April Meeting
The April meeting of Peterborough Local History Society is on Thursday 10th, at 7.30 pm, at St Andrew’s United Reformed Church, Ledbury Road, Netherton, Peterborough PE3 9RF.
The speaker for the evening will be Prof. Stephen Upex MCIfA. FSA., with “The life and times of Edmund Artis; The founding father of Peterborough’s archaeological past”.
Edmund Artis lived and worked in the Peterborough area for over 40 years during the early 1800s where he explored the early Roman history of the area. He helped forge the modern practice of archaeological enquiry as distinct from antiquarianism and was a nationally important figure in his day. He initially worked on the Milton Estate near Castor as a house steward, he wrote the seminal work on Roman Peterborough, published a book on fossils, was a friend of John Clare, fathered illegitimate children, had links with horseracing and the St Leger and wanted to be buried standing upright in Castor churchyard.
Visitors are very welcome to attend, for a fee of £3.
Professor Stephen Upex
Prof. Stephen Upex has written on a wide variety of topics related to British landscape history and archaeology and his interests range from Roman and Saxon landscapes and archaeology to medieval open fields systems. He has directed archaeological excavations on Roman and Saxon sites in the East Midlands and contributed to several Time Team programs for Channel Four. Recently Stephen has written a series of landscape and archaeological reports and books on sites within the East Midlands and he is currently working on a volume for the Society of Antiquaries on Roman and Saxon landscape in northern Cambridgeshire. His most recent books are ‘Romans in the Nene Valley’ (2022) and ‘Edmund Tyrell Artis and the Durobrivae of Antoninus’ (2023) Stephen is a tutor at the University of Cambridge and also works as a freelance archaeologist, author and consultant. He is a member of the Chartered Institute for Field Archaeologists (MCIfA) and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries (FSA)
