Archaeology Section

Lectures and Visits in 2026

Free visit to Buckler’s Hard excavations, New Forest - Monday 3rd August

Slipways and the shipbuilding docks are being investigated using maritime archaeological techniques. Tour commences at 11am, please allow plenty of time to park. Buckler’s Hard is a great day out so after the tour walking, food and a visit to their museum (not included in the tour) are much recommended.

Book via TicketSource.

Free visit to PCA excavations, Wickham, Hampshire - Tuesday 25th August

Tour commences at 6pm. Another open-area site in advance of development. Adjacent excavations promise substantial multi-period features & evidence.

Book via TicketSource.

Free visit to WARG excavations, at Hinton Ampner, Hampshire - Tuesday 29th September

Tour commences at 6pm. Further work on exciting Bronze Age barrows and the enigmatic environment of the time.

Book via TicketSource.

Archaeology Section Annual Conference: - Saturday 17th October

“In the Time of the Tapestry: Aspects of England at the Time of the Conquest”

This year's Conference promises to take a sideways look at England prior to the Norman Invasion. Note the conference will be held in a new venue - The Winchester Hotel & Spa, Worthy Lane, Winchester, SO23 7AB.

David Johnston Memorial Lecture - Wednesday 26th April

"Fraught with high tragedy: new insights on the Maiden Castle Iron Age ‘War Cemetery’'

Hampshire Record Office Cinema, Winchester, SO23 8TH

Dr. Martin Smith (Bournemouth University) will deliver the annual David Johnston Memorial Lecture.

Aims

The Archaeology Section aims to entertain and inform those who are concerned for the past and its material remains.

We organise an annual conference and a programme of lectures which keep members abreast of developments in archaeology, both within the county and beyond. Field trips are arranged to view current excavations and exhibitions and to visit some of the notable sites and monuments in Hampshire and adjoining counties.

Some of the work undertaken in the county is published in the Field Club's own Proceedings (Hampshire Studies) and Newsletter. If you have any contributions for the Archaeology Section of the Newsletter, please email them to archaeology-newsletter@hantsfieldclub.org.uk.

Current programme - a full listing of all events organised by the different sections of the Hampshire Field Club and Archaeological Society.

Some Archaeology Section's previous events include:

• Past conferences on themes such as:
  • ‘Death & Burial’
  • ‘Monastic Houses’
  • 'Peopling the Past'
  • ‘Conflict and Defence’
• Past conferences on specific time periods:
  • ‘Early Anglo-Saxons – buckets and bodies’
  • ‘Neolithic New and Bronze Age Breakthroughs’
  • ‘Romans – AD410’
  • ‘Trade and Living in the Late Iron Age’ 

Through the year we run a series of lectures including the annual Roman-themed ‘David Johnston Memorial Lecture’ and archaeological topics from top academics such as Sir Barry Cunliffe and Professor Mike Fulford, with leading archaeologists from the commercial world of development-funded research, which is doing so much to expose the past beneath our feet.

The Section prides itself on providing (normally in summer) visits to extant archaeological excavations, and pays regular return visits to ongoing work to assess progress. Some of the key sites visited of recent years include: Silchester; Meonstoke; Basing House; Winterbourne Kingston (Duropolis) and the Leper Hospital on Magdalen Hill above Winchester.

Visiting the Roman Bath House Excavations at Silchester

A visit to the excavations at the Magdalen Hill Leper Hospital

Committee Members