My archaeology placement year at Leeds Museums and Galleries

As part of my course at Bradford University, where I am studying for a BA in Archaeology, I had the option for my third year of undertaking a placement year.

During the first two years of my course I had discovered that museum work could be an avenue under the umbrella of archaeology that I may wish to pursue. I was therefore very interested to be part of a museum environment for my placement, so I went about securing several interviews with museums in the West Yorkshire area. I was lucky enough to obtain a placement position at Leeds Museums and Galleries. Lucy Moore (cover Archaeology Curator for Kat Baxter) came to meet me at the University for an interview and was fantastic and I greatly appreciate all her help.  

On arriving at The Discovery Centre (the Museum’s store facility) on my first day back in mid-September, the first task given to me by my supervisor and Archaeology Curator, Kat Baxter, was to get to work accessioning the M1-A1 Link Road Excavation archive. I wrote down every box name, their location and contents.

Going through the excavation archive

I then went through the publication of the excavation, ‘A New Link to the Past: The Archaeological Landscape of the M1-A1 Link Road’, where a previous volunteer had started accessioning the small finds. I first found all those objects, inked on their accession numbers (using special archival ink), photographed them – front and back, then filled in the relevant information onto the museum database, TMS. Some of the objects included an iron knife, a ring, flints and querns.

Bronze Age jet disc from the excavation, accession no. LEEDM.D.2008.3.39

I was then fortunate enough to spend four weeks at Leeds City Museum as a Visitor Assistant, which was such a good experience as I was able to see how different aspects of the museum work.  For example, I gained an appreciation of the difference between the day to day work of a Curator compared to the day to day work of a VA which was very interesting. My role as a VA was to patrol the galleries assisting members of the public when necessary, working in the museum shop and setting up for conferences. My highlight though was definitely Halloween half term, as I got to help out with craft activities in the education room, which was a hive of activity.

I then returned to The Discovery Centre where I carried on with the M1-A1 Link Road Excavation archive.  I moved on to the objects in the archive which weren’t accessioned, which included all the pottery pieces, more flints and querns. I accessioned these objects, photographed them then filled in the relevant information into TMS, including the period, description, location, constituent and dimensions, which I gathered from the excavation publication.



Accessioning flints from the excavation



And now here I am, it’s already 2014!  I have just completed the archive, so Kat has informed me what my next task will be: to co-ordinate a new archaeology display case at The Discovery Centre with the archaeology volunteers and interns. I am very excited about this as it is such an invaluable opportunity and a fantastic experience.

By Laura Bradbeer, BA (Hons) Archaeology student at Bradford University, and placement student at Leeds Museums and Galleries 

Excavation stories: A knuckle guard from Kirkstall Abbey Guest House

Research is currently underway on West Yorkshire Archaeology’s excavations of Kirkstall Abbey Guest House, conducted between 1979-1986. The publication will examine the various structures of the Guest House complex, and through the medium of the artefacts, look at the range of activities carried out within the buildings and the types of visitors and residents who used the facilities. As part of this work, the assemblage of artefacts recovered is being reviewed and catalogues up-dated.

ABOVE: The standing remains of Kirkstall Abbey Guest House complex.

Just one of the 11,425+ objects is mentioned here, to give an idea of the information that can be gained. Small Find no. 3244 is thought to be a finger-joint cover or knuckle guard from plate armour gauntlets. During the 13^th century armoured protection for hands was provided by mail mufflers (Edge and Paddock 1988, 81), but from c. 1330-40 hour-glass-shaped metal gauntlets were developed. These gauntlets comprised a plate protecting and shaped to the side and back of the hand, narrowing to the wrist and then opening out to form a short cuff (Griffiths 1990, 1084). The fingers of the wearer were covered with two narrow metal plates, placed either side of the knuckle and riveted to an internal cloth or leather glove. The knuckles or joints of the wearer’s fingers were protected by curved plates like no. 3244, which over-lapped the finger plates, allowing complete flexing of the hand. These knuckle or finger-joint covers were attached to the leather via the rivet holes on either side. 

ABOVE: Finger joint covers or knuckle guards.  Left: from Kirkstall Abbey Guest House (c) Archaeological Services WYAS.  Right: from Coppergate, York (c) York Archaeological Trust. 

The finger-joint cover or knuckle guard from Kirkstall is damaged and the rivets missing, but the lack of iron corrosion suggests that slender copper alloy rivets were originally used, indicating a date in the second half of the 14^th century (Ottaway and Rogers 2002, 2970). Similar finger-joint covers or knuckle guards have been found at excavations at Coppergate in York (Ottaway and Rogers 2002, 2969-70) and at Winchester (Griffiths 1990, 1084). The Kirkstall example is narrower than the examples mentioned and may possibly have protected the pinkie joint.

Hour-glass-shaped metal gauntlets can be seen on brasses (e.g. Sir John Harsick, Southacre (Norfolk), d.1384; William de Aldeburgh, at Aldborough (Yorks.) d. c. 1360) and are depicted on the St William window at York Minister (Griffiths 1990, 1084 and fig.139; Ottaway and Rogers 2002, fig. 1534).

