Thynghowe and the Forgotten Heritage of Sherwood

Viking Survey in Sherwood Forest is Seeking Volunteers

2012-02-17T05:25:00.000-08:00

The Friends of Thynghowe will launch their new Heritage Lottery funded project on Saturday 3 March 11.30am at Mansfield Museum.

An interesting visual display will feature photographs, information, maps and documents.

We are looking for volunteers to join us in becoming 'history detectives'.

We will be searching the forest for archaeological features from the Iron Age to the Second World War! Including the Viking Age when Sherwood Forest was the home to Viking warrior farmers and the cradle of early democracy.

We will be searching the records and archives for historical information on our area of Sherwood Forest.

Come and meet us and have a chat and find out what we have done and are planning to do.

The display will be in the Mansfield Museum from 3 – 28 March.

Our timetable of events starts in April.
April 14 - an Introduction Workshop to all aspects of the project, including 'taster' sessions, will be held at Sherwood Pines.
April 21 - Annual Perambulation (walk approx. 3 miles) along the 1816 boundary through Birklands.
Both are bookable events as places are limited.
To book: Contact Gill Grievson 01623 827326 or 07740 845574

BBC : Archaeologists hunt for Viking heritage in Sherwood Forest

2011-12-30T05:23:00.000-08:00

The land surrounding a mysterious ancient monument in Sherwood Forest is to be researched after a local history group received a £50,000 lottery grant.

A Thynghowe or Thing, an open-air meeting place where Vikings gathered to discuss the law, was discovered in Sherwood Forest seven years ago.

Experts surveyed the site this year and suggested the wider area be looked at.

The Friends of Thynghowe now plan to search for further evidence of Vikings including a "court circle".

Click to read the full story

New Mansfield Library Opens January 3rd 2012

2011-12-21T07:41:00.000-08:00

The new Mansfield Library Opens on January 3rd 2012. This exiting venue will hopefully host some of our Thynghowe project training sessions and give us direct access to the Local Studies Section where we hope all our project findings will be kept. Go along and check it out.

Press item on Thynghowe Sherwood HLF Project Yorkshire Post

2011-12-15T06:01:00.000-08:00

Click on the logo to read more

Click on The Yorkshire Post Logo to read more.

Lynda has also been interviewed by TraxFM Today.

Finding The Vikings of Sherwood Forest

2011-12-12T02:15:00.000-08:00

The Friends of Thynghowe have just been awarded £49,900 from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF).

This money will fund a two year project 'Thynghowe – and the forgotten heritage of Sherwood', in the Birklands area of Sherwood Forest.

The project starts with a Lidar survey in January (Lidar is an optical remote sensing technology, a type of aerial photography). To investigate further the results of the Lidar survey the project team will recruit local people to join in the research activities. These activities will include volunteers going into the forest and 'ground truthing' – a form of surveying that uses the Lidar results to see what is actually on the ground. The project will also train people to use the Nottingham Archive and other sources to research and record their findings and discover their local heritage. It is hoped volunteers will include young people and people who may not have done anything like this before. The project will have a public launch and display at the beginning of March at Mansfield Museum.

The Friends of Thynghowe group was formed seven years ago from members of the three local history groups of Edwinstowe, Clipstone/Kings Clipstone, and Warsop after Stuart Reddish and Lynda Mallett rediscovered a Viking Assembly site called a Thyng or Thing deep in Sherwood Forest. During the last seven years the group have worked hard to research the area and to bring it to national and international attention.

Lynda Mallett one of the project managers said “We aim to include people who would not normally participate in these sort of activities for all sorts of reasons. We have funding to pay for transport where required, and even carer support for those who have elderly parents or children. One of our partners is Greenwood Community Forest and Gill Grievson their Greenwood & Conservation Projects Officer is very experienced in recruiting people particularly young people who need encouragement to participate”.

Emma Sayer, Head of Heritage Lottery Fund East Midlands, said “We at HLF are delighted to be able to offer our support to the Friends of Thyghowe. This is a fascinating site, this project has the potential to open up our understanding of the history of Sherwood Forest. By giving volunteers from across the community the opportunity to get involved in researching and interpreting the results of the survey, more people will have the chance to learn about and explore the heritage of their local area. We look forward to sharing in their discoveries as the project progresses.”

Heritage Lottery Fund Confirms Funding for Thynghowe Project

2011-11-07T23:12:00.000-08:00

The Friends of Thynghowe - Heritage Lottery Fund

www.hlf.org.uk

It has been confirmed that we have been awarded £49,900 to investigate the Landscape and Heritage around our Viking Assembly Site at Thynghowe in Sherwood Forest. We shall be launching the project at the start of 2012.

Viking Assembly Sites and Things

2011-10-26T08:19:00.000-07:00

I have been asked to start producing a reading list for the project. The three sites listed below are other sites operated by me and my research organisation Public Information Research Organisation (PIRO) and contain links to radio programs, academic papers, books and video links. Where you see a document with the word 'Expand' over it - click on it - and it should open up in a larger format - this format can be enlarged even further in your web browser.

If you have any problems with the documents please use the comment box beneath this blog and I will try answer the queries and questions.

Stuart

http://thingsviking.blogspot.com/

http://vikinglandscape.com/

http://thingsites.blogspot.com/

I also have background history of Sherwood Forest on http://sherwoodforest.info

Aspects of the Development of Public Assembly in the Danelaw

2011-10-24T00:32:00.000-07:00

The aim of this essay by Sam Turner is to investigate aspects of the development of public assembly in the Danelaw area of early medieval England using topographic, place-name and archaeological evidence for hundred and wapentake meeting-places. The article considers aspects of the Anglo-Saxon tradition of public assembly, and assesses the probable origins of the system. It then compares the system of meeting-places in the Danelaw with moot-sites in other areas of Anglo-Saxon England. The article attempts to outline topics such as the different functions of meeting-places and the changing rationale behind meeting-place locations. This leads to suggestions about the antiquity of the system of public administration in the Danelaw and the nature of Scandinavian settlement in eastern England.

This is very useful background read to the history and context of Thynghowe.

Open publication - Free publishing - More danelaw

Researching The Past Heritage of Sherwood Forest

2011-07-24T07:55:00.000-07:00

Our project focuses on the local heritage of the Forest of Birklands and the Viking age site of Thynghowe which is contained within a 5km by 4km area along the western edge of Sherwood Forest.
Using an original 1816 Warsop Lordship Boundary Perambulation document we have rediscovered a lost local heritage. Included in this document is reference to the ancient custom of assembly on Hanger Hill(Thynghowe) and forms the basis of our intangible cultural heritage research.
The tangible heritage includes a possible Bronze Age burial mound, a Saxon Moot with Viking Assembly(Thynghowe), Forest and parish boundary marker stones, a 13th century chantry, a 19th century water meadows scheme, centuries of woodland management features and World War II archaeology. Researching the written archives could provide information to support the physical archaeological evidence and provide new knowledge.
As a result of our research Thynghowe is now included on the English Heritage National Monuments Record. We now need to collect more evidence to ensure that it becomes protected as a Scheduled Monument. This process has been supported by a topographical survey of the top of Thynghowe carried out by Nottinghamshire County Council Archaeologists and a survey undertaken by the University College London as part of the Landscapes of Governance Project.

Sherwood Forest Thynghowe Project Details & Flyer

2011-07-24T06:19:00.000-07:00

Check out our recruitment flyer: