News
Welcome to ASC’s news page! This new feature of our website will carry regular updates on ASC’s projects, and on company and staff news.
FEBRUARY 2012: NEW FINDS/ENVIRONMENTAL PROCESSING FACILITY
Late last year, ASC took over occupancy of an adjoining unit at Letchworth House. This is now up and running, providing equipment storage, a new archive store, and a purpose-built facility for processing finds and environmental samples, a great improvement on our previous facilities. As a result of this acquisition we have also been able to increase our office space, to accommodate our gradually increasing work force.
FEBRUARY 2012: ASC AT BIRMINGHAM AIRPORT
ASC has just completed evaluation of a 16-hectare site near Solihull, to inform proposals for an extension to the runway of Birmingham International Airport. The first stage of works, in November last year, comprised a detailed magnetometer survey, led by ASC’s in-house geophysicist, Alastair Hancock. The survey determined that the archaeological potential of the site was low to moderate. Subsequent excavation of a pattern of 70 trenches across the area largely confirmed the survey findings. However the evaluation did reveal a possible prehistoric burnt mound on the north side of the site.
MAY 2011: ANNUAL REVIEW
ASC’s latest annual review, covering the company’s activities in 2009 and 2010, was published at Easter. A wide range of projects is highlighted, including excavations on the Roman settlement at Ware, Herts; a landscape survey of Dunwich Heath, Suffolk, building recording of the former Ashford Hospital, Kent, excavations in Berkhamsted, Herts, and many others. A copy of this and earlier reviews can be downloaded from this website.
MAY 2011: INVESTIGATIONS AT MARRIOTT LONSDALE SCHOOL, STEVENAGE
Geophysical survey followed by trial trenching on the site of new buildings for Marriott Lonsdale School, Stevenage, have revealed an Iron Age landscape comprising a droveway and field boundaries, and a large chalk pit, possibly of Roman date. Excavation of this significant site, in an area where few archaeological remains have been previously recorded, is currently underway.
MAY 2011: ASC MANAGER TO WORK FOR FESTINIOG RAILWAY
Bob Zeepvat, ASC Manager, was recently appointed Historic Buildings Advisor to the Festiniog Railway, Gwynedd. The railway owns eleven historic listed buildings, including its workshops at Boston Lodge, and is currently formulating a strategy for their future use and maintenance. Bob has long been an FR supporter, and this appointment gives him the opportunity to use his professional skills in support of the railway, and to combine business and pleasure!
MAY 2011: ASC STAFF MEMBER ON SUDAN EXPEDITION
Our resident osteologist, Carina Summerfield-Hill, took time off earlier this year to spend two months on a British Museum dig in the Sudan. The site, Amara West, is an ancient town in northern Sudan, the adminstrative capital of Upper Nubia, known as Kush, which was occupied by pharaonic Egypt between 1500 and 1070 BC. The excavation has revealed well-preserved mud brick houses in the town, which stood on an island in the Nile.
