research specialisation is Hillforts. He described how recent work using aerial photographs shows that during the Iron Age people were living and farming in small hamlets protected by ditches on the low lands of Shropshire, as well as within the fortified areas on the hills. He linked the wide-scale clearance of forests to allow arable farming 3500 years ago with increasing run off, soil erosion and evidences for flooding within the upper Severn Valley (so nothing new!). Hillforts were constantly reworked, repaired and enlarged, and this would need organisation of temporary large labour sources within a tribe.This was followed by Margaret Worthington talk on how iron objects were made at this time, using huge skill to extract iron from sources including bog ore ,and controlling the qualities of this iron by carefully judging the fires as metal was smelted and smithed. Margaret referred to the excavations and experimental work carried out over many years by Peter Crew on early iron production in Snowdonia. Bill Britnell from Clwyd Powys Archaeological Trust followed with a description of the extensive and pioneering excavations at Breiddin Hill and the subsequent interpretation of results which revealed the remodelling and changes on that Hillfort from the early Bronze Age through to possible Romano-British occupation of adjoining site. Then Shelagh Lewis fascinated the audience with slides and analysis of finds, many of which have been made recently, which show that ritual and religion were very important in Shropshire during the Iron Age. She discussed the importance of water in religion and the link to carved Iron Age stone heads such as those found associated with a well at Bronygarth near Weston Rhyn. She talked about the drawings of eyes which occur in Romano-British finds from Wroxeter near Shrewsbury, and suggest that there was a link between rivers and healing, in this latter case healing blindness. Nicky Smith, from English Heritage reported on the recent research project on Old Oswestry Hillfort, which used extremely sensitive GIS equipment to provide a new highly detailed topographic survey. This level of detail enabled her to show which rampart joins onto which other rampart, and to produce a sequence of development on the Hillfort. They also indicated about 12 platforms within the ramparts, which are flattened areas which must at one time have been an inhabited area for e.g. a hut, (although she has not entirely ruled out the theory that one or two of these could be much later charcoal burning hearths). The survey has also discovered parallel ridges between ramparts on the southern side which could be signs of early cultivation in that area. Interestingly, this new technique has not helped to interpret the function of the enigmatic pits on the western side, but rather has served to eliminate all the obvious suggestions for their purpose. The day finished with Phil Cox from the Caer Alyn Hillfort project near Wrexham, who described what could be done by a community voluntary group in terms of excavation and new interpretation, and inspired the other Hillfort groups present with how much support he had built up for the project, and how many volunteers now working at the site.We would like to thank all the contributors who were able to interpret their research with enthusiasm and skill which appealed to an audience which ranged from professional archaeologists to enthusiastic amateurs. Old Oswestry Landscape and Archaeology Project are a small group which grew out of the Oswestry Borough Council Project to develop visitor interpretation and facilities at Old Oswestry, but since the end of this funding we are now entirely voluntary. A grant from Heritage Lottery's 'Awards for All' scheme has allowed us to run this seminar. In due course we will publish a report of this seminar, but in the mean time we still have copies left of the report of the Oswestry seminar in 2007, entitled 'The Archaeology and Landscape of North Shropshire Marches', further details are on our web site; www.shrop.net/oldoswestryhillfort