A community archaeology project in Holt and Farndon will see people learning more about the area’s history with first-hand experience.

Volunteers will get the opportunity to help with an excavation in September that will look into a mysterious playing card-shaped enclosure near Townfield Lane. It is thought that this could be a Roman military fort linked to the tile and pottery works at Holt.

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For those who are interested in learning more about the area’s Roman past, an introduction open day will be held for the Holt and Farndon Community Archaeology Project. The project is supported by the Holt Local History society.

The open day, which will be an open-door event will introduce the project and other work that has been undertaken in the area, as well as set out plans to develop the project in the future.

The excavation itself will be open to volunteers and later a public open day will be held to display what is found, details of which will be released nearer the time.

Managing the project is Christopher Matthews and Nick Dawson who are both partners of Archaeological Survey West, a research group. The pair are also professional archaeologists, Christopher at the Clwyd Powys Archaeological Trust and Nick for Thames Valley Archaeological Services.

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Christopher said: “We are looking at the archaeology that links the villages of Holt and Farndon, giving both communities the chance to come together to investigate their local heritage. We will be starting with a 10-day excavation of a possible Roman fort near Townfield Lane, which is set to start in September.

“The feature, which is a playing card shaped enclosure on the banks of the River Dee, is located very close to the scheduled Roman Legionary tile and pottery works, which was re-investigated by ourselves and the Holt Local History Society in 2018 which has recently been a feature at Wrexham Museum.”

The excavation is set to start on Saturday, September 10, and last for 10 days.

The introductory day is on Saturday, July 2, and will be hosted at two venues:

  • Farndon Memorial Hall 10 am -12 pm, with a key talk at 11am
  • Holt Kenyon Hall 2-4pm, with a key talk at 3pm.

If you wish to attend the open day, please respond to the event on Facebook so that the group can gauge numbers: https://fb.me/e/4s4PgAavs