Discovery of Brunel's Underground Chamber

underground chamber

Work on the Brunel tower car park is suspended whilst archaeologists investigate an underground chamber. Was it the reservoir for the water which was needed for the beam engine inside the tower? The beam engine was used to create the vacuum in the pipe of the atmospheric railway

Time Teign present Earth, Wind and Fire

TimeTeign Presentation

Monday 16th January 2017  7-9pm

 Kingsteignton Community Hall, Rydon Road,TQ12 3LP

Speaker - Bill Horner, Devon County Council Archaeologist

 Earth Wind and Fire Elements of archaeological work in Devon during 2016

 Contact TIMETEIGN on 01626 351953 for details
http://www.timeteign.org.uk/
Members £3, non members £5, students £2

Power of Archaeology

Hello,

You may not be aware that earlier this month the Council for British Archaeology launched its new campaign entitled the ‘Power of Archaeology’ as part of its Local Heritage Engagement Network. This new campaign aims to get MPs and local Councillors more closely engaged with archaeology and heritage issues, raise the profile of threats posed by cuts and planning policy reform, and make sure that decision-makers understand what archaeology does for us all and why people care passionately about it.

The south-west region, like others areas of the country, is currently under pressure to meet demands placed on local authority archaeology services due to budget cuts, and national planning policy reforms are threatening to undermine many of the protections that exist to prevent harm to, and create benefit from, archaeological remains discovered through the planning process.

Here at CBA South West we want to raise the profile of this campaign to local societies in the region. We hope to encourage you to help spread the awareness of the campaign, or to join in whichever way you can to help us raise the profile of archaeology with politicians at a local and national level.

We are asking societies just like yours to write to their MP’s, invite them to local events and meetings, attend a local surgery, or send them details of your group and the work you do - anything to make a mark with your representative!

One key aspect of this campaign will be the Festival of Archaeology, which runs from 16^th to 31^st July and features events all over the region, we are encouraging event organisers to invite their local MP’s along. Further details onthe Festival of Archaeology, including finding an event near you or how to get involved, can be found here (http://www.archaeologyfestival.org.uk/whatson).

You can find out about the campaign here (http://new.archaeologyuk.org/the-power-of-archaeology), including guidance for how to contact your MP, and what you can do if you are organising or visiting an archaeological event. It should be known that societies are more than welcome to share and adapt materials from the campaign as they deem appropriate, and are welcome to use the unbranded ‘Power of Archaeology’ resources attached here for their own websites and the hashtag #ArchaeoPower on social media.

If you want to get involved in any way but would like some advice, please contact lhen@archaeologyuk.org, or call 01904 521 417 and someone will be glad to help.

The CBA hopes, that with your support, to be able to capitalise on the contact made in order to highlight issues with upcoming legislation and policy, raising the probability that the sector will, collectively, be able to lobby for appropriate protections to be maintained, and enhancements sought.

Yours faithfully,

Caradoc Peters, Chair, Council for British Archaeology South West

Katie Collins, Secretary, Council for British Archaeology South West

Plymouth Course in Basic Archaeological Diving

lead soldier from 1685 Coronation off Plymouth

 MAST - the Marine Archaeology Sea Trust - are running a course in how to be a BAD diver.
May 28th to May 29th

Become a Basic Archaeological Diver!

MAST's Basic Archaeological Diver is a two day course, a no fuss introduction to the basics of archaeology underwater with simple recording techniques using little more than a camera and tape measures. The introduction to the basics will also include a lecture on the laws governing divers and underwater archaeology in the UK. Students will hear exciting talks from well known figures in the underwater archaeology world (please ask for details).

The course is an approved PADI Distinctive Specialty and appropriate PADI certification and qualification cards are awarded on completion of the course. The course is also now becoming a Scuba Schools International (SSI) Specialty. SSI divers will now gain an SSI specialty certification and MAST instructors are now qualified SSI and PADI instructors.
After completion they will have the opportunity of a rare guided tour from the licensee of the 1685 Coronation protected wrecksite off Plymouth.
As Underwater Archaeology specialists you can become the eyes and ears of our underwater heritage.
For details please contact us at ginge@thisismast.org. Our next B.A.D. course is May 28-29 in Plymouth. The course costs £198 per person for the two days.
2016 dates for the BAD course in Plymouth are as follows:
April 16-17, May 28-29, June 25-26, July 23-24, August 27-28, September 24-25 and October 23-24
(A £45 deposit is required. Payment by BACS is preferred. Please ensure you email MAST to confirm that you have made your payment. If you prefer to send by cheque, please ensure you enclose a covering note with your name and contact details.)

This includes classroom tuition, student handbook, provision of underwater surveying tools for the duration of the course, three open water dives, PADI PIC registration and card and a reduced price voucher to dive the Coronation wreck, which will be valid from one year from the date of the course. It does not include dive equipment rental, air fills, transportation to and from dive site. All profits from the course are donated to MAST to contribute to projects aimed at understanding and conserving our British marine heritage.
If you are a PADI or SSI Instructor and you would like to teach the course, please contact us at either of the emails above.
*We offer a discount to members of the Armed Forces Community. Please speak to us for details.
Please also visit the webpage of the Coronation's wrecksite team at www.coronationwreck.co.uk.

