Museum of Cambridge Event: Cambridge’s Archaeology in a View from the Hill

Talk by Alison Dickens, of the Cambridge Archaeology Unit

Tickets: £6, £4 concessions. Refreshments included.

To book, email: events@museumofcambridge.org.uk or call 01223 355 159 in office hours.

The Museum has recently acquired the stunning 1840 picture: ‘View of Cambridge from Castle Hill’. Painted by James Ward, it shows Castle Hill in detail, with beyond a panorama of Cambridge. The railway was still in the future, so the town depicted is small and compact, without the new 19th century suburbs that shaped the future City.

Using the painting as a guide Alison Dickens will give a whistle-stop tour of archaeological discoveries in Cambridge. Alison has been involved in many digs in Cambridge from the Grand Arcade site to Castle Hill. She is Archaeological Manager, Cambridge Archaeological Unit.

This detail from ‘View of Cambridge From Castle Hill’ shows the farm yard at the foot of Castle Hill. Nearby the painting shows a brick yard where the bricks were made to build the houses of 19th century Cambridge.