ARCHAEOLOGY

Each meeting starts with members looking at what has been brought in, a strange old bottle, a pipe bowl, a greenish coin or a piece of old jewellery, and handling and talking about it. After a break for tea, coffee and biscuits the group turns to a topic linked to archaeology, which might be an item from the news, Stonehenge, the Southend Iron Age hillfort or the history of someone's house. From time to time it carries out local investigations, and it has turned up little known facts about The Lawn and made discoveries about the Hockley Laundry, set up to provide employment for women from the Workhouse. Most meetings are indoors, but the group also goes beachcombing and spends a day each summer doing practical work at a small archaeological site, where members can dig, try surveying or simply sit and handle the finds. It meets on the third Wednesday of each month from 10am until noon at a member's home, and is full, though names can go on a waiting list.