Leicestershire Festival of Archaeology’s Programme Announced

The popular Festival of Leicestershire and Rutland Archaeology returns in July 2023 with over 100 heritage events across the two counties.

This year, the Festival will be held between Saturday 1st and Sunday 30th July, running alongside the Council For British Archaeology’s national Festival of Archaeology.

The Festival offers guided heritage walks, talks from some of the counties’ leading heritage experts, self-guided walks to enjoy at your own pace and many more family friendly activities, exhibitions and hands-on events across Leicestershire and Rutland.

Highlights include:

• A rare opportunity to take a guided-walk to Hallaton Castle, the finest surviving motte-and-bailey castle in Leicestershire, and to Hamilton and Ingarsby, two of the best preserved deserted villages.
• A chance to travel back in time to Roman Leicester with family fun activities in the city’s Cultural Quarter
• Artefact handling sessions with archaeologist Mathew Morris, one of the team who found King Richard III.
• Guided Walks with local historian Jim Butler whose Hidden Histories of Leicester videos have been a YouTube hit.
• Tours of the Glenfield Railway Tunnel, one of the oldest railway tunnels in the world.

The theme for this year’s Festival is ‘Archaeology and Creativity!’ Archaeology is about exploration and how it can lead into imagination and storytelling. There are many ways to bring to life the material that archaeologists uncover and tell the stories of the places and people around us – through art, creative writing and poetry for instance, as well as music and theatre.

Festival co-ordinator, Peter Liddle, said ‘we are very excited by this year’s programme with new events and some old favourites. There are events to be enjoyed every single day of the Festival and we look forward to sharing so much of our local heritage and inspiring both young and old’.

This year, the Festival is also hosting a an art and creative writing competition. The competition is FREE and open to all. During the Festival, we want people to visit new places in Leicestershire and Rutland, or revisit old ones, find inspiration from their trips and write a story or a poem or create a piece of art work inspired by the things they have seen.

So let’s get creative with archaeology and celebrate the rich and diverse heritage of Leicestershire and Rutland!

Where will your imagination take you during this year’s Festival of Archaeology?

Events are organised by local heritage groups around the two counties who are keen to share their area’s rich archaeology. The full programme of events can be found at: https://leicsfieldworkers.org/festival-of-archaeology/

The Festival of Leicestershire and Rutland Archaeology is part of the Council of British Archaeology’s national Festival of Archaeology which runs from 15th-30th July. To find out more about the national Festival and what else is going on across Britain visit https://www.archaeologyuk.org/festival.html

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