School children had an unexpected treat on their visit to Avebury, when they got the chance to handle Neolithic objects fresh from the ground in which they had been buried for more than 4,000 years.

Evidence of Late Bronze Age and Iron Age (800BC – 200 BC) settlement was found by Wessex Archaeology close to the Iron Age hillfort at Battlesbury Camp near Warminster in Wiltshire.

The Heritage Lottery Fund awarded Ipswich Borough Council a project planning grant to pay for the investigations needed before restoration work began at Holywells Park. Wessex Archaeology excavated a number of trial trenches to record old surfaces and structures hidden under the ground. These remains tell us more about the history of the park, and the archaeological results were fed back into the renovation plans.

Blenheim Palace was designed by Sir John Vanbrugh and built between 1705 and 1722.The estate was landscaped by Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown in the 1760s. But the history of the estate actually goes back over 6,000 years.

Wessex Archaeology was commissioned by Historic Landscape Management for the Blenheim Estate and the Countryside Agency, to report on the condition of significant archaeological sites and monuments on the estate.