Thursday 2nd October 2025
‘Discovering Avebury – landscape and people‘
Dr Nick Snashall, National Trust Archaeologist
Avebury, its ancient stones and burial mounds have been the subject of speculation and exploration for centuries. In this talk Dr Nick Snashall will reveal the story of a landscape that is still giving up its secrets almost four hundred years after the antiquary John Aubrey first encountered it.
Nick Snashall is the National Trust archaeologist for the Stonehenge & Avebury World Heritage Site. She has excavated on prehistoric, Roman and Medieval sites across Britain and Europe. An expert in the Neolithic and Bronze Age her research interests include prehistoric stone tools, landscape inhabitation and the archaeology of ritual and religion. Nick has co-directored a number of major fieldwork projects in the WHS, and is passionate about sharing the stories of these precious landscapes.
Thursday 27th November 2025
‘The chalkland landscape of Stonehenge, Avebury, Dorchester and Cranborne Chase – tearing up the text books and starting again?‘
Dr Mike Allen, Environmental Archaeologist
Environmental archaeologists have mostly relied on pollen survival in cores for interpretation of land use history and for 30 years Mike followed this pattern to interpret the settlement, burial history and landscapes of the Wessex chalkland. However recent research using analysis of soils and snails has provided a new environmental narrative and completely new history for the prehistoric landscapes of Stonehenge, Avebury, Cranborne Chase and Dorchester. The talk explores how the chalklands became wooded after the glaciation and the mixed oak forest was later cleared for cattle herds, monuments, settlements and ultimately for farming and tillage.
Mike Allen is one of the country’s leading environmental archaeologists with 35 years in the profession and wide ranging experience. This includes working on key projects such as Stonehenge and the Mary Rose as well innumerable commercial archaeological a projects all over the country. He has also written the influential text book ‘Molluscs in Archaeology’.
Thursday 18th December 2025
‘The use of sonar imaging techniques in mapping and visualising maritime wrecks’
Capt FC Morgyn Davis OBE FNI MIIMS
Many of the archaeological processes and tools utilised for understanding historic land based sites are not available underwater. This compromises the ability to understand the underwater site and also the safe management of both the site itself and the individuals interacting with it. Working with Aberdeen and Dundee University in a joint programme, a large range of military systems were made available to enhance and exploit the archaeological process and derive a wreck management model that has now been standardised and embedded across a range of academic and industrial processes. The presentation will touch on the technical methodology, the developed management model and explore a number of examples utilising the model.
Morgyn Davis was Chief Marine Salvage Officer responsible for the UK Ministry of Defence inventory of underwater wrecks, the evaluation of risks associated with them and development of a long term intervention and management plan.
Thursday 8th January 2026
‘Winchester – City of Kings‘
Susanne Haselgrove
Roman Winchester, though lacking Late Iron Age roots, became Britain’s largest defended urban centre. Excavations (1961–71) uncovered streets, villas with mosaics, and foreign-born residents likely serving as militia. A church built in the 660s marks its medieval Golden Age, with royal burials and a rich cultural life, trade, and European links continuing despite decline after Edward the Confessor favoured London. This lecture draws on her recently published work ‘Winchester: City of Kings’ co-authored with Katherine Barclay.
Susanne Haselgrove joined the excavations at Wolvesey Palace in Winchester at the age of 13 sparking a lifelong archaeology career. After reading Archaeology at Cambridge she later worked across many major UK and European sites, including Sutton Hoo and Wroxeter, and has taught, published, and promoted archaeology in many areas. Since 2010 she has been Secretary of the Winchester Excavations Committee publishing details of earlier excavations and co-authoring a book on the city’s history.
Thursday 12th February 2026
‘Rethinking Roman religious sites in the south-west’
Dr David Roberts, Senior Lecturer in Roman Archaeology and History, Cardiff University.
Traditional approaches to Romano-British religious sites have often isolated temples from their wider context, focusing primarily on identifying deities, building plans, and religious art and artefacts. Recent developments in archaeological theory have provided the impetus to rethink these approaches, and try to understand temples and shrines in relation to their communities and social landscapes. Fieldwork at Teffont Roman shrine and the South Wiltshire temple, with research into the landscapes of central Somerset and south Wiltshire, is used to inform a wider reconsideration of religious sites in Wiltshire and Somerset, illuminating how people’s work, animals and identities affected their religious practices and beliefs.
David Roberts is a specialist in Roman and prehistoric landscape archaeology and excavation, with significant experience of project management in professional archaeology. His research focuses on understanding how people in the Roman and later prehistoric periods interacted with and understood the landscape around them, and how researching and understanding this can benefit our society today. Since 2010 he has directed Teffont Archaeology which has surveyed and excavated many Roman sites in Wiltshire and surrounding areas.
Thursday 12th March 2026
AGM and Members’ projects
All talks start at 7:30pm.
Photo by Ad Meskens – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12567818