Programme of talks
The Hunter Archaeological Society arranges a programme of talks from September up to April each year, in Room 5 at the Showroom Workstation on Paternoster Row, Sheffield S1 2BX, starting at 7.30pm. Everyone is welcome and there is no charge, but a donation is always appreciated. The talks are an opportunity to catch up and share news about local events, and there are journals and books available to borrow. We also share out and collect the site monitoring forms at the meetings. Many of the talks are recorded and after editing will be available here on the website or on YouTube.
Many of us catch up for refreshments before the talks in the Showroom cafe/bar where we have a table booked, and anyone is welcome to join us.
The talks may be about recent excavations or research topics. Many are about the South Yorkshire region but we also invite speakers to give presentations about other parts of the country and even overseas if we think they will be of interest. Do let us know if there is a speaker or topic you would like to hear.
The talks are always on a Tuesday and roughly 3 weeks apart, but due to various issues fitting 5 talks into the 4 month periods, sometimes they end up being 2 or 4 weeks apart.
Our Annual General Meeting is always held in March, at 7pm before the talk – in 2027 this will be on Tuesday 16 March.
Hunter Archaeological Society talk – Mrs Ella Armitage in Sheffield? How local castles shaped the understanding of Norman castles in England
- David Mercer
- Room 5, Showroom Cinema, 15 Paternoster Row, Sheffield S1 2BX
- Tuesday 15 September at 7.30pm
Mrs Armitage (1841-1931) was a pioneer archaeologist and historian in the field of castle studies. Her book ‘The Early Norman Castles of the British Isles’ (1912) is credited with establishing the principle that the motte-and-bailey castle was an early Norman innovation, overturning the idea that they were of Anglo-Saxon date. With over a century of research into castles following this seminal thesis, it is time to reassess Armitage’s legacy and show how local castles were fundamental in establishing her thesis on the earliest castles in England.
Hunter Archaeological Society talk – The River Don-Restoring an Industrial River
- Rachel Walker
- Room 5, Showroom Cinema, 15 Paternoster Row, Sheffield S1 2BX
- Tuesday 6 October at 7.30pm
Don Catchment Rivers Trust is a charity protecting and restoring the rivers of the Don Catchment. In a river system so modified by engineers and industry, yet on the way to ecological recovery, the work of the Trust is always varied. Rachel Walker will talk about the role of the Trust, weaving in some of her archaeological transferable skills along the way!
Hunter Archaeological Society talk – Weir – the Poor Relation
- Tony Ball
- Room 5, Showroom Cinema, 15 Paternoster Row, Sheffield S1 2BX
- Tuesday 27 October at 7.30pm
The water-powered mills and grinding wheels of Sheffield produced iron and steel goods of all sorts that were world-renowned for centuries. The water system of each site relied on a weir but the weir is often unheralded or completely ignored. This is an attempt to fill the gap: when were they made, how were they made, who made them?
Hunter Archaeological Society talk – A Yorkshire Style later Roman Fort on Alderney
- Jason Monaghan
- Room 5, Showroom Cinema, 15 Paternoster Row, Sheffield S1 2BX
- Tuesday 17 November at 7.30pm
Excavations on the Channel Island of Alderney spanning a decade have investigated the well-preserved Late Roman fort known as the Nunnery. It has a similar plan to the so-called ‘signal stations’ of the north Yorkshire coast and the new evidence from Alderney enables this whole class of forts to be reconsidered. Dr Jason Monaghan is formerly the Head of Heritage for Guernsey and was previously the Roman pottery specialist for the York Archaeological Trust. His talk illustrates the key features revealed by the excavations and survey of the extant parts of the fort which in places survives to the level of the Roman parapet. The role of the fort as a patrol base in the increasingly insecure Late Roman period is also discussed.
Hunter Archaeological Society talk – Heart of the City
- Ashley Tuck of Wessex Archaeology
- Room 5, Showroom Cinema, 15 Paternoster Row, Sheffield S1 2BX
- Tuesday 8 December at 7.30pm
Ashley offers a miscellany of historical narratives from the heart of Sheffield relating to the results of eight years of excavation and historic building recording, relating to atypical small crucible furnaces, early Methodism, the development of Pinson Croft and Coal Pit Lane and the realignment of Pinstone Street.
Some of our previous talks:
