Dig into history on a Sedgeford staycation

Always fancied trying your hand at Archaeology? This could be your chance!

Sedgeford Historical & Archaeological Research Project (SHARP) in North West Norfolk is one of the country’s largest archaeological sites run entirely by volunteers, and has now been running excavation, research and training courses for 25 years. The site is looking into how people used and settled the land, from the earliest times to the present day, although most of its current work is focusing on the Anglo-Saxon period.

During that time, over 4000 people from all over the world have come to join this unusual community; many of whom have gone onto to work as professional Archaeologists. Hundreds of local people and visitors Norfolk come to the site every year to see what’s been uncovered, with many coming back to this beautiful part of the world year after year.

This year it could be your chance to join SHARP! After a shut down year in 2020 because of Covid, they now able to re-open this amazing dig site, thanks to a generous Covid recovery grant from Norfolk County Council. This will help them to take a range of extra precautions to make the site Covid-safe, including extra cleaning and hosting a smaller number of people on site than usual to ensure social distancing. It would not have been possible to open this year without this support, and they are enormously grateful to the Council for their help.

This means that SHARP can offer a limited number of places to people with no previous experience on their one week BERT (Basic Excavation & Research Techniques) course in July. You can find out more about the course and book online by visiting their website and clicking on the ‘courses’ tab:

https://www.sharp.org.uk

People have come from all over the world to learn about Archaeology on the BERT course, but SHARP is particularly keen to attract local people who’d like to find out more about the history of their home area. They take people of all ages (Under 16’s are welcome with a parent/carer) and you don’t need to know one end of a trowel from the other to come and join them!

They also have a small bursary fund which may be able to help out if cost is a problem for you, and instructions on how to apply for this are also on the website. The prices on the website are for camping on site and full board, but talk to SHARP if you would rather travel from home at a reduced cost. If you have health or mobility issues, please talk to them, as they can often make adjustments which mean you could still take part.

But be quick! There are only have a small number of places left on these courses, and it will be first come, first served, so get booking now – and take your first adventure into Archaeology!