Founded in 1955, the Enfield Archaeological Society is active in carrying out research and fieldwork in and around the London Borough of Enfield, in order to understand and preserve its history.
Our main aims are: to promote the practice and study of archaeology in the district; to record and preserve all finds in the borough and encourage others to allow their finds to be recorded by the Society; and to co-operate with neighbouring societies with similar aims.
Membership is open to anybody with an interest in the past.
The Enfield Archaeological Society is affiliated to the London and Middlesex Archaeological Society; the President for the society is Harvey Sheldon BSc, FSA, FRSA
Dig With UsAll members of the society over the age of 16 are welcome to dig with us – no experience is necessary. We typically run at least one dig a year in the summer, on the site of Henry VIII's Elsyng Palace with other work often cropping up through the rest of the year.
We will be returning to Forty Hall this summer, from the 9th to 23rd of July, continuing our hunt for the inner gatehouse of Henry VIII's Elsyng Palace. Sunday 16th July will be a public open day.
If you'd like to dig with us you'll need to join the society.
Some frequently asked questions about digging with us are available here.
We have finally reached the end of our Tudor Palace contribution to the Stories of Enfield project and I am pleased to say that it has been a great success with both publications now available and selling quite well while all the other aims of the project were fully accomplished.When this all began over 18 months ago, we did wonder if we had bitten off more than we could chew with a mixture of public and educational events, oral history and film making plus the publication of both an academic and a popular work all built around our annual Elsyng Palace excavation.
We would not have been able to succeed in all this without the extraordinarily hard work running the overall project carried out by Jan Metcalf and Judith Stones. Their experience of such events plus their local knowledge and contacts brought everything together and steered the whole project to its successful conclusion.
On behalf of the Society and also of the many local citizens touched by different aspects of the project, I offer my sincere thanks and appreciation for everything they did.
Thanks also to Martin Dearne for the academic report and for running the dig under somewhat different circumstances than usual. Particular thanks also to Neil and John Pinchbeck for creating the wonderful popular account of the history, archaeology and excavation of the site from its origins to the summer of this year (out now! - Ed.).
A short film about our 2022 annual excavation on the site of Elsyng, Enfield's lost Tudor Palace in the grounds of Forty Hall, made by Footpath Films and funded by The National Lottery Heritage fund as part of the Stories of Enfield project is now available to watch online: see below and enfarchsoc.org/elsyng
Come and learn about 14 incredible stories exploring elements of Enfield's heritage, history, and identity - from river communities, stained glass windows in Southgate and Bangladeshi migration through to London's only vinyard and Edmonton's boxing bishop, and of course the Tudor royal palace of Elsyng, which we excavated this summer.
Locations and dates (free entry):
As predicted, we finished backfilling and re-turfing (with what litte turf there was) and had cleared the site by 11 o'clock this morning.
That concludes this year's exploration of Elsyng Palace - we came for the gatehouse and left with a moat, and more unanswered questions, but we're used to this by now - one of the defining characteristics of Elsyng is its unpredictability owing to the ad-hoc way in which it was built and modified over several centuries. If we knew what we were going to find we wouldn't need to dig it in the first place!
Post-excavation work will begin now, but we already have a list of targets in mind for next year, probably beginning with another trench close to trench 4, to try and find out how far west the outer courtyard's northern range of buildings extends, since we didn't find it as expected in trench 4.
We've also got our eyes on a large platform or mound not far away from this year's site, in the woods to the west of the lime tree avenue, which may be another contender for a gatehouse location.
This would be pushing us further into the area of the inner courtyard, which is where the more high-status buildings of the palace, such as the chapel and royal apartments would have been, so even if the inner gatehouse continues to elude us, there's every chance of finding some new and exciting archaeology.
A big thank-you to all our diggers this year who braved the sunshine and didn't complain (too loudly) about the lack of tangible structure in this year's trenches, and as ever a special thank-you to those of you who mucked in with the less glamorous work including backfilling and lugging equipment up and down the hill every day. Special thanks also to Forty Hall farm, for the loan of wheelbarrows and storage space for our site gear on the farm.
This year's dig was funded by the Stories Of Enfield project, organised by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and Enfield Council, to develop and deliver a range of creative community heritage activities across the borough, and has helped us to reach a wide audience including local residents and schools, and crucially has enabled us to publish our latest book Monarchs Courtiers and Technocrats.
A comprehensive history of the palace and people who owned and lived in it, the book also features a complete technical publication of all the archaeological work we've done on the site since 2004 plus a summary of the original work by the EAS in 1963-67 which rediscovered the palace site.
If you prefer a little lighter reading, we are also working on a smaller book, to be published later in the year, which will include an account of this year's dig.
