An old survey in Ashwell updated

A ninth-century capper alloy scabbard chape from Ashwell

At Kris Lockyear’s blog Sensing the Iron Age and Roman Past: Geophysics and the Landscape of Hertfordshire, he reports on a recent geophysical survey he and his team undertook in Ashwell. The Museum Service had previously done fieldwalking on the site and I was given the task of plotting out the results. In those days (1986), everything was done by hand as we didn’t have the benefit of computers or GPS. A couple of items from the site are on display in the museum, most notably a very well preserved Viking-era scabbard chape, found by a metal detectorist in the 1970s.