Burrough Hill 2014

After five years, this summer saw the final season of excavations at Burrough Hill. John Thomas reports: this year, the Project aimed to tie up a few niggling questions that have developed over the years and have another look at the external settlement, previously looked at in 2011. Trench 10 was located in the centre…

‘Bloody will be thine end’ – Perimortem trauma in King Richard III

Today the fifth peer-reviewed paper on Richard III is published in The Lancet, providing a blow-by-blow account of the injuries inflicted on King Richard III’s body at the Battle of Bosworth Field on August 22, 1485. The remains of King Richard III—the last English monarch to die in battle—were found under a car park in…

Hallaton’s Lost Chapel

ULAS archaeologists have been working with local volunteers to uncover the lost chapel of St Morrell overlooking the small village of Hallaton in east Leicestershire. The Fourth year of excavations with the Hallaton Fieldwork Group (HFWG) has revealed the full plan of the chapel as well as the cemetery and evidence that the hillside has…

Evidence of Ice Age hunters found in Bradgate Park, Leicestershire

In February, Bradgate Park Trust commissioned ULAS to investigate remains found at the Little Matlock Gorge site – a project that, by its conclusion two weeks later has revealed that Ice Age hunters targeted Bradgate Park as an ideal hunting ground. The gradual erosion of a footpath at the eastern end of the site in…

Iron Age activity found near Broughton Astley

Roger Kipling has recently completed a 71 trench evaluation of two areas to the east and west of Broughton Way at Broughton Astley, Leicestershire. As anticipated by a previously undertaken geophysical survey, a small ditched enclosure of Iron Age date was located in the central eastern area. Its fourth (eastern) side was absent, likely due…

Investigating lime production at Barrow Upon Soar

Grizzled veterans Leon Hunt and Jon coward (assisted by young upstart James Harvey) decamped to Barrow Upon Soar, Leicestershire for a few weeks to evaluate a large field (‘The Breaches’) where a recent geophysical survey had located a few dozen kilns or dumped material associated with kilns, along with many pits and other anomalies including…

Romano-British occupation found at King Edward VII School, Melton Mowbray

Fresh from Greyfriars II and making a point of only undertaking digs with a monarch in the title, Leon Hunt and Mathew Morris found themselves in the playing fields adjacent to the now disused King Edward VII School (where Monty Python’s Graham Chapman went, no less) for a 20 trench evaluation. A geophysical survey had…

Burrough Hill 2013

Earlier this summer, John Thomas and Andrew Hyam got the 2013 season of fieldwork at Burrough Hill Iron Age Hillfort underway with a survey of areas of erosion around the earthworks; before Natural England and other interested parties attempted to restore them. Following on from that, preparation began to machine two new areas of study…

Christian burial found in Roman cemetery at Oxford Street, Leicester?

First published 13/09/2013, Updated 03/01/2024 In 2013, ULAS carried out an excavation of part of a Roman cemetery between Oxford Street and Newarke Street in Leicester. Excavation director John Thomas reports: The site lay in the town’s south suburb, adjacent to one of the main routes into Roman Leicester, about 130m outside the town’s south…