News & Updates
Invitation evening with FOHRK, Hugh Dennis & Claire Skinner
Our Chair, Catherine West MP and Trustees of the Friends of Highgate Roman Kiln (FOHRK) invite you to join us at
Lauderdale House, Highgate Hill, N6 5AG
Saturday, 29th January, 2022
6pm-7.15pm
for fun, heritage and archaeology, with nibbles and sparkling (and other) wine, in aid of FOHRK
Our stars: FOHRK patrons, Hugh Dennis and Claire Skinner
The event will be chaired by Catherine West MP and will include contributions from Harvey Sheldon, who led the excavations of the pottery-making site in Highgate Wood, and Nick Peacey, FOHRK Secretary and kiln builder
Hugh Dennis and Claire Skinner
Hugh will talk about his work on The Great British Dig: History in Your Garden, the popular and quietly radical archaeological programme he presents for More 4
Hugh and Claire will then become grandfather and granddaughter to perform the premiere of the 'duologue', A Highgate potter’s life, a ‘plausible glimpse’ of pottery making in Highgate Wood in AD 156
The programme is below. We shall have to restrict numbers in the House, so please reserve a place or places by email to our address:
FriendsofHighgateRomanKiln@gmail.com
We greatly look forward to seeing you
With every good wish
Nick Peacey
Secretary, FOHRK
07823 337137
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September 2021 campaign update
FOHRK has had a remarkable two months. From a standing start at the launch of our crowdfunding campaign on 1st July, generous donors have raised no less than £13,850, 55% of our campaign target of £25,000.
We hoped the plans to return the Roman kiln to Highgate Wood and create an inclusive learning programme around its conservation and exhibition would be popular but we did not anticipate the extent of enthusiasm we would find!
Catherine West, our patrons Claire Skinner and Hugh Dennis and all of us in FOHRK are hugely grateful to those who have contributed so much. The campaign’s success has already allowed us to begin turning some of our plans to reality.
But, 55% of a target achieved is not 100% of a target achieved. We need to find that extra £11,150….
HOW TO DONATE
Just Giving: https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/kiln2021
BACS: Friends of Highgate Roman Kiln, CAFBANK, Sort code 40-52-40 Account 00031173
Cheque: Payable to Friends of Highgate Roman Kiln (FOHRK). Please send to: FOHRK, 35 Ulleswater Road, London N14 7BL.
West Stow Anglo-Saxon village: a trip back to 500 AD
We were delighted earlier this year to receive a most generous donation to our crowdfunding campaign from Rosie Boughton.
Rosie gave the money in memory of her friend, Jess Davies, with whom she worked as a member of the West Stow Environmental Archaeology Group between 1973 and 1979.
Nick Peacey, FOHRK secretary, visited the West Stow Anglo-Saxon village last week and found an exciting testament to the experimental archaeology needed to recreate huts more or less on the sites where the originals were excavated.
West Stow is a great place to stop if you are heading for Norfolk from London.
FOHRK trustees have agreed that Rosie's donation will spent on experimental archaeology related to the Highgate Roman Kiln.
Come Zooming with us 8pm - 9pm on Monday 26th July
At 8pm on Monday 26thJuly please join the Zoom webinar Fire, water, wood and clay: technologies for Roman Britain, for our times and for the future. FOHRK Trustees Charlie Andrew and Nick Peacey will talk about experiments with replica Roman kiln-building, and how they have engaged and inspired young people as well as our current work with schools, face-to-face and online. Then our partner Duncan Hooson, of Clayground Collective and Central St. Martins, will introduce the remarkable campaigner Carolina Rubio-Wright from Brooklyn, New York.
