The next SWAG school holidays event is going to be on Thursday 15th February 2024, from 10-3pm. It will be held inside the cafe building at the Park.
Activities include coin rubbing, Roman mosaic making and fossil identification (bring yours along).
There is no need to book, just turn up. Our events are free but please remember there is a parking fee.
All ages are welcome but under 16s must be accompanied by an adult.
Any questions? Please email us at SWAGKent2023@gmail.com
Our first formal AGM was held in December, to coincide with the Christmas lunch.
Please click here to access the minutes for the SWAG 2023 AGM.
The current project at Greenwich has been the investigation of the Grand Ascent, the slope below the General Wolfe statue. A consistent clay layer under the topsoil was found across the whole Ascent and believed to be Victorian in date. Where investigations continued below the clay, bands of loose gravel and probable buried turflines were found. At the base of the sequence, a full layer of rubble and tile was recorded.
Some of the more interesting finds, apart from ring pulls, bottle tops and nails, included a Charles II farthing (?), an 1860s halfpenny, a Royal Engineers (early 20th century) cap badge and an eye piece from a sextant.
A model of the slope, created by Pete Barry, can be found on Sketchfab, and for more detail on the excavation itself visit the Greenwich Park website.
The excavation has also been featured in a Guardian article – Wild beasts and Charles II: amateur army digs for history in British parks and gardens.
There is now a video available about the Lower Thames Crossing and in it Andrew gives a brief run down of the archaeology of the park and our current situation. It also features the platform dig from this Autumn :
During October volunteers from SWAG joined the Darent Valley Landscape Partnership Scheme and the National Trust in an excavation at the moated house of St John’s Jerusalem in Sutton-at Hone. For more detail on the dig click through to The Past – a new archaeology, art and heitage website.
