Over a beautiful weekend in May, volunteers from the village and from all over the county, dug, scraped and scrubbed in “The Big Badsey Dig”. Deferred from 2020 because of the pandemic, the dig at last came to fruition on 21st and 22nd May 2022. Thanks to Ian Gibson, the project co-ordinator for Badsey, The Badsey Society has been able to participate in this exciting county-wide archaeology project – Small Pits, Big Ideas II. This has been made possible by a National Lottery Heritage Fund grant given to Worcestershire Archaeological Society enabling six rural communities across Worcestershire to explore the origins of their settlements and contribute to academic research through the archaeology hidden in back gardens. Community Archaeologist, Nina O’Hare, led the whole project and, with her team, was available throughout the weekend to instruct and advise.
In Badsey, 19 1-metre square test pits were dug in a variety of places in the village: from a field off Birmingham Road in the north to one in the south off Sands Lane, and in various private homes where the owners generously allowed their back garden to be dug up. Great fun was had by all who participated in the weekend. Photos of all the test pits were taken by Tony Spinks, unless otherwise indicated. Some 17,000 steps and 12 kilometres were walked in the course of duty each day!
Click on each image below to see the story of the weekend. Please note that some of the test pits have several photos.