Carolina is a human rights lawyer and artist who uses arts activities, particularly clay and ceramics, as opportunities to make 'invisible' groups, such as the very poor and Mexican immigrants, 'visible' and empower them to understand their rights and fight for them . You can see her and her project here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbKemLlVbA4
For the link, register with Nick Peacey, Secretary of FOHRK: friendsofhighgateromankiln@gmail.com
Our campaign fund tops £12,500, half the £25,000 target
Recent donations, including most generous gifts from Nicky Gavron, environmental campaigner and former Deputy Mayor of London, and from Rosie Boughton have swept us over the half way point in our fund-raising. Today's total on the campaign page stands at £12,675. https://justgiving.com/campaign/kiln2021
In commending our work, Nicky has written 'What an exciting project! Bringing history home for all ages!' Rosie explains that her donation is in memory of her friend Jess Davies with whom she worked on an experimental archaeology project at West Stow.https://www.weststow.org/. An anonymous donor wrote three days ago, ' We used to love walking in the woods years ago and watching the kiln being excavated and it's thrilling that it's going to be restored and re-housed.'
We in FOHRK, with our partners, have always designed the plan to return the kiln to Highgate Wood as a project for the whole community. It is wonderful to see this ambition being realised.
Kiln Walk & Talk event
2pm Saturday 17th July
Walk & talk: How the Romans built ten kilns in Highgate Wood and how we built replica kilns to learn their methods. If you're interested in joining, contact n.peacey@ucl.ac.uk.
Fundraising appeal video
This Thursday saw the launch of our crowdfunding appeal to bring the kiln home. Find out more (and how to help) in our video.
The Ham and High welcomes our crowdfunding launch!
Hampstead and Highgate's local paper gives a warm welcome to the launch of our crowdfunding programme on 1st July.
The Classical Association sponsors FOHRK's Great Roman Online Pottery Challenge
We are delighted to announce that the Classical Association has sponsored FOHRK's Great Roman Online Pottery Challenge most generously, making it possible for us to run the programme in full, and giving us every chance of being able to make the project available to schools and communities across the UK, after its piloting as a North London initiative.
Launching on the 1st July 2021: The Great Roman Online Pottery Challenge
Launching on the 1st July 2021: The Great Roman Online Pottery Challenge
A two-phase, cross-disciplinary education project centred around the Roman archaeology in Highgate Wood, aimed at schools and community groups across North London, making extensive use of online technology.
We are determined that our activities will be accessible to, and engaging for, the widest possible range of people, including schools. We are working with partners to develop cross-curricular learning resources for different key stages, with a number of new curriculum materials covering history, visual arts, language and science. The recent Clay Club pilot project showed that there is great appetite for these learning programmes and resources. Greig City Academy Clay Club www.highgateromankiln.org.uk/learning.php
The Great Roman Online Pottery Challenge
Phase 1 – online pottery class
To celebrate the launch of the FoHRK Crowdfunding campaign on 1st July 2021, a 60-minute online pottery masterclass will inform attendees about the Roman finds in Highgate Wood – the kilns (the science and the excavation, including using existing evidence to make deductions about Romano-British life) and the pottery (profiles, materials, uses and dispersal beyond the local area). The session will then guide the participants through the process of making a replica Roman Highgate-ware vessel in air-drying clay using tools and techniques available to Romano-British craftsmen. This synchronous event would be recorded and subsequently edited to form the basis of Phase 2 of this project. Holding the event online makes the event Covid-secure, and allows a greater number of participants from school and community groups. Members of FoHRK (all of whom are volunteers) will provide archaeological/historical materials and knowledge in the session. Duncan Hooson of Clayground Collective and Central St Martins will provide the technical pottery and clay-work knowledge.
Phase 2 – asynchronous class materials development & competition
The video from the online pottery class would be edited into an instructional video with supporting teacher and student materials. Schools could apply for a clay grant to run the session in their schools with no cost to the school. Schools will then submit their entries to a competition for the best effort. Although initially a local project, the asynchronous materials could be disseminated more widely (e.g. to KS2 students studying the Romans) and the approach replicated if successful. Trustee Charlie Andrew has links with schools throughout the country, as well as with various online content download platforms.