Publication unveils community’s history

Everyone can find out about Shillington’s past thanks to an information leaflet called History All Around Us.

The pocket-sized pamphlet from Shillington History Society features a 3 mile walk around the village where many residents experienced their first taste of archaeology in 2013.

Their excavations in garden test pits added a great deal to what was known previously about Shillington’s past and the leaflet brings readers bang up to date.

Last year’s digs unearthed a huge range of buried objects including oyster shells and bones that remained from meals eaten hundreds of years ago.

There were coins and personal items such as clay pipes, buttons and badges. Thousands of shards of pottery were discovered including rare 3,000 year old examples from the Bronze Age. Even more ancient was a piece of flint that had been knapped to form a sharp blade used in the Stone Age up about 10,000 years ago.

The leaflet mentions the most interesting finds and what they reveal about Shillington which turns out to be a much older village than previously thought.

Shillington History Society chairman, Derek Turner, paid tribute to the efforts of over one hundred residents, relatives and friends who dug test pits in gardens around the village and painstakingly sorted through the soil for evidence.

He said: “This was a fine community project where enthusiastic amateurs co-operated with experts to discover how people lived here long ago. Thanks to their efforts, we know far more about Shillington than we did before.”

Copies of the leaflet, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, are available for free around Shillington including at The Crown pub.