
I discovered this excellent article on openness in archaeology whilst considering copyright issues for the Newmarket Farm Dig documentation archive. I am a strong believer in such an approach – though not everyone agrees.

I discovered this excellent article on openness in archaeology whilst considering copyright issues for the Newmarket Farm Dig documentation archive. I am a strong believer in such an approach – though not everyone agrees.
This is to test and compare the Open Source offline capable blog app. Blogilo with QTM. Blogilo has more features.
This is a post to test the Open Source offline capable blog app., QTM, which I have installed on my Ubuntu laptop.
It works!
Here I am making public the dates of my forthcoming volunteer dig days! The next three days are:
| Location | When | Summary | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Castle Hill car park, Sea View Way, Brighton and Hove, Brighton BN2 6NT, UK | 2026-10-20 at 10:30 – 11:30 | Castle Hill Healthwalk | Castle Hill Healthwalk: Explore this stunning chalk grassland National Nature Reserve. (When conditions are muddy, and on the last Tuesday of the month, the walk follows an alternative route around Bullock Hill, opposite the reserve.)Meeting Place: Castle Hill National Nature Reserve Car Park, Woodingdean, off Falmer Road (B2123), just north of the junction with Bexhill Road. … |
| Castle Hill car park, Sea View Way, Brighton and Hove, Brighton BN2 6NT, UK | 2026-10-27 at 10:30 – 11:30 | Castle Hill Healthwalk | Castle Hill Healthwalk: Explore this stunning chalk grassland National Nature Reserve. (When conditions are muddy, and on the last Tuesday of the month, the walk follows an alternative route around Bullock Hill, opposite the reserve.)Meeting Place: Castle Hill National Nature Reserve Car Park, Woodingdean, off Falmer Road (B2123), just north of the junction with Bexhill Road. … |
| Castle Hill car park, Sea View Way, Brighton and Hove, Brighton BN2 6NT, UK | 2026-11-03 at 10:30 – 11:30 | Castle Hill Healthwalk | Castle Hill Healthwalk: Explore this stunning chalk grassland National Nature Reserve. (When conditions are muddy, and on the last Tuesday of the month, the walk follows an alternative route around Bullock Hill, opposite the reserve.)Meeting Place: Castle Hill National Nature Reserve Car Park, Woodingdean, off Falmer Road (B2123), just north of the junction with Bexhill Road. … |
We work on site every Friday and Sunday, 10am-4pm, from April to December 2013. Volunteers and other visitors are most welcome. We meet at the Falmer Road Car Park, Woodingdean (just N of the junction with Bexhill Rd) but please contact me beforehand in case we have to cancel for any reason.
David Cuthbertson: scienceinthegreen@yahoo.co.uk
My 12 year old niece just told me her favourite word was ‘epic’ – which is what I am feeling right now!
Managed to split the latest draft version of our book into manageable chunks and post them as a series of pages on this blog. I even included a couple of images.
It is still very much incomplete. Some parts need updating, some rewriting, more research and background reading is planned, and images need editing and permission obtained to before making them public.
Have fun reading – and please send your comments!
Feeling frustrated that transferring our book to the blog is taking more time than I thought! But it is a big book – and growing. And I definitely think it is worth the effort.
As soon as licencing (copyright) issues have been sorted out, figures will also be added. This includes maps and other illustrations.
Both Peggy and I hope that by making the book accessible before it is finished, we will be able to gain valuable feedback.
Just downloaded WordPress for BlackBerry. Want to see if I can compose posts offline – so I thought I would write this!


Two hundred metres above the nearby English Channel, Newmarket Hill crowns that part of the South Downs which lies between the towns of Brighton to the west and Lewes to the east, and between the villages of Rottingdean to the south and Falmer to the north. It’s top is in the parish of Kingston near Lewes, the village of which is about a mile and half away. It is now only about a mile to the north-east of the relatively modern village of Woodingdean and a mile and a half to the north-west of the deserted medieval hamlet of Balsdean. Its south-eastern slopes form a part of Castle Hill National Nature Reserve which is a site of European importance. This blog is about the history and ecology of its surrounding downland.

In April 2013 I managed – as a volunteer for Natural England – a community based excavation of the site of a 19th century farm labourer’s cottage, farmyard and barns called Newmarket Farm, just inside Castle Hill NNR, near the summit of Newmarket Hill. It was built in 1830 and was the birth place of my mother in 1942, shortly before it was requisitioned for military training by British and Canadian troops stationed both locally and further afield in SE England.

David Cuthbertson: scienceinthegreen@gmail.com
Some dates for your diary (best viewed by clicking on ‘Agenda’