Fieldwalking: Past, Present ... and Future?

Fieldwalking was once seen as a key archaeological prospection technique, practised by commercial, academic and amateur archaeologists alike, and a vital component of landscape archaeology. More recently, fieldwalking seems to have fallen out of favour, particularly in commercial archaeology.

Did fieldwalking privilege certain types of evidence, like flint scatters? Does the decline in fieldwalking mean that flint scatters and the activities they attest are less likely to be detected? What is the relationship between the decline in fieldwalking and the rise in metal-detecting (which by its nature emphasises the later periods of archaeology)? Why do many commercial archaeologists no longer practise fieldwalking? This conference will address these questions and more as it examines the achievements of fieldwalking, takes stock of its use today, and asks what future it has as a tool for prospection.

10:00  Registration; tea, coffee and biscuits
10:30  Introduction – Mark Pearce, University of Nottingham
10:45   In the footsteps of Fox: reflections on fieldwalking by the Cambridge Archaeology Field Group since the 1970s – Tom Midgley, CAFG
11:10   Fieldwalking around towns along the A11, Norfolk – Yvonne Wolframm‑Murray, MOLA
11:35   The Raunds Area Survey, Northamptonshire – Mark Holmes MCIfA, formerly MOLA
12:00   The Medbourne Project and the Leicestershire Fieldworkers – Peter Liddle, Leicestershire Fieldworkers, formerly Leicestershire County Council
12:25  Lunch
13:30   The Bingham parish survey, Nottinghamshire – David Ingham MCIfA, Bingham Heritage Trails Association
13:55   A Palaeolithic landscape at Farndon Fields, Newark-on-Trent – Daryl Garton MCIfA, Ice Age Journeys
14:20   Exploring past landscapes: community archaeology in North Lincolnshire – Kevin Leahy MCIfA, Portable Antiquities Scheme
14:45  Tea and coffee
15:10  Round table discussion: the future of fieldwalking
16:30  Close