Our annual Bulletin journal is now digitized and open-access – free for everybody to read and download online. We’ve also taken this opportunity to spring-clean the website and make it easier to navigate. Society membership subscriptions are also presently free during the ongoing Covid19 pandemic while monthly lectures continue online – with success! You can read more on the website about how to register until our events and activities return to normal.
July 4th | TAS Lecture: Durham’s Museum of Archaeology and its Collections | Gemma Lewis 7.30pm at Stockton Central Library TS18 1TU (Doors open at 7.00pm). Guests are welcome for £4 each on the door.
Durham opened its first museum in 1833, just a year after the founding of the University. The Archaeology Museum, in Palace Green Library, Durham. is the successor of this original University Museum.
In this lecture, Gemma will discuss the collections held in the Museum.revealing what was found of the earlier industrial and social history of this part of the city.
About the speaker
Gemma is the Deputy Curator of University College, Deputy Curator of the Castle in the Library and Curator of Durham Castle and the Museum of Archaeology in the Castle.
Tuesday 28th February | Death and Discovery | David Dance 7.30pm at Stockton Central Library TS18 1TU (Doors open at 7.00pm). Guests are welcome for £4 each on the door.
David will discuss the use of Archaeology in Forensic Investigation, exploring the origins of Forensic Archaeology, and its application within criminal investigations of missing or suspected dead persons, with a practical demonstration of Forensic Archaeology in action.
About the speaker
David with Assistant
David started working life as a hospital Staff nurse, changing career to the Metropolitan Police in 1980. He served for 30 years reaching the rank of Inspector, and in 1992-1994 studied for a BSc Degree in Policing at Portsmouth University. His last 16 years of service was within a Specialist Firearms Unit.
He Studied Archaeology and History at Birkbeck College, London University, focusing on Greek and Roman History; and is a member of the Institute of Classical Studies, Senate House. On retirement from the Metropolitan Police, he undertook a full time Master’s Degree, Forensic Archaeological Science, at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London.
David moved to East Cleveland from Essex in 2011 and has been a member of TAS since 2012.
Jan 31st | TAS AGM plus The Tyne Brewery Site, Newcastle: Beer, Industry and Moral Turpitude | Richard Annis 7.30pm at Stockton Central Library TS18 1TU (Doors open at 7.00pm). Guests are welcome for £4 each on the door.
The closure of the Tyne Brewery in 2005 marked the end of over 120 years of beer-making at the same spot on the west side of Newcastle. Well outside the medieval town
Tyne Brewery 1884. Pencil drawing.
Negative Number 54M99
wall and far from the Roman centre, the site might seem to be of little archaeological interest. Not so: investigation and recording work carried out by Archaeological Services before, during and after the clearance of the site has revealed a great deal of interest in the different uses this land has had. This talk will look at the extraordinary growth of the brewing business that gave the world Newcastle Brown Ale, as well as revealing what was found of the earlier industrial and social history of this part of the city.
About the speaker
Richard started working in archaeology as a schoolboy volunteer, helping on the 
excavation of the Roman villa at Woodchester, Gloucestershire, which contains the largest mosaic pavement north of the Alps. That got him hooked. Most of his work has been in the North of England, at Carlisle, Beverley, Birdoswald, and at Cleveland County Archaeology Section / Tees Archaeology. For the last 17 years he has worked for Archaeological Services on a wide range of projects, particularly historic buildings and human remains
Richard is Senior Archaeologist in the Department of Archaeology, Durham University.
29th Nov | A1 Leeming to Barton: Further up the road | Helen Maclean, Technical Director for Archaeology at AECOM. 7.30pm at Stockton Central Library TS18 1TU. Guests are welcome for £4 each on the door.
Helen Maclean, Technical Director for Archaeology at AECOM, the design engineers for the A1 scheme, will provide an update on recent finds o
f the excavations on the scheme, including work at Cataractonium, Bainesse Cemetery and Scotch Corner.
As well as providing the results of the excavations, Helen will provide details of her involvement with the scheme since 2004 and the role of an archaeological consultant. Archaeological work does not just start when construction begins, nor does it end when construction finishes.
Helen will provide details of the extensive research and surveys that were undertaken prior to construction start, and a ‘behind the scenes’ look at the role of the archaeological consultant on a major scheme such as this.
Helen has been an archaeological consultant since 2001.Prior to that she worked as a field archaeologist in Northampton. She studied at the University of Bradford and was involved with a research project into hunter-gatherer mobility in the Yorkshire Dales.
Since 2004 she has been involved with the A1 Dishforth to Barton scheme, but has also worked on a number of major projects across the UK, including the Olympic Legacy, a 70km pipeline in east Yorkshire, and an overhead powerline in Northern Ireland.
25th Oct | Children of the Revolution | Dr. Becky Gowland, Senior Lecturer at Durham University. 7.30pm at Stockton Central Library TS18 1TU. Guests are welcome for £4 each on the door.
While researching for her PhD, Dr. Becky Gowland became interested in the divide between science and social theory in archaeology and the implications of this for human skeletal analysis and funerary archaeology, and became the co-editor of a book The Social Archaeology of Funerary Remains. More recently, she researched the skeletal remains of children to understand the impact of social processes upon population health. This talk draws upon her work with skeletal remains of children in the North of England during the Industrial Revolution, demonstrating health stresses in both urban-based and rural children. Surprisingly, higher-than-expected rates of health stress were found among rural children: possibly related to the relocation of pauper children from workhouses, to apprenticeships in rural-based Northern mills.
