13/05/2016  |  6 p.m.

Promenade Park

On the 13th-15th May CITiZAN will be holding a free training weekend focusing on the Barge Graveyard in Promenade Park, Maldon, Essex.

This fascinating site contains the remains of 15 or more vessels including named Thames sailing barges, fishing vessels, an Admiralty launch and a lighter. On Friday 13th May, 6-9pm at the Moot Hall in Maldon, there’ll be a classroom session with talks on CITiZAN aims and methods, research questions for the site and Health and Safety on the foreshore. We’ll also have a ‘dry run’ at scale planning. On Saturday (11.30-14.30) and Sunday (12.30-15.30) we’ll be down on the foreshore on for a short guided tour of the site then we’ll record of one or more of the vessels using pro-formas, photography and scale drawing.

The weekend will equip you with skills in archaeological recording techniques and help to add detail to CITiZAN’s interactive map of coastal and intertidal archaeology. There’s also the potential for follow up work which would contribute to the aims of the East of England archaeological research framework: “a survey of the shipwrecks along the estuaries, coast and offshore is needed. The survey should be coupled with historic research and cross-reference to records of groups such as the Society for Sailing Barges [sic. The Society for Sailing Barge Research]”. All attendees with recieves a CPD certificate and a CITiZAN edition Archaeology Skills Passport.

The site is near to car parking in Promenade Park but please note that access to the site is via a narrow, informal path that can get very slippery. The site lies on the intertidal mud flat; it is very sticky and wellington boots are advised.

To sign up for the weekend, or for further information, please contact Lara at lband@mola.org.uk