Sports Diver article:
Want to be a BAD diver?


Marine Archaeology Sea Trust website

Roman Amphora from 3 fathoms in the mouth of the Exe

This top of a Roman amphora was one of the Show&Tell items which were loaned to Starcross History for its AGM on May 11th.

The late Jim Shapter reported that it was brought up from approximately 20 foot depth (6 metres. 3 fathoms) in the River Exe Estuary, off Cockwood, in 1991; when divers had gone down to inspect Jim's deep water mooring.

In 1994, the following information was kindly provided by Graham Langman of the Archaelogical Field Unit at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter:

"
It is a type called Dressel 20 and is the commonest form found in Roman Britain. It was made in large numbers along the banks of the river Guadalquivir and its tributaries between Seville and Cordoba in the southern Spanish Province of Baetica, and was used to carry the locally-produced olive oil. The span of production of this type covers three centuries and this amphora will date between the mid first century AD and the third century AD.
"

Meeting in St Paul's Church on January 13th

Poster for the meeting on Wednesday, January 13th

 at 7:30pm in St Paul's Curch, Starcross. Our speaker will be Andrew Cadbury who will talk about his family and the history of chocolate

Here's the link to this poster. Please can you print and display? Cheers

Because we don't want to exclude anyone from coming, we won't charge for admission, and we won't have a membership fee, but we need to cover the £20 cost to hire the rooms, and we also need money for our projects.
We raise money by asking you to bring a raffle prize - perhaps some of us might bring a chocolate raffle prize this time? We also sell tea&coffee withabiscuit, which costs £1, and we sell our hard enamel badges for £5. We also have some copies of the late Dick Forrester's book What was an Atmospheric Railway priced only £3 - they are advertised on eBay for twice that price!

We are always looking for speakers, and for help with running this group, and with our projects. The current projects are:

• Making a trail of peacocks' tails to commemorate Captain George Peacock. There will be a Dartmoor-style letterbox stamp sited near to each peacock tail. On St George's Day, 23rd April, we will sell you a trail card, and invite you to follow the trail and collect the stamps. There's a peacock's feather for the first 50 completed cards.

We are looking for a trophy or two to present to the best peacock tails - perhaps you may have an old trophy you no longer need? Or we could use a ceramic pot if it has two handles at the top.

• Recreating or locating the missing Stairs Cross. Read about this project on these links:

 The history of Stairs Cross
Starcross Parish Council backs the project if we can further prove the existence of a Stairs Cross
photograph of the stairs where the Stairs Cross was sited

We need someone to research the archives of Sherbourne Abbey. Perhaps we could raise enough money to fund a geophys exploration of the estuary, to see if the Stairs Cross lies buried underneath the silt. Maybe Henry V11th's men didn't destroy the cross, but merely tipped it into the estuary mud?

• Exploring archaeological remains. 

There's a wartime bunker around Warboro. Read about it on this link Operational Base of the Starcross Auxiliary Unit Patrol

ARCHI, the historical search hound, has  discovered 117 archaeological and historic sites within 10km of Starcross 117 archaeological sites near Starcross from ARCHIUK
Are there some enthusiasts to explore some of these sites.  Which site interests you the most?

• Commemorating Captain George Peacock. Captain Peacock invented the screw propeller... so let's have an enormous screw propeller with his name on it. Maybe site it on Parish Council land on The Strand?  We need researchers to discover more, and someone to contact Captain Peacock's descendants to tell them what we'd like to do. Then we'll need to approach the Parish Council with our ideas. 

HERE'S a link to some information about him from the Royal Museums at Greenwich. The links to the illustrations have been taken down, but they may be available elsewhere on the Royal Greenwich Museums' website
HERE'S another link. This is to the information on the National Archives website

Archi, the Historical Search Hound, sniffs out 170 Archaeological sites

archiuk.com  is the online resource which details everything to do with finding history around us: digging up stuff; examining the remains of old buildings; or analysing any physical evidence of previous human occupancy. Here's what Archi, its Historical Search Hound, has unearthed within 10 km of Starcross.

Visit http://www.archiuk.com to see more details.

• If you'd like to investigate any of these, or you are able to tell Starcross History anything about them, please comment below. 

British Archaeological sites, Ancient History, Historical Places and Metal Detecting finds around SX9781 Ancient History of Starcross, Devon, British National Grid Reference: SX9781; E-N: 297000 081000; Decimal Latitude/Longitude: 50.619580, -3.457347

Archi the Historical Search Hound has found 170 archaeological and historical sites within 10 km of your search area SX9781 Ancient History of Starcross, Devon, British National Grid Reference: SX9781; E-N: 297000 081000; Decimal Latitude/Longitude: 50.619580, -3.457347. These sites consist of: 39 roman sites, 18 iron age sites, 24 bronze age sites, 58 medieval sites, 3 post-medieval sites, 5 mesolithic sites, 2 neolithic sites, 8 unclassified ancient sites, 3 unclassified historic sites, 8 industrial sites, 1 modern sites, 1 norman sites,

Many thanks to Chris the webmaster for allowing this information, and Archi the dog,  to be copied from the archiuk website.