Archaeology walk and talk with Laura Ratcliffe-Warren

Archaeologist, Laura Ratcliffe-Warren, will lead a walk-and-talk through a multi-time period landscape looking at the archaeology of Cornish hedges from different eras of history.

Workshop participants will learn what to look for and how to identify the key physical features that indicate which broad time period a hedge dates to. The group will also study Cornish hedges which have been modified and changed over time and show multi-period structures with a layered history.

Learning to read the history of a Cornish hedge helps us to understand the role of the hedge within the wider landscape during different time periods and how the shapes they make have been influenced by and yet also continue to influence farming through time.

This walk and talk is an ideal, practical follow up to our talk about the history of hedges by Ann Reynolds, but also stands alone as a rich learning opportunity to read our Cornish landscape.

This activity will require participants to have a good level of fitness and suitable outdoor clothes for an off-path ramble around the countryside. Dogs are welcome but must be walked responsibly on wildlife reserves and well behaved so as not to distract the group. If the weather does not allow the walk to proceed, the walk will be cancelled the night before and postponed to 16th March.