About the Speaker
Dr. Gowalnd is a graduate of the Durham University Archaeology 
Department. She later undertook an MSc in Osteology, Palaeopathology and Funerary Archaeology taught jointly between the Universities of Sheffield and Bradford. She returned to Durham to complete her PhD. Her studies became the subject of a book The Social Archaeology of Funerary Remains that she co-edited with Dr Chris Knüsel (University of Exeter).
After spells as a research assistant at the University of Sheffield and the Cambridge University she returned to Durham for the third time as a lecturer in 2006. She currently teaches human skeletal analysis at both Undergraduate and Masters level. She has recently completed a co-authored book Human Identity and Identification with Dr Tim Thompson of Teesside University which examines the inter-relationship between social identity and the biological tissues of the body.
27th September | Street House Before the Saxons | Dr. Steven Sherlock 7.30pm at Stockton Central Library TS18 1TU. Guests are welcome for £4 each on the door.
Excavations at Street House, near Loftus, since 1980 have revealed a wealth of evidence for different sites for most periods in British Archaeology. The sites range from Neolithic burial sites, Bronze Age burials, ritual or ceremonial sites and settlements, Iron Age farmstead, village and industry, a Romano-British farmstead, settlement and evidence for jet, salt and pottery manufacturing.
All of this was before the creation of a Royal Anglo-Saxon cemetery of national significance at the site. However, excavations in the last two years have revealed another site, not mentioned so far, that is also of regional or perhaps national significance. This additional site will be presented in this lecture for the first time.
About the Speaker.
TAS member Steve Sherlock has been a professional archaeologist for 36 years and has spent much of that time working in North East England. Much of his research has been focused on East Cleveland where he has undertaken a number of major excavations particularly on Iron Age and Anglo-Saxon sites. Commercially he has also excavated and published on later sites including medieval settlements at Castleton and Long Marston. He has been the archaeological clerk of works, working on the A1 road improvements in North Yorkshire, as well as other projects in the area. His work is published in regional journals and conference proceedings and in 2012 he published two Tees Archaeology monographs.
Street House Farm
The Street House Farm story is on display at Kirkleatham Museum. The display includes some of the rarest Anglo-Saxon finds ever discovered, shedding light on the extraordinary life of the Anglo-Saxon princess. The stunning collection found in Loftus, contains pendants and beads that have enabled a reconstructed Royal bed burial dating back to the 7th Century. Admission free and well worth a visit.
28th June |All that glitters: Metal detecting, The Treasure Act and the Portable Antiquities Scheme Revolution | Dr. Ben Roberts 7.30pm at Stockton Central Library TS18 1TU. Guests are welcome for £4 each on the door.
31st May | Community Archaeology: Getting Involved with Research | Dr Jon Kenny, Independent Community Archaeologist. 7.30pm at Stockton Central Library TS18 1TU. Guests are welcome for £4 each on the door.
are opportunities for volunteer led archaeology to make discoveries about the past. In this talk I would like to present results of two projects from the Vale of York, south of York at Cawood and North Duffield. In both instances local history and archaeology groups have obtained funding to carry out excavations, answering questions that they have about the past in their historic landscape. In both instances the work was supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund.
in Yorkshire based in and around York. He worked in local government housing until going to study archaeology at the University of York where he obtained a degree and a Masters in Archaeological Heritage Management. Jon completed his academic career by obtaining a doctorate at Lancaster University in 2001. Following time working as a project manager with the Archaeology Data Service at the University of York he became Community Archaeologist at York Archaeological Trust. At YAT Jon was involved with many community projects supporting local groups and involving people from all walks of life in different aspects of archaeology. Jon was also instrumental in ensuring that a volunteer team was involved with the multi million pound excavation at Hungate in central York. After 9 years with YAT Jon set up his own business, continuing to make archaeology accessible to all. In November 2015 Jon was awarded the prize as Community Archaeologist of the Year by the CBA and Marsh Christian Trust. It was Jon’s work with North Duffield and Cawood in particular that led to this award.April 19 |Nevern Castle in Pembrokeshire | Dr Chris Caple, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Archaeology at Durham University. 7.30pm at Stockton Central Library TS18 1TU. Guests are welcome for £4 each on the door.
Dr, Caple has a long term research interest in Welsh castles and between 1984 and 1995 he directed the archaeological excavations at Dryslwyn Castle in Dyfed. These Cadw funded excavations produced one of the most detailed excavations of a Welsh castle ever undertaken producing a wealth of environmental remains and evidence of the 1287 siege; they were published as a Society for Medieval Archaeology Monograph in 2007.
He subsequently started excavations at Nevern Castle in 2008, revealing a well preserved 12th century castle built of stone mortared with clay and unearthing a threshold containing hidden apotropaic symbols. These excavations will continue until 2018.
About the Speaker
Chris graduated from University of Wales, College of Cardiff 
in 1979 with a BSc in Archaeological Conservation. He carried out his doctoral research on the composition and manufacturing technology of medieval copper alloy pins at the University of Bradford and was awarded a PhD in 1986. Between 1984 and 1988 he was the artefacts conservator at the York Castle Museum. In 1988 he became lecturer in Archaeological Conservation and Archaeological Science at the Dept. of Archaeology, University of Durham, becoming a senior lecturer in 1996. He has He has been a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries (FSA) since 2002.
For further information, links and bibliography click here.
Teesside Archaeological Society 