Our Excavations

We started digging in 2005 in a garden in the Ridgeway, Market Harborough, a ridge of higher ground which separates the town from the village of Great Bowden. We could not believe our eyes when Roman pottery sherds began falling out of most spadefuls of soil!

We thought it would always be like this but more than 100 pits later we were a bit wiser! Sometimes we found very little but always dug with a question to be answered, verified any finds and produced a report.

Field Walking Geo-physical Survey Metal Detecting

Our Digs

With support from professional archaeologists, we have added to the Historic Environment record. We dug in gardens and paddocks in Great Bowden, Market Harborough and nearby villages. Sometimes it was just one small pit, but elsewhere, particularly in paddocks, we opened up to 8 pits. - we dug everything by hand. With over 15 years experience we acquired a growing knowledge of pottery types which we tried to pass on to other people in the group.

We have been affiliated to the Council for British Archaeology and required members taking part to belong to Leicestershire Fieldworkers and thus be covered by insurance. Members needed to sign medical and health and safety forms before working on a site. We were careful to leave a site as we found it and believe this was appreciated by house owners and landowners. Our backfilling become a speciality!

We started with little experience but developed systems and techniques over the years which were constantly being reviewed. We could never run our digs in the same way as professionals as we normally had to complete everything over one weekend and not use machinery.

Get Involved

There was also the social side. Lunchtime was a good time to have a break from the hard work, get to know other members and enjoy a picnic lunch often with a lovely view. The tea tent was on the go all day and we all crowded in for a cuppa and for shelter if there is a sudden shower.

There is still so much more to discover in Great Bowden and we still hope that someone with enthusiasm will come forward and restart activities. Maybe within the new developments in the village there are some keen amateur archaeologists.

Archaeology Data Service

The Aim of the ADS (Archaeology Data Service) is to collect, preserve and provide user support for thousands of digital reports and files produced through archaeological research.

It is a not-for-profit organisation based at The King’s Manor at the University of York and was established in 1996 by a consortium of Departments of Archaeology within 7 universities along with the Council for British Archaeology. and English Heritage. Alongside the main data service runs OASIS which is a library of grey literature, the unpublished fieldwork reports from both professional and amateur organisations.

We now hold a licence and are able to deposit our reports on excavation and field walking etc. It provides a safe archive for our material available for anyone to access.

Instruction Sheets

To help you learn, we have created the following instruction sheets. Just click the title to download. And get in touch if you'd like to find out more.

How to dig a test pit
Finds processing on the dig site
Notes on identifying Prehistoric - Anglo-Saxon pottery (from 2011 course)
Notes on medieval pottery identification (from 2011 course)

Links to Our Studies

1. Cambridge Archaeology Test pitting in Great Bowden 2013-14. Lengthy report with 30 test pits carried out by GBHA. This report is available on the Archaeology Data Service site under Access Cambridge Archaeology. Lewis, C. and Ranson, C. (2014). Archaeological Test Pit Excavations in Great Bowden, Leicestershire, 2013 and 2014. University of Cambridge: Access Cambridge Archaeology. https://doi.org/10.5284/1034489

2. Leicestershire Historic Environment Record accessible through Heritage Gateway contains a number of reports and finds contributed by Great Bowden Heritage.

3. Reports on the following digs can be downloaded below.

April 2010 The Heights, Little Bowden garden dig
July 2009 Upper Green Place, Great Bowden - paddock dig
July 2009 30 Langton Rd, Great Bowden - garden dig
July 2009 43 Knights End Road, Great Bowden - garden dig
July 2009 45 Main Street Great Bowden - garden dig
July 2009 Cottage Garden, 31 The Green, Great Bowden - garden dig
August 2008 Hall Close, East Langton, paddock dig
August 2007 St Mary’s Allotments, Market Harborough - allotment dig
January 2006 Corner Allotment, Langton Rd, Great Bowden- allotment dig
September 2005 The Barn, Knights End, Great Bowden- garden dig
August 2005 Tinker’s Thatch, Main Street, Great Bowden - garden dig
May 2005 4 Harrod Drive, off Great Bowden Road, Market Harborough garden dig

5. Available on Archaeology Data Service site under Great Bowden Heritage - a further 20 reports on excavations, field walking and ridge and furrow research carried out ourselves.

http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archives/view/greylit/browse.cfm?unit=Great%20Bowden%20Heritage

Excavations archived on the data service include: