I am on my last edit of War Ditch research and will have handed that in to Oxford Archaeology for the Wildlife Trust by next week :) I can't wait to share the news about it and get the book published, I'll keep you posted!
I have done a couple of wedding makeovers this weekend and in between that we got to go to the amazing annual Cambridge Folk Festival. We had a stall there to promote The Friends of Cherry Hinton Hall. As the festival is held within the Hall grounds and so many people come form all over the world to the Folk Festival it was a great chance to share with them information about the site they use :) It was really good fun and I'll get some more of the pics uploaded on to our Cherry Hinton CCAN site for you to have a look at shortly...

Busy as ever! What a weekend, on Friday I did a prom makeover in Cherry Hinton and then did a bridal pamper party in Godmanchester which was all lovely.
A word of warning... if you ever have to take your child to ballet exams, be prepared! You will need food, drink, entertainment and to keep calm. Charlotte had her ballet exams this weekend and they are spead out over the whole weekend so that there is no point going home in between exams, the place is filled with stressed out, hot parents and a formidable but wonderful principle! :)  it wasn't that bad really but it was a lot of waiting about and the hot weather didn't help when everyone was stuck inside for hours and hours. The examiner is very strict and presentation is everything, so the fumes from cans of hairspay abounded. Charlotte did very well, she thinks, we don't get results until the end of September but fingers crossed and she should have her grade 3 now. Now exams are over, the rehersals for the Jan 2011 show begin!
In between that I got out on Saturday morning to give a guided tour of Cherry Hinton Hall for the Cambridge Antiquarian Society, which Tony Kirby had organised. We had a good walk around and I pointed out and explained the features in the grounds from the prehistoric archaeology to the Victorian parkland. We even made a quick trip out of the site up the road to Giants Grave which is the large natural spring pool opposite the Robin Hood Pub in Cherry Hinton.
Saturday evening we popped over to Ely to my lovely friends, Emma and Rob, for their house warming which was great. I love Ely, I used to live there many years ago.
My son was here to visit for the weekend  too, so Sunday - in between ballet exams- we had a great BBQ in the garden and Russ even brought the TV out into the garden so we could watch the England match (no comment on that!).
Yesterday I went to my grannies to sit with her for a couple of hours, then I totally skived off of work and went into the town and spent some money on myself :) haha, it was brilliant! I haven't done that in ages, I was a total girl, I brought some clothes, false nails and false eyelashes, got a bit of makeup and some hair stuff then I came home and gave myself a haircut and stuck on my false nails and eyelashes (I can hardly type now). That was well needed.
Then in the evening, last night, I went and gave a lecture on local archaeology and history to Cherry Hinton Local History Society, it was a great evening and I had a suprise visitor along, Barry Fuller, from the Cambridge Archaeology Field Group - he had been involved with CHLHS 25 years ago and is a great friend of mine, he'd been trying to get the chance to come along for the last year and had finally made it, so it turned out to be a great evening all round :)
I must now finish off the War Ditches work I have been doing and have a week free of appointments to get it done, wish me luck!

I went to the Friends of Cherry Hinton Hall committee meeting last night. It is so encouraging to see how far we've come since starting the group last year. What a difference people can make when we get together! Cherry Hinton Hall is such a lovely place and one of the only green spaces which seperates Cherry Hinton village from becoming a complete suberb of Cambridge (along with the green expence of Marshall's Airport). The Friends of CHH will be having a stand at this years famous Cambridge Folk Festival which is held in the grounds of the Hall, so if you're there please pop along and see us and find out more. We are also running a great, fun packed open day - Cherry Hinton Community Groups Fair
Saturday 24th July 2010
Cherry Hinton Village Centre 12noon-4pm
FREE admission.
Raffle, tea, cakes, lots of stalls to look at, displays various groups, activities for families...all sorts!
The Friends of Cherry Hinton Hall are hosting the fair and would like to invite all local groups, clubs and organisations to come and have a stall to promote, recruit and generally raise awareness - free of charge! A great oppertunity for all the community to get together and have a fun afternoon!
For further details call Sandra Day: 01223 247639 / email: sandra.day1@ntlworld.com