ABOVE: Detail from panel 1b of St.William window, York Minster, showing metal gauntlets being worn.

Kirkstall Abbey Guest House was not for ordinary wayfarers, but a residence for visitors of rank and wealth to the Abbey, as the gauntlet finger-joint cover nicely illustrates.

  

Bibliography

Edge, D. and Paddock, J. M, 1988 Arms and Armour of the Medieval Knight (London)

Griffiths, N. 1990 ‘Finger-Joint Cover from a plate armour gauntlet’ in Biddle, M. Object and Economy in Medieval Winchester (vol.2), 1084-5

Ottaway, P. and Rogers, N. 2002 Craft, Industry and Everyday Life: Finds from Medieval York The Archaeology of York: The Small Finds 17/15

Author: Holly Duncan, Project Manager (Artefacts) at Albion Archaeology

Finding Mr Shah

Leeds Museums have had a collection of glass plate negatives from the Yorkshire Post sitting for many years in our stores, safely preserved but uncatalogued and inaccessible.  As we begin the daunting task of cataloguing many thousands of images, we are also trying to research the hidden stories of the people captured by the Yorkshire Post cameras.  Often we only have a few (or no) clues scratched onto the negative or written on the box or envelope. Researchers, such as Melyssa Dawson (who has written the blog below), have been ferreting in the local history archives to try and find out more.  This photograph of Mr Shah just recorded his name, address and a date in 1964.  

Mr P.G.A. Shah, Copyright Yorkshire Post Newspapers Ltd.

It turns out that Mr Shah was one of the early pioneer Muslim settlers in Leeds, arriving in England for the first time in 1924 before returning to the Punjab in 1925. He arrived back in England to study in 1933, moving to Leeds in 1943. He then returned to the newly founded Pakistan in 1951 however he came back to Leeds permanently in 1953.


Mr Shah studied engineering in London in 1933 and qualified as a civil engineer, becoming an Associate Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers (AMICE) and having Membership of the Institute of Structural Engineers (MIStrE), the letters of which he had after his name in the 1964 South and West Yorkshire and Lincoln telephone directory. Upon qualifying, he moved to Leeds in 1943 to take up work as a mining engineer. Whilst he initially only intended on staying in England to study, he decided to stay, believing 'English women were much nicer than Indian women'. His studies and work in England led to him becoming a successful architect.



When Mr Shah moved to Leeds in 1943, he moved near the University of Leeds which began a Muslim Community in the area which was short lived. Mr Shah helped in the founding of the Pakistan Muslim Association in Bradford. Alongside this he became the chairman of the Islamic Society in Leeds. As far as the religious beliefs of Mr Shah are concerned, he considered himself as a part of traditional Islam believing that regardless of who you are you should come together in prayer at a mosque. Despite this, his children attended a christian church on Sundays (as well as practicing Islam within the home) and were involved in church activities like the scouts and brownies. His children ultimately married English partners and are agnostic.



In order to find research on Mr Shah I began by going to the local history library in Leeds library and looked through the phone directories for South and West Yorkshire and Lincoln for 1964 where I found his full title, his address and phone number. Once I had done this in then researched the acronyms after his name to try and discover what they stood for. Whilst I was successful in finding one of them by doing a general internet search, the other was slightly more difficult which led to me liaising with curators within Leeds Museums and Galleries. Once I had this information it became much easier to understand what line of work Mr Shah was in. After doing further research using the aforementioned resources, I discovered a paper titled 'Muslims in Leeds' from the University of Leeds which discussed the Muslim community in Leeds from when it began. Within this paper, Mr Shah was discussed by way of his qualifications, his reasons for coming to Leeds etc where the vast majority of this research came from.

Researched and written by Melyssa Dawson, research volunteer

Unveiling Ouida: A Glimpse of Public Sculpture in the Early 20th Century

On a crisp day in November 1910, a crowd gathered in the small town of Bury St Edmunds to witness the unveiling of a new public momument. Dressed in the day's finery, men, women and children waited for a glimpse of the bronze and marble statue by sculptor Ernest Gillick, commemorating the life of locally-born author Marie Louise de la Ramee, who wrote under the pseudonym Ouida.

The photograph provides a rare insight into public arts practices and partonage in the early 20th century Britain, and are part of a collection of papers belonging to sculptors Ernest and Mary Gillick, donated to Leeds Museums & Galleries, deposited in the Henry Moore Institute Archive, in 2005. I found these during my internship with Leeds Museums & Galleries, working through and listing the extensive archive of drawings, letters, diaries, photographs and research papers.

Born in Bradford in 1874, Ernest Gillick attended the Nottingham School of Art from 1896-1899, where his talents won him several gold medal awards. In 1901, The Royal College of Art Awarded Gillick a National Travelling Studentship and he spent a year studying the architecture and sculpture of Italy. He was elected Associate of the Royal College of Art in 1904.

Misty Ericson, intern, December 2010