The 1997 Spring indoor meeting was held at the Society of Antiquaries and focused on Peterborough Ware and Neolithic Impressed Wares. About 50 members attended what proved to be a very topical day, with reviews of the incidence of these wares for all areas of the British Isles. Alex Gibson is to be thanked for his hard work in organizing and introducing the day.
In May 1997 the Spring field-trip was to Sussex. Organized by Peter Topping and colleagues from the RCHME, this meeting provided an opportunity to see the first fruits of the survey programme that RCHME are carrying out for Neolithic mines, quarries and enclosure sites. The handbook for the meeting included a number of plans taken from the new survey. About 25 members attended and saw a rich array of sites over a period of two days. There was also an opportunity to see the displays in the Chichester Museum, and the Sussex Archaeological Society kindly laid on a wine reception for the Group.
Autumn 1997 saw what will be the last meeting of the Group for some time in the lecture theatre of the British Museum (see below). The focus was on Cursus monuments, clearly a popular theme since there was a record attendance of more than 120 members. The day was organized by Alistair Barclay and Jan Harding who somehow not only manged to sqeeze in ten papers, but still made room for the now customary short reports on very recent discoveries.
The Group remains solvent with a fairly consistent pattern of income and expenditure in recent years. Some members will, however, have already noticed that from Spring 1997 we have had to raise the level of the meetings fees from £2.00 to £5.00. We are very sorry to have to do this, but it was inevitable. In recent years the British Museum have been very generous in allowing us to use its lecture theatre at special concessionary rates (sometimes for free!). For this the group will eternally be grateful, and we would like to take this opportunity of thanking Ian Longworth, Gill Varndell, and Ian Kinnes in particular for making these arrangements. However, with refurbishments and new developments taking place at the BM, the lecture theatre is out of action for some time and the Autumn 1997 meeting was the last that will be held there for a while at least. Instead, the London meetings will be held at the Society of Antiquaries in Piccadilly. This move means that for the foreseeable future we will have to pay more for our meeting spaces and refreshments, even though the Society of Antiquaries is being very kind and helpful to us. We hope that you will bear with us as the new pattern settles down. As always, our aim is to avoid introducing a subscription of any sort.
Spring London Meeting, Monday 16th March 1998 in the Society of Antiquaries. The topic is "Neolithic Landscape, Environment, Economy and Society", focusing on plants in the Neolithic. The organizer is Andy Fairbairn at UCL. Details have already been circulated, and can also be found on the WWW site.
Spring Field Meeting, 9-10th May 1998 based at the RCHME Offices in Cambridge with a visit to Grimes Graves, Norfolk. The organizers are Dave Field (RCHME) and Gill Varndell (BM). Information accompanies this Newsletter and is also available on the WWW site.
Autumn London Meeting, Friday ** November 1988 in the Society of Antiquaries. The topic is Neolithic enclosures in northern and western Britain. The organizers are Julian Thomas (Southampton) and Tim Darvill (Bournemouth). Contributions for this meeting are now invited; details will be circulated in the later summer.
We look forward to seeing you at one or more of the 1998 meetings.
Tim Darvill, School of Conservation Sciences,
Bournemouth University,Poole, Dorset. BH12 5BB.
Telephone (01202) 595536. Fax (01202) 595478.
e-mail tdarvill@bournemouth.ac.uk
Gordon Barclay, Historic Scotland,
Longmore House, Salisbury Place,Edinburgh. EH6 4SQ.
Telephone 0131 668 8758. Fax 0131 668 8765.
e-mail gjbarclay@ednet.co.uk