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Planned Events

Lecture Programme

All meetings are in the Lowndes Room, Chesham Town Hall, Chesham on the third Friday of the month. They begin at 8.00 pm, and are open to both members and non-members. Members pay £1 and visitors £3.

The Society celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2013, and this lecture programme forms part of the build-up to that event. The talks themselves reflect the Society’s interests over the years, and a number of them will be given by past presidents.

October 19th 2012: Buckinghamshire Breweries, Julian Hunt

Brewing and breweries have played an important part in the life and work of many Buckinghamshire towns, and not least in that of Chesham! Julian Hunt has written about this in his Pictorial History of Chesham, and his recent research has much to add concerning this most vital of Chesham’s ‘B’s.

November 16th 2012: Mottes, Moats and Castles in Bucks, Michael Farley

A walk through almost any of the woods and open spaces in the Chilterns will reveal a variety of humps and bumps and ditches. They raise all sorts of questions. What were they? Why were they created? When were they created? Michael Farley, former County Archaeologist, will address these and other questions, and in the process shed much light on the history of our local landscapes.

January 18th 2013: Finds in the Chilterns since Latimer, Rosalind Tyrrell - POSTPONED TO MAY

The excavation of the Roman Villa at Latimer was the seminal event in the formation and early activity of the Society. Since then, other excavations, the activities of metal detectorists and chance discoveries have added greatly to our knowledge of the Romans, and others, in the Chilterns. Rosalind Tyrrell, the county’s Finds Liaison Officer, will describe some of the finds that have passed through her hands and the ways in which they have added to our understanding of the past of our area.

February 15th 2013: Lord Desborough of Taplow Court, Roger Bettridge

Lord Desborough was an important figure in government circles at the beginning of the twentieth century, but is perhaps best known as the organiser of the 1908 London Olympics. With far fewer resources at his disposal than Seb Coe has had, he staged a successful Games which provided ideas and inspiration for all those that followed. Roger Bettridge, the County Archivist, has drawn on material in the county archives for this timely and inspirational talk.

March 15th 2013: Special Members’ Evening – "Fifty Years On", Yvonne Edwards, Tim Yates and Garry Marshall

The talks at this special Members’ Evening will describe the activities of the Society and of its Archaeological and Historical Groups, over the past fifty years. They will cover the foundation and activities of the Society, and the contributions of some of its more distinguished members to its archaeological and historical work. There will also be displays to illustrate some of the excavations mounted by the Society and the ways that the historical work has led to a better understanding of the past of Chesham.

April 19th 2013: AGM and The President’s talk

The Annual General Meeting will be followed by a talk by our President, Tim Yates, on a subject to be revealed nearer to the time.

May 17th 2013: Recent finds in the Chess Valley, Rosalind Tyrrell

The title of this talk has changed, reflecting a closer focus on the Chess Valley than originally planned. Rosalind Tyrrell is Buckinghamshire’s Finds Liaison Officer, and so is well informed about the great many items that have been discovered in the Chess Valley in recent times. A significant number of them are Roman, but they also come from other periods, and she says they allow us to fill in gaps in our knowledge and to modify our views of what happened in and near the Chess Valley over the centuries.

Archaeology Field Group Programme 2013

Most of our activity during 2013 will be focused on the Whelpley Hill Iron Age site, where we have now been granted permission to conduct an extensive investigation. Digs are in March/April and in June, each lasting for two or three weeks and are open to all interested CVAHS members. Further details of this site can be found in the Latest News section.

Field Group members will be notified by email when exact dates are known. New members interested in joining in should tick the Field Group box when completing the application form to join the Society (see Membership ).

We welcome people with experience and also novices - training in survey, excavation and recording is given. For those who find digging difficult, there is work to do on post-excavation analysis and recording of finds.

Excavating a medieval ditch at Chesham Bois House

Medieval pottery fragments from the ditch and examples of complete pots