WESMART

WESMART is a Community Archaeology Group. We formed in the spring of 2008 and have been meeting every other week ever since. We have about ten faithful members who turn up in all weathers to research the archaeology of Weston-super-Mare. We are being supported by Weston-super-Mare Archaeological and Natural History Society.

Our first project was at Uphill at the end of the hill overlooking the village. Here there is an enclosure of unknown age and purpose which Vince Russett, our County Archaeologist, suggested should be recorded. This is a square/rectangular enclosure with a circular feature in each corner. We made a tape and offset earthwork survey over a number of weeks which was recorded on a plan on a scale of 1 – 100 .
We then made a Resistivity survey which showed similar results, however we only completed 3 squares of geophysics as on our 4th attempt a cow ate through the wire and stopped work !
We are unsure of the purpose or age of this enclosure. It could be an animal pen or possibly a fortification connected to the Civil War, with possible re-use in WW2.

We then moved on to Worle Hill where there is an Iron Age Hillfort in Worlebury Woods. We have been researching the remains of Celtic field boundaries which are still visible in many places on Worle Hill. We did an earthwork survey on the banks to the east of the water tower in order to record them onto a plan and make a report. We then moved to the area by Worlebury Golf Course. We used some notes taken from the Reverend Skinner’s journal. He visited Worle Hill and the hillfort several times between 1818 and 1835. In his journal he described the enclosures that he could see reaching all the way along the top of the hill. We walked the footpaths at the eastern end of the hill and located many of the banks and boundaries that Rev. Skinner had seen.

We are very grateful to the society for buying us tapes to use in our surveys. This work is ongoing and we welcome anyone who would like to join us, we meet on Wednesday mornings at 10am. Please contact me on 01934 631449 or Vivien Pratt on 01934 620785 if you would like to join us.

Heather Morrisey (Archaeological secretary)

Surveying at Uphill 2008

Surveying at Uphill 2008

Surveying in Weston Woods July 2009

Section of Celtic field boundary July 2009

Surveying in Worlebury Woods July 2009

Surveying in Worlebury Woods