Old Steine through prehistory

RPM video:

A new Archaeoiogy Gallery

The famous Hove amber cup

Thanks to the generous support of a private sponsor Brighton Museum is to get a new archaeology gallery.

The new gallery will be situated in one of the museum’s two local history galleries, Exploring Brighton, will close from 8 May 2017. Objects removed from Exploring Brighton will be considered for redisplay as part of a later refresh of the museum’s approach to telling Brighton & Hove’s stories.

Plans for the structure and content of the new gallery are still being developed but there will be a strong emphasis on the personal stories of Brighton & Hove ancestors.  The museum is working with scientists in the fields of archaeology and DNA profiling, to learn new things about the people who lived locally in the past.

Recent years have seen strong local support for the development of a gallery to showcase the city and region’s rich archaeological collections, particularly since the introduction of Prehistory to the national curriculum in 2014. These factors, and recent evaluation of visitors’ experience and engagement with the city’s collections at Brighton Museum, have demonstrated demand for an archaeology gallery,

Remains of the Chain Pier

Remains of the wooden piling just breaking surface at today's low tide.  

They probably align with the second pier out from the shore as shown in the 1890 photo below.

The remains of the first pier will now be buried in the beach due to the substantial build-up of shingle over the last 100 years.

The Stanmer Water Catcher

View looking west showing the section added in the 1890s

High in the woods to the north-west of Stanmer village are the grade II listed remains of a rare victorian water-catcher.  About 70 metres long and 12 metres wide it was built in 1870-5 to the design of Thomas Jones, estate foreman, to supply water for Stanmer House and the estate buildings. 

It is constructed of brick, cement and a mixture of tar and sand and was enlarged to the west in the 1890s. The brick divider between the sections can be seen above. The surface was coated with tar and sand in the 1930s. It was originally surrounded with timber walls carrying a slate roof from which rainwater was channeled down on to the surface of the catcher. Below the surface are three 1 metre deep tanks said to contain 40,000 gallons each. There is a gully along one side, an overflow at the north-east corner, and the remains of a filter system to the south end.

It was first listed in 1999. OS map ref. TQ 3335 0978.

The British Engineerium

For information: The British Engineerium has a website:-

http://www.britishengineerium.org/

and a Facebook page:-

https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-British-Engineerium/389329344439696?fref=ts

Open day at the Engineerium

Roman coin hoard acquired for Brighton

The Royal Pavilion & Museums can celebrate another success reflecting its growing importance as a regional museum. With the aid of a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund  it has acquired the hoard of Roman coins, and the pot that held it, discovered in the High Weald in 2006 by Tim Symonds from Burwash.

The 2895 siver coins valued at about £40,000 dates from the 3rd century AD, when the Roman Empire was becoming increasingly fractured & troubled. The value of the hoard then represented someone's life savings. Two are of special significance; the third coin of Tranquillina (wife of Gordian III) and only the second coin of Cornelia Supera (wife of Aemilian) found anywhere in the country. 

Roger Bland, Keeper of the Department of Portable Antiquities & Treasure at the British Museum said: It is the largest hoard of coins of the reigns of Gordian III (238-44), Philip I (244-9), Trajan Decius (249-51) and Trebonianus Gallus (251-3) to have been found in Britain since the Dorchester hoard of 1936 and the coins provide important evidence about this troubled period of Roman history, while the hoard is also an important historical document about Roman Sussex.’

The hoard will go on display in Brighton Museum in the Summer. Plans for a touring display in early 2013 will take the hoard to other local museums including Hastings Museum, Bexhill Museum, Battle Museum, Eastbourne Museum and Fishbourne Roman Villa.

Press release 14 March 2012.