This week the village has been privileged to host local students as part of Cambridge University's Higher Education Field Academy project (HEFA). The students were chosen through the gifted and talented scheme at their schools and the programme aims to raise the aspirations, enthusiasm and attainment of 14-17 year-olds with regard to higher education by making a valuable contribution to current academic research at the University of Cambridge. Gifted and talented is a term used in schools to describe children who have the potential to develop significantly beyond what is expected of their age, they have engaged thoroughly with the project by carrying out their own hands-on practical investigations.
The group of 32 students descended upon the village, fanning out in teams of 4, on Wednesday and set up digs in 8 gardens. Each pit was no bigger than a metre square and the records that are kept are scrupulously detailed. Supported by local teachers and experts, as well as Dr Carenza Lewis, the project's director and regular from TV'sTime Team and Michael Wood's recent series Great British Story, the students had a two day slot to find and record as much as possible.
Finds Advisor John Newman, a local archaeologist, was able to verify the discovery of a number of pieces of medieval pottery in some of the sites and the students will spend a day in the University of Cambridge analysing the excavation results in sessions which aim to engage and challenge participants, prepare them to produce a written analysis for assessment as well as provide an inspirational and positive experience.
The students really seemed to be enjoying the project when we spoke to one group on Thursday, as did their leader, Jan Crowley who is the Aspirations Coach at Bungay High School. Student Abi Pipes said that it made a refreshing change to be discovering the history of your own region, finding out what happened on your doorstep, rather than the other side of the world. Laura Ayers admitted that before they started to dig she really wasn't sure that they would find anything so was delighted, and a little relieved to have found pottery and an area that seemed to show evidence of a fire pit, whilst Adam Barnard had been shown the most energy efficient way to handle a pick axe by Dr Lewis. He was hoping that his new found knowledge would help him to identify and even date his own finds in the future. Reece Jordan explained that even though the students in the teams came from different schools and some had never met before, they quickly identified roles and were able to work to their individual strengths. Recce's strength appeared to be just that - they needed physical strength and tenacity to get through the initial turf, which was particularly tough at their site and would have deterred even the most seasoned archaeologist.
We are all looking forward to hearing about the overall findings, once the records are colated and verified, further reports from the History Society
will also be made available. If you were lucky enough to have a dig in your garden and took any photographs please send them to the Gallery Editor so that we may share them in the Events gallery.
Initially Carenza Lewis made her enquiry to the village through this website and we are delighted that the History Society have undertaken to co-ordinate the project, they will be keeping their own records, including a video of the various digs.
As a lovely aside Dr Lewis was particularly delighted to meet a student From The Denes High School in Lowestoft on this dig who shared her first name, she was named Carenza after Dr Lewis appeared on Time Team!
You can find out more about the project here: Access Cambridge Archeology