Sedgeford - Unique Archaeological Project in Need!

Aim

Fundraising to support the excavation of a nationally important Anglo-Saxon site, and a unique democratic archaeological project.

The Cause

The Sedgeford Historical and Archaeological Research Project or SHARP for short combines too things the lots of people enjoy, 1) archaeology and 2) beer! But we need a bit of help, the cost of living crisis has had a huge impact on SHARP and this coming season. We have seen increased food costs, higher hire fees and delivery charges, and there have been slightly lower bookings as everyone is suffering due to the cost of living crisis, we raised our prices at the start of the year to compensate for rises but we are still short of where would like to be.

The archaeology at SHARP has always been amazing and over the last 27 years we have investigated and excavated prehistoric burials, an Iron Age gold hoard, a suspected Roman murder in a grain drying kiln, medieval chapels and landscapes all the way up to a WW1 Aerodrome all within the parish of Sedgeford. Our primary focus and most famous work has been on the Anglo-Saxon period with extensive excavations of the Christian cemetery and the associated settlement. Now we find ourselves excavating the most important and unique of all our sites, an Anglo-Saxon malting complex, we have at least 5 kilns within buildings relating to industrial (for the period) scale production of malt. The large quantities of malt produces were likely intended for the great feasting halls that we read about in works like Beowulf. The site is unique in the UK and Europe too, this makes SHARP particularly proud to be at the cutting edge of this research.

SHARP is unique in archaeology because it is not linked to a university or unit. It was founded as an independent excavation, by Dr Neil Faulkner, as an experiment in democratic archaeology. It is unique in that the volunteers that dig with us have a say in the archaeology and project, and they form a community. Its funding comes largely from the volunteers that dig with us and also through donations. This year we are running courses in basic archaeology and ancient crafts techniques during the season, as well as taster days ‘dig for the day’ and ‘archaeometallurgy’ and offsite we are running a course in human skeletal remains.  During our season 1st July – 11th August (Sunday-Friday) we are open for visits from the pubic, and we also run many outreach events with schools and groups, as well as holding an archaeological festival on the 23rd of July.

 Why am I Fundraising for SHARP?

SHARP has been a huge part of my life on and off since the year 2000. I first attended as a fresh 16 year old, I will never forget what I was taught by Neil, Anj, Naomi, Sophie and the other supervisors during my time. I returned for a couple of years after that. As often happens, life eventually dragged me away, but in 2009 I was pulled back in when I was looking for material for my PhD. In subsequent seasons I visited for a day, a couple of days, a week, a few weeks and by 2015 I was hooked again and stayed for the whole season as a supervisor. In 2018 I became the deputy director of the malting trench working alongside Dr Neil Faulkner. When Neil became unwell, he passed on his role as director of excavations to me, this is a huge responsibility not only to protect the archaeology and continue with our publications but also to support the legacy that is SHARP.

I am not alone in my feelings towards SHARP, as an organisation it has helped so many people over the years, and its because of that and how important SHARP is to me personally that I wanted to do some fundraising given how times are tough.

The Challenge

So, most fundraising tends to come with a challenge. But I am not really cut out for running 10Ks or a marathon. However, those that know me on facebook I have been doing a weekly blog since the Covid lockdowns. So rather than a physical marathon, I will be doing a marathon of blogs. I will take on the challenge of posting once a day as the site director, throughout the season, with photos, about the latest discoveries on the site. These will be initially accessible via the SHARP facebook page (and a link provided when its set up). I will investigate other methods for distribution too, as the blogs can probably be added to the website or other social media systems too.

Fundraising in tough times!

I do realise it’s hard for everyone at the moment, so I will really appreciate any and all donations that are given. All funds raised will go to SHARP to help us towards the costs this season and anything left over afterwards will be split between future sustainability plans for SHARP, our John Hensby bursary fund and the post-ex/publication funds.

Every little given will really help! Thank you. 

Eleanor Blakelock

More details of the Rewards

The rewards for this fundraiser will all be provided by at cost by myself, and will therefore not cost SHARP a penny, meaning all the money raised (minus the fees of the crowdfunding system) will go directly to SHARP. The prize draw winner will be able to choose from my complete collection of badges and bookmarks, a few examples can be seen below. The tapestry of names will have a medieval theme and be positioned inside the information centre. If i get more than 12 people donating more that £75 I will hand embroider the design, otherwise I will design and embroider it using my machine.

This project successfully funded on 19th June 2023