The Duke and Duchess of Devonshire will visit Grange Gardens on Friday to mark the start of Eastbourne’s first community excavation with over 50 volunteers signed up to take part.
Beginning this weekend, a team of more than 50 volunteers led by Eastbourne Museum Service will carry out the first ever archaeological excavation of Grange Gardens as part of the national CBA Festival of British Archaeology, being run in partnership with Eastbourne Natural History and Archaeology Society (ENHAS) and supported by the BBC’s learning project ‘Hands on History – Dig!’
Situated close to Eastbourne town centre, the site is not thought to have been excavated before and visitors are invited to come along and watch the excavation in action with daily guided tours between 10am – 12pm and 2pm – 4pm for the chance to take a look at what has been discovered.
Eastbourne Borough Council Cabinet Member for Tourism and Leisure Cllr Neil Stanley said “We are very excited to launch our first community excavation this weekend and I can’t wait to see what we dig up! Since we first announced our summer excavation the response from people coming forward to volunteer has been overwhelming and it’s great that we can offer the chance for so many to get involved. I hope we’ll see lots of visitors come along to the site during the excavation period to support our volunteers and really get hands on with local history!”
The excavation is taking place over two weeks from 16 – 31 July and will include a day of historic crafts demonstrations with East Sussex Archaeology and Museum Partnership (ESAMP) on Tuesday 26 July. Budding archaeologists, keen historians and the local community are invited to come along between 10am – 12pm or 2pm – 4pm and watch traditional crafts in action.
Museum Officer for Eastbourne Borough Council Jo Seaman, who is organising the event, said “We are extremely grateful to the Duke of Devonshire, the Trustees of the Compton Estate and the residents living near the Gardens for supporting us and allowing us to investigate this site. As this has been a private garden for over 100 years, the area has been relatively undisturbed so we should be able to learn a great deal about the early history of this part of the town. I’m extremely pleased that the excavation has had such a great reaction from the local community and excited that there are so many who will be getting their hands dirty to discover the heritage of our town.”
Although Grange Gardens is private property with no public access, permission has been granted for it to be open most days between 10am - 12pm and 2pm -4pm and access will be via the entrance on Grassington Road.
This summer’s excavation is the latest project being run by the Eastbourne Museum Service who have been quietly working on a major audit of the impressive archaeological and local history collections that have been under wraps since the closure of the old Towner Gallery in 2005 and are now stored in the basement of the Town Hall.
With more than 90 new volunteers signed up to help with collection based projects, the Museum Service is keen to bring archaeology and heritage to an even wider audience. For more information and to find out about volunteering call 01323 415396.
