New CHAS season starts Monday 2nd 2023
A new series of online lectures hosted by the Combined Hertfordshire Archaeological Societies will be on Monday 2nd entitled “What we find and what we know” by Les Capon from AOC Archaeology. Free tickets can be obtained from Eventbrite.
A full list of CHAS lectures is available from the CHAS page on this website.
Tony Rook (1932-2023)
It is with great sadness to report that Tony Rook passed away last Monday, aged 91. Tony and Merle moved to Welwyn in 1960 and quickly started investigating the archaeology of the area. A group of keen volunteers coalesced around them and the Welwyn Archaeological Society, originally called the Lockleys Archaeological Society, was born. Tony was our Director for the first 49 years of the Society’s existence. As well as leading the Society, Tony was a dedicated researcher, excellent teacher and prolific author. Tony leaves a daughter, Sylvia. His funeral will be on the 16th October at 11am in St Mary’s Church, Welwyn. He will be very much missed.
The long “Roman” glass industry
The lecture on Friday 28th October 2022 is by Professor Ian Freestone of UCL on the long “Roman” glass industry. Raw glass was made in only a few locations in the Eastern Mediterranean during the Roman period and then shipped all over the Empire. Ian’s research on the chemical composition of glass has been throwing light on this fascinating story. The lecture is at 7.45pm in the United Reformed Church hall (opposite Sainbury’s), Church Road, Welwyn Garden City. Visitors welcome, £3.
Staging the world of Stonehenge
The 2022–23 lecture season starts on the 14th October with a talk about the Stonehenge exhibition at The British Museum by Neil Wilkin. This lecture is sponsored by The Prehistoric Society to whom we are very grateful. The talk will be held in the hall of the United Reformed Church in Welwyn Garden City (opposite Sainsbury’s). The meeting starts at 7.45 with “parish notices” and the lecture will start at c.8pm. Tea and biscuits will be available. Visitors welcome (£3).
Spring and summer 2022
The Society’s lecture season has come to a close, as has the exhibition on the history of the Society. We are working on converting the content of the exhibition to a virtual one for this website. Members of the Society will be active especially in undertaking geophysical surveys over the summer. We plan to be continuing the survey at Verulamium again this year in August.
The lecture season will resume in October when we will also be hosting the fourth Archaeology in Hertfordshire: Recent Research conference with the St Albans and Hertfordshire Architectural and Archaeological Society on the 22nd October.
Please get in touch if you would like to be involved in any of the Society’s activities.
AGM and lecture
Friday 22nd April, 7.45pm, sees our AGM for 2021-2022. This will be as short as we can make it! The business meeting will be followed by a lecture by James Fairbairn entitled “Verulamium: the basilica and portico wall excavations.” All welcome.
This Friday sees Keith Fitzpatrick Matthews presented a talk on the place names of the Hitchin region. Please note that this talk will be at our usual venue (United Reformed Church, Church Road, Welwyn Garden City) at our usual time (7.45pm) and not as previously advertised.
Making stained glass in the Medieval period
Our next WAS lecture on the 4th March 2022 will be Professor Ian Freestone (Institute of Archaeology, UCL) telling us about his research on medieval stained glass. Ian is a world-leading expert on glass of all periods and especially the scientific analysis of glass compositions and what that can tell us about how glass was made, traded and used. It should be a super talk. Tea and coffee will be available as usual.
Exhibition Opens
An exhibition on the history of the Welwyn Archaeological Society has opened at Mill Green Museum, Hatfield (https://www.millgreenmuseum.co.uk/). The exhibition, put together by Kris Lockyear and Emma Harper, traces the story of the Society from its foundation in 1960 to the present day. Many of the finds are on display for the first time including some of the architectural fragments from Chapel Wood along with fragments of stained glass, Roman artefacts from Great Humphreys, Hooks Cross and Six Acres and a vessel with a name scratched on the base, also from Hooks Cross. The exhibition runs until mid-May.
The next CHAS online lecture is on Monday 22nd March at 7.45pm. Professor Tom Williamson is well-known for his work on the history and archaeology of Hertfordshire and Norfolk, and especially his work on the development of landscapes. On this occasion he will be talking about the exciting work happening at the important early site at Rendlesham. Please book your tickets via Eventbrite.
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