York Castle Museum

Community Archaeology

Welcome to Time Travellers

We co-ordinated an exciting new community archaeology partnership across Yorkshire called Time Travellers between 2007 and 2010.

During that period it involved Craven Museum and Gallery, North Yorkshire County Records Office, Scarborough Museums and Galleries, Wakefield Metropolitan District Council Cultural Services and York Museums Trust.

Trades and skills

York Museums Trust worked with modern experts, from hairdressers to butchers, to learn about how historic objects were made and used in the past.

Visitors to the Yorkshire Museum could watch films about our projects and see objects which had come under the scrutiny of our experts. Click here to find out more from the Yorkshire Museum's website.

Mapping the past

Primary school children investigated their heritage with North Yorkshire County Records Office, in partnership with Kevin Cale of Community Archaeology Ltd.

They examined their local landscape, local archaeological finds and records from the archives, such as maps and photos, to learn more about where they live.

One example during 2008/9 involved children from South Milford Primary School visiting the Wars of the Roses battlefield at Towton, scene of one of the bloodiest battles of English history.

The photograph above shows children from Masham CE Primary School examining a human skeleton from York. Picture courtesy of North Yorkshire County Council.

Medieval Castleford

Castleford residents examined their town's Medieval past, in a project run by Wakefield Metropolitan District Council Cultural Services.

During Roman times, the town was a major fort and river crossing on the Lincoln to York road, but little is known about the medieval period. Residents took part in Roman workshops during the first year of the project, which tied in with Wakfield Museum's Romans exhibition. The next year took part in more workshops, examining medieval artefacts and trying real techniques in medieval painting, writing, textiles, medicinal remedies and food.

Romans and landscape

Craven Museum and Gallery worked with schools and youth groups looking at how the Romans who settled in the area adapted to their landscape. Quite different objects were discovered by archaeologists in the remains of a Roman villa in Gargrave - domestic items - to those found in Victoria Cave, near Settle - Roman brooches. The project's aim was to discover what these objects say about how the Romans were living.

Practical prehistory

During the first year of Time Travellers, 2007/8, Scarborough residents concentrated on their nationally-important prehistoric collections.

Through practical activities like building, cooking or making tools and jewellery, they examined how people lived in the distant past. These workshops led up to a big celebration at the Prehistory Fair, held at the Spa complex and on Scarborough beach.

University of Bradford

The department of Archaeological Sciences at Bradford University was also enormously helpful in working on all our projects and became our unofficial sixth partner. The department concentrates on the practical skills of archaeology, and their staff and students were extremely helpful in with our hands-on workshops.

Renaissance Yorkshire

All these projects were funded by Renaissance Yorkshire, a partnership of museums, libraries and archives services in Yorkshire.