16th and 17th May, 2009 Castles: Landscapes of Power
a day school and visit(s) held in association with the Royal Archaeological Institute.

A review of current research into the social and physical settings of castles in Yorkshire and beyond.

On Saturday 16th May there will be a conference at the Tempest Anderson Hall in the Yorkshire Museum, York, topics will include Sherrif Hutton Castle, Windsor Castle and its designed landscape, Dunstanburgh Castle, and the castles of Edward I in North Wales, and their landscape settings.

On Sunday 17th May there will be trips to Sherrif Hutton Castle .
The cost will be dependant on whether members/individuals book for one or both days.

Details

Programme 2008

Saturday 10th May The Medieval Landscape of Malham
This day school will examine how the medieval landscape of the village and township of Malham can be understood. The important influence of Fountains Abbey and Bolton Priory, who held respectively the manors of West Malham and East Malham township, will be explored. Malham village looks like a normal single village, but the influence of the two monastic hoursed created two separate villages either side of the Malham Beck with very different and distinctive plans. The remains of these villages, earthworks and standing structures will be explored through a field visit in the afternoon.

Details
Report

Saturday 25th October Field Systems through Time: Prehistory to Modern
This day school follows the extremely successful one held at Northallerton last year on the origin of North Yorkshire towns when 260 people attended. The day school will examine the types of field systems found across the county from prehistoric times to the present day, by looking at their form and date range, examined by some of the country's leading authorities. Themes to be considered include: the idea of field systems, field systems from the air, coaxial systems, the structure of medieval townships systems, the enclosure of field systems and the content of field systems through time as revealed through field survey. The idea is to look at the forms of field sytem rather than consider them by chronological archaeological period. This is the first of a trilogy of day schools which will look at the field systems (2008), settlements (2009) and communications (2010). It is hoped that the papers presented at all three day schools will be published as joint proceedings, thus providing an important insight for current knowledge on the main elements of our historic landscape in the county.

Details

Saturday 6th December      AGM, Christmas Party and Lecture

This annual festive gathering has proved popular with members over the years, mixing the formality of the AGM with the social side of the Christmas Party, culminating in a lecture by someone of national standing. This year Peter Brears, the former curator of Leeds City Museum, renowned authority on medieval food and its preparation and author of many books on the subject, will give the lecture. His in depth knowledge of food preparation has allowed him to interpret the traditional views of areas of food preparation in some of our major surviving medieval structures. This will be covered in his lecture, which is titled 'Medieval food and its preparation in Yorkshire'.

Claremont, Leeds: 2:00 [AGM]; 2:30 [Tea]; 3:00 [Lecture]