inHeritage helped the Hunter Archaeological Society celebrate its centenary with a range of community archaeology, history and interpretation events.
The Society has a rich history of researching and conserving the archaeology and historic buildings of South Yorkshire and North Derbyshire. Over the Society’s 100 years they have taken part in notable projects, including the 1930s watching brief on Sheffield Castle, and the 1970s excavations of Swine Sty prehistoric settlement in the Peak District.
During 2012 and 2013, inHeritage helped the Society secure a Heritage Lottery Fund Your Heritage grant, then project managed a range of activities in partnership with a steering group of Society members. The activities were designed to celebrate the Society and the importance of community archaeology. We arranged training in the use of Sheffield Archives and Local Studies Library, led workshops on interpretive writing, exhibition production and website management, and assisted members write and edit self-guided trails, a booklet of ‘life stories’ of notable Society members, recorded and edited audio trails, created a panel interpreting the life and work of Joseph Hunter, Sheffield’s First Historian and inspiration for the Society, installed in Sheffield Local Studies Library, and produced a travelling exhibition about the history of the Society. We also co-produced a major exhibition of the Society’s work and archaeology in Sheffield with the Society and University of Sheffield. As part of the exhibition we recorded and edited community archaeologists past and present, including pupils digging test pits, about how archaeology inspires them.
We led a region-wide primary schools programme about archaeology. Pupils discovered how archaeologists find out about the past, dug test pits, handled artefacts and interpreted the wider social context of their finds. We managed finds analysis and wrote the archaeological report. Pupils fed ideas into an inHeritage-produced comic about being archaeologists and their test pit results.
Bill photographed the Centenary weekend events held in the Sheffield Cutler’s Hall, Town Hall and Hallam University.
Started: January 2011. Completed: September 2012.
Client: Hunter Archaeological Society.
Society Secretary: Ruth Morgan.