This month marks the 50th anniversary of the first pride march in London in 1972. The Royal mint are releasing a commemorative 50p coin to mark the occasion. Whether you see this as another step toward greater visibility for the LGBTQ+ community or as performative act, it is far from the last commemorative coin that …more
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Museum Musings – September 2021
One of the earliest treasure finds acquired by West Berkshire Museum is this Anglo-Saxon zoomorphic terminal made of silver and partly gilded from Near West Ilsey. The terminal is hollow-cast, with a pyramidal socket of rectangular section which would perhaps originally have held a wooden rod. On the narrower sides are two 4mm-long tapering extensions, which …more
Finds of the Month – August 2021
This months Finds of the Month isn’t focusing so much on individual finds as it is one particular find type founds in the Parish of Speen. The First and Second Battles of Newbury during the English Civil war were key turning points for both sides. The second battle stretched right from the Parliamentarian camp west …more
Museum Musings – August 2021
A new exhibition has opened recently in West Berkshire Museum celebrating togetherness. Exhibition: Together What does ‘being together’ mean? The exhibition explores the courtship and matrimonial traditions of a small group of people living in West Berkshire, who are from diverse cultural backgrounds. One of the most common finds, but still relatively uncommon, possibly celebrating …more
Finds of the Month – July 2021
Another full month back with fewer restrictions on meeting finders has meant more finds being recorded, but just three this week and all Roman! First up is a copper-alloy Roman harness pendant. The pendant is of Bishop Type 1L. The top of the pendant has a complete, solid integral loop. These 1st century harness pendants aren’t …more
Museum Musings – July 2021
At West Berkshire Museum we have a whole display dedicated to detected and chance finds. Mostly this is made up of hoards. However, we also have on display finds acquired by, and donated or loaned to the museum. Here are just a few of those finds on the PAS database. The first is a gilded …more
Finds of the Month – June 2021
First full month of finds surgeries back and there have been some interesting new additions to the PAS database in Berkshire. First of is our little Saxon fella; the Early-Medieval copper-alloy Anglo-Saxon gesture figurine. It fits within a small (but slowly growing) repertoire of 7th century 3-dimensional figurines from south and east England, mainly along the …more
Museum Musings – June 2021
This week has been Musuems Week with a social media hashtag each day. At West Berkshire Museum there is a large display of objects relating to the English Civil War as in Newbury there were two large Civil War battles. The First Battle of Newbury (September 20th 1643) and the Second Battle of Newbury (October …more
Find of the Month – May 2021
This month I’ve been back meeting finders for the first time since late 2020 and some very interesting finds have been brought in for identification and recording. A fair few finds have been brought in but so recently I haven’t had much time to put this one together. However, there is one find which really …more
Museum Musings May 2021 – Same Again Samian
Samian ware is one of the most common finds on Roman sites, but on the PAS it is fairly uncommon. This is largely because it is ceramic and not picked up by a metal detector. Samian was produced in several areas of modern day France and Germany. Based forms, makers stamps and decoration it can …more
