Bringing the Past to Life: National Trust's Festival of Archaeology Celebrates History and Heritage

Strategic Insights -

As the National Trust prepares to take part in the annual Festival of Archaeology, sites around the country are finding exciting new ways to evoke the past with reenactments, displays, and bygone ways of life. The festival, which runs from July 19 to August 3, features over 60 Trust properties participating with excavations, displays, walks, talks, and storytelling, providing a unique opportunity for visitors to experience history firsthand. From Roman villas to medieval castles, and from ancient burial cairns to 20th-century military activity, the festival showcases a wide range of historical periods and sites.

Key Takeaways:

  • The Festival of Archaeology features over 60 National Trust properties participating with excavations, displays, walks, talks, and storytelling.
  • Lyveden in Northamptonshire will host a living history celebration featuring Lord Robartes Regiment of Foote, a prominent Parliamentarian regiment during the English Civil War.
  • Chedworth Roman Villa in Gloucestershire will display 1,800-year-old Roman treasures, including pottery, jewelry, tiles, and bones.
  • Divis and the Black Mountain in County Antrim, Northern Ireland will host events including history and folklore of the hills, archaeology, and ancient crafts.
  • Corfe Castle in Dorset will feature a live excavation and demonstrations of ancient crafts, including stonemasonry, blacksmithing, and trowel making.
  • Bodiam Castle in East Sussex will bring to life the Wars of the Roses with a group of French garrison soldiers, wearing the red and white livery of St Michael.
  • Sutton Hoo in Suffolk will showcase textile volunteers bringing the craft skills of the Anglo-Saxons to life, including dyeing using roots, leaves, and other plant parts.
  • Castle Ward in County Down will feature knowledgeable heritage craftspeople, from blacksmiths and weavers to weaponsmiths.
  • Dolaucothi in Carmarthenshire will bring the Romans back with demonstrations of ancient surveying and measuring equipment used to lay out roads and forts, medical practices, and surgical procedures.

Statistics:

  • Over 60 National Trust properties are participating in the Festival of Archaeology.
  • 1,800-year-old Roman treasures have been recovered at Chedworth Roman Villa.
  • The 1939 discovery of a buried ship at Sutton Hoo revolutionised our understanding of Anglo-Saxon history.
  • 5,000 years of human interaction have left evidence at Divis and the Black Mountain in County Antrim, Northern Ireland.
  • The time period of the past being brought to life in the Festival of Archaeology spans from the Roman era to the 20th century.

Sources:

  • The National Trust (nationaltrust.org.uk)
  • The Council for British Archaeology (cba.org.uk)
  • The Sealed Knot (sealedknot.org)
  • The Eighth Legion Society (legio8.co.uk)
  • The Suffolk Archaeological Trust (suffolkarchaeology.org.uk)