At 7.30 pm Monday 25^th January HIAG present an online talk on “A Roman Villa in Fane Road Peterborough – a community archaeology excavation”, with David Crawford-White, archaeologist.

To join the talk please email hisimp.archaeology.group@gmail.com who will send you a link 2 days in advance. There is no charge for this event.

David Crawford-White is a HIAG committee member. He was previously the Outreach and Learning Officer for Oxford Archaeology East, based at Bar Hill, a registered charity with a heritage and education focus that is mainly involved in pre-development excavations.

Part of David’s work was to support local communities and schools in learning more about their heritage and was involved in a range of Lottery supported projects based at Linton Village College, Abbey College, Ramsey and Wisbech. He also wrote part of the very successful Jigsaw Community project which was a five-year Heritage Lottery Funded project (2011-2016) by Oxford Archaeology East and Cambridgeshire County Council to assist local history and archaeological societies in historical research, excavation, artefact identification, recording, and much more. 

As part of his work, David wrote and managed a successful £88k Heritage Lottery bid that included a community excavation of part of a Roman Villa in Peterborough. The Romans established the fortified town of Durobrivae in the first century AD, situated on Ermine Street, and produced a type of pottery known as Nene Valley colour-coated ware which has been found as far north as Hadrian’s Wall as well as in Histon and Impington!

David will take us on a community archaeological journey from an idea to the realisation of a successful excavation that involved 129 local volunteers over a 20-day period. Perhaps a template for something similar in Histon & Impington in more normal times?!