Am now covered in big insect bites and calamine lotion from our explore of Sawston spooky, swampy wood on Sunday. That'll teach me to go walking in woods with flip flops on!
I have been back down the cellers of Cherry Hinton Hall this morning to gather up and rescue more of the archives which were discovered there a couple of months ago.
Cambridge International School now rent the Hall building from the council and the teachers and pupils there have been a fantastic inspriation. They have taken real care and interest in their School Building and the history of the site and local area. I went out to visit them a couple of months ago to take them some old maps, records and artifacts relating to the building and site. Also to show the children around the parkland and point out and show them all the lumps and bumps on the ground, telling them what we think is hidden beneath.
While I took some of the children round the park one of the teachers did a history trail in the Hall building which included a visit down the cellers. The children came up from the celler clutching handfulls of interesting old documents from the mid 20th century and paper work which they had discovered down there. There were things like old Folk Festival programmes from the 1970's, Royal Ballet tickets, City Council amenities records and all sorts. I then went down the celler to see where these had all come from and I found there was a very sizable amount of these documents all piled up on a ledge and some in old decaying wooden crates. The cellers, were vey dark - no electricity - and very, very damp, with running water culverts in places. The documents were in need of being removed and examined as soon as possible. So it was agreed that I could go back sometime soon and take the archives out and remove them to the Cherry Hinton Community Archives Group  (CHCCAN) for examination and if appropriate, recording and making public via our website.
A couple of weeks ago both myself and Jon Phillips (CHCCAN) went down in the cellers to begin sorting this lost archive out but not having electricity and the sheer amount which was there, we decided to take a sample of the archive and come back another day with re-enforcements and better lighting!
On Saturday the Cambridge International School was awarded a CYPHA award (Cambridgeshire Young Persons History Award) at the CALH (Cambridgeshire Association for Local History) AGM & awards in Toft, Cambridge. I put the school forward for this award as I was so impressed by the work the children had produced on their local area and the interest they had shown in the history and how the teachers had been so encouraging. You can see more about this on their website and more about the awards at CALH
Today I have been back to the cellers, along with Jon & Nicola Phillips to retreive the remaining archives. This time we had much better lighting (it is very spooky down in those cellers!) and we spend a good couple of hours ferrying the archives out of the celler to my car. There was so much! A lot had, sadly, been so badly damaged by water and had rotted but a huge amount was still fine - there was a lot of old council reocrds from the 1930's to late 1970's. Lots of interest, with things like parks and gardens records, items from the allotment society and records of the Cambridge Festival etc. My car was filled - literally! As so much of the material didn't actually relate to the Hall itself or just to Cherry Hinton village, I decided to give my friend Phillip Sauders a ring. Phillip is a well known Cambridgeshire archivist working at Cambridgeshire Archives (formally Cambrigeshire Records Office). I had a chat about what we had and asked him if I could pop up to Shire Hall to the Cambs Archives so that he could have a look and see if he was interested. He agreed, so off I went, car nearly touching the floor with the weight! (good job I have an old banger). Phillip and one of the conservators came out to the car and had a good look and decided they would be able to take the archives in and sort them out, which was fantastic news :)
Once they have had chance to go through them properly, Phillip will get back to me with an update and we'll see how it goes.
So all in all, I'm very pleased that we were able to rescue these documents before they degraded any further.

Come along to the general meeting of the Friends of Cherry Hinton Hall tonight , Wednesday 19th May, 7pm at the Baptist Church Centre, Fisher's Lane, Cherry Hinton.
It's a great chance to see who we are and what we do. Come along a see the new plans for the Hall grounds and have your input. We will also be judging the logo competition which the local schools have taken part in and a representative of the newly proposed City Farm will be along to tell us about the plans for that! For more info visit:
www.cherryhintonhall.com

Just had a great walk about meeting, between the Cambridge Council, Cambridge Folk Festival and the Friends of Cherry Hinton Hall, at the lovely park of Cherry Hinton Hall Cambridge.
There's lots of great new plans for the site and everyone is working together, really bringing back the meaning of community :) You can find out more about the plans for Cherry Hinton Hall and news about the site by visiting the Friends of Cherry Hinton Hall website:
www.cherryhintonhall.com