Bilton-in-Ainsty with Bickerton LHG

We had a very successful August with four events, all well supported. We greatly benefited by the involvement of YAT and two lectures given by Dr Chris Tuckley. Our escorted walk to Synningthwaite Priory gave a fascinating insight into the life of the nuns and the religious hierarchy at the time. We had a children's church trail which was designed by Chris and comments from the kids included:  'yours is better than the Minster, theirs is long and boring!' Praise indeed from a four year old, a budding archaeologist of the future. Thanks to all who supported us this year. Special thanks to Roger Weatherill and Mo Woolley (Bilbrough/Long Marston) who continue to fuel my enthusiasm. Looking forward to next year.

Contact: Susie Pilling  email:  antrose17@gmail.com

Derwent Archaeological Group

The Derwent Archaeology Group has now organised three talks in Dunnington with the aims of learning more about matters of archaeological interest and becoming more conspicuous in the village.  The most recent was an excellent presentation by Ian Milstead of YAT on his excavations inside York Minster.  We  conducted some field walks during the summer in an area of potential interest, but sadly found nothing of any note.  We hope to investigate further when the arable fields are next available.

Contact: Robin Chivers at chiversfamily@waitrose.com

Dringhouses Local History Group

We continue to offer a programme of talks and excursions and in July we organised our first coach outing, to Brodsworth Hall and church, which has strong connections with Dringhouses. We are about to invite readers of the York Press to send us their memories of Dringhouses shops, and we are preparing a booklet for our members of our Treasures of Dringhouses project. For this, members were invited to nominate local “treasures” – buildings, people, greenspace, etc., and this resulted in an amazing variety of nominations, including a sculpture of a bear, some chickens in a neighbour’s garden and a Coastliner bus, as well as the former farm buildings, trees, etc. We continue to send out a quarterly newsletter (now usually including photos, in colour!) to our members. Recently we have produced a fourth leaflet for free distribution to the public; this one is entitled “Dringhouses Without” and describes the area to the south of the old village as far as the cemetery. It is available upstairs at York Explore and at Dringhouses library and post office.

Contact Elizabeth Smith on 01904 703970, or 708770.  Our website is http://dlhg.weebly.com

Holgate Windmill Preservation Society

A year of consolidation of skills; knowledge; systems and finance.

 Our milling team are handling the mill well and making improvements to the machinery with our professional miller on his weekly visits.  Systems for recording receipt of grain and flour production and the processes of bagging and selling flour have all been approved and passed a Level 5 Food Hygiene Rating with the Health & Safety Executive.

Limitations of wind power were appreciated in July when we were unable to mill without using the electrically driven stone and our profit margin was cut.

One of our group qualified on a Commercial Milling Course run by the National Association of British & Irish Millers and has passed on her knowledge.

We have assessed our ability to run on income produced by membership, merchandise and flour sales.  The Mill is open for flour every Saturday from 10am to midday.

Contact: Jen Hay on 01904 792638; website: www.holgatewindmill.org

Poppleton History Society.  

Our monthly meetings and talks have resumed again and the schedule of talks can be found on our website: www.poppleton.net (then select History Society). The talks start at 7.30pm and are held in the Poppleton Community Centre - all are welcome.

We are members of the OASIS project (University of York) which records the more localised reports on investigations of archaeological sites.

For further details, contact 01904 338610

North Duffield Conservation and Local History Society 

The Archaeology Section has had a really busy year so far. We have been continuing to build our Iron Age reconstructed roundhouse. On 31st May 2013, we had a topping-out ceremony with the inevitable drinks, followed by the first fire in the hearth. In June, we started to apply the daub using clay, cow manure, water and straw. The school children had an afternoon with us and went home covered in mud!

We held a Celtic Festival over the weekend of 8th /9th June 2013 when re-enactment group Comitatus, dressed as Celtic Warrior and Roman soldiers, held battle on the village green. They lived in tents on the green and we had a sing-song and picnic round the campfire with a folk group on Saturday evening. There were demonstrations of bread-making, weaving, spinning, pole-lathing, pottery, games for the children and trips by tractor and trailer to visit the roundhouse. Six hundred people visited the roundhouse and at least 1,000 attended the Festival. A really successful event with lots of nice comments from visitors who came from far and wide.

Our next event was a week-long archaeological dig revisiting the site of an Iron Age roundhouse hut-circle we partially excavated in 2012, for the purpose of trying to understand what the feature might be. We were astonished to uncover a ring-ditch, over 20m in diameter, and a series of massive post-holes. We recovered more Iron Age pottery and some possible iron items as well as possible evidence of iron smelting on site. Watch this space for further developments. During the course of the dig we hosted the winners of the Young Archaeologists Club Competition and their mothers to experience life at a real dig. In addition we entertained members of the Monday Club’s self-styled Tuesday Time Team of budding archaeologists. All these adults have learning disabilities and we have been supporting Jon Kenny in a programme of introducing them to archaeology. Finally, by special request, we invited a young lad with terminal cancer and his uncle from Bradford to a specially arranged extension the week after the end of the dig to allow him to realise one of the wishes from his bucket-list.

We are now busily trying to get expert advice as to what we have unearthed - ring-ditch roundhouse, henge or ceremonial site. There is a doorway with two huge post-holes to the west, rather than to the east or south-east where we expected it to be. Looks like it will be three years continuously for this dig as we now have more questions than answers!

See our web site for pictures www.ndchs.org.uk

Our website is www.ndchs.org.uk 

Tang Hall Local History Group

Our group is running very well with many new members: to date we have 60-plus participants on our register.  This year we have had varied and interesting speakers. In October we are holding our annual display of which the subject will be ' Shops and Shopping in York Throughout Time’.  

We are presently trying to get funding for a new publication on Tang Hall and are collecting photographs of the estate as it sprang up in the 1920s and 30s and also looking for photographs of the families who moved in.  

With an increase in interest in local and family history the group continues to flourish.

Contact: Jane Burrows at  tanghallhistory@gmail.com

MEETINGS SCHEDULE

Timeline York Plus holds twice-yearly meetings, hosted each time by one of the member groups.

The next meeting is scheduled for 2.00pm on Saturday 15 March 2014 and will be hosted by the Dringhouses Local History Group. More details will be circulated to groups nearer the date.