Tag: Community Finds Recording Teams

Rutland County Pages launched!

Posted on by Lauren Speed

We’re pleased to announce the launch of our Rutland County Pages. Rutland is our smallest county but it is packed with archaeology, from the Upper Palaeolithic hyena den to coin hoards from the civil war. Learn more about visiting Rutland’s heritage sites or explore archaeological finds from Rutland reported to the Portable Antiquities Scheme.

Wendy Scott is the Finds Liaison Officer for Rutland. She is supported by a fantastic team of volunteers and student placements who photograph and record finds, carry out research and much more. Read more about the team here.

Watch this space for more blog posts about volunteering, finds, events and more from Rutland.

Early medieval silver strap-end with animal decoration
Early medieval silver strap-end with animal decoration

Launch of the Essex County Pages

Posted on by Clemency Cooper

Following the launch of the Cheshire County Pages last month we have another new County Pages site, this time from the East of England. The Essex County Pages have gone live today with a series of webpages about upcoming events, ways to get involved in archaeology and Portable Antiquities Schemes finds from the county.

Our Essex Finds Liaison Officer (FLO), Ben Paites, is currently advertising for a new Volunteer Finds Recorder to assist him at the at the Museum Resource Centre in Colchester with Colchester & Ipswich Museum Service. For more information, please see the role description on the Colchester & Ipswich Museums volunteering webpage here. The deadline for expressions of interest in 9am on Monday 11th April 2016. The new volunteer will learn to identify and record archaeological material found and reported by members of the public, and will have the chance to contribute posts on their research and experience of volunteering to the Essex County Pages. Ben and one of his former volunteers, Katie Bishop, contributed a series of blog posts themed ‘Festive Finds’ to the main County Pages news feed in December 2015.

Enjoy exploring the objects and coins discovered in Essex and recorded by Ben and his volunteer team and keep an eye out for new blog posts on the new Essex County Pages in the coming weeks!

Early Medieval gold ring
2012 T89 – Early Medieval gold ring. Copyright: Colchester and Ipswich Museum Service. License: CC-BY

Launch of the Cheshire County Pages

Posted on by Clemency Cooper

The second set of County Pages launches today with a new site dedicated to the archaeological finds and historical environment of Cheshire. Here you can find out more about forthcoming finds surgeries in the county and other events as they come up, search for artefacts and coins found in Cheshire and recorded on the Portable Antiquities Scheme’s database and explore the county’s museums and archaeological societies. There are also blog posts featuring notable finds and general research as well as background information about the work of the county’s Finds Liaison Officer (FLO) and volunteers.

Huxley Hoard lead and bracelets
The Huxley Hoard was found in Cheshire in 2004 (LVPL-c63F8A)
Copyright: National Museums Liverpool License: CC-BY

Vanessa Oakden is the FLO for Cheshire, as well as Greater Manchester and Merseyside, and is based at the Museum of Liverpool. In one of her blog posts, she describes a typical finds surgery meeting members of the public reporting archaeological finds to record and, in another post, she selects some of her favourite finds from her home country of Ireland found in North West England. Vanessa recently wrote a book published by Amberley Publishing called ’50 Finds from Cheshire’ looking at finds from Cheshire recorded by the Scheme. In one of the blog posts on the new County Pages, this book is reviewed by Samantha Rowe, a PhD candidate at the University of Huddersfield. One of Vanessa’s volunteers, Carl Savage, has also contributed a post on medieval coin finds from Cheshire and his voluntary role identifying medieval and post medieval coins.

The County Pages have been developed as part of the Portable Antiquities Scheme’s Heritage Lottery Fund PASt Explorers project and was first launched in June 2015 with the pilot site of Leicestershire. PASt Explorers is recruiting and training local volunteer teams to work with the Scheme’s Finds Liaison Officers to record archaeological finds made by members of the public and share information about their county’s heritage with local communities.

Other County Pages sites are in development and will be rolled out gradually over the coming year. In the meantime, we hope you enjoy finding out more about the rich history that Cheshire has to offer and more about the fantastic work of Vanessa and her volunteers in recording and sharing new discoveries from the county.

Launch of the County Pages

Posted on by Clemency Cooper

A warm welcome to the Portable Antiquities Scheme’s (PAS) new website, the County Pages, developed as part of the Heritage Lottery Funded PASt Explorers initiative. PASt Explorers is a five-year project to recruit and train volunteers from local communities to record finds found by members of the public. The County Pages is intended to be one of the primary means of disseminating information about, and generated by, those involved in PASt Explorers, and will provide a central source of information on the historical environment and finds work in local areas, informing new audiences and encouraging them to get actively involved in their local heritage.

The front page of the County Pages has a news feed updated by the PASt Explorers project staff, and links to finds and recording guides and other learning resources that will help people better understand their local heritage. The front page also acts as a portal to individual sets of County Pages for each county in England, and one set for the country of Wales.

The content for each set of County Pages will be generated by members of the Community Finds Recording Teams (CFRT) of PAS volunteers alongside their local Finds Liaison Officer. The Pages will contain background information and case studies in the form of blogs, features about finds and general research. This information will be created and updated by the CFRT and their local FLO, with guidance and input from the PASt Explorers Outreach and Project Officers. In time, there will also be links to finds guides, recording guides and other learning resources; archaeological and historical information and contact for local areas; and web-links to other related sites.

The first county sub-site to be launched is Leicestershire, where the pilot recruitment and training programmes for PASt Explorers took place in 2013. The other counties will be gradually rolled out. The County Pages will continue to develop throughout the PASt Explorers project, and we welcome feedback on user experience and suggestions for new contents and features.

We hope you enjoy exploring the County Pages and discovering more about the work of the Portable Antiquities Scheme, its Finds Liaison Officers and volunteers, and the finds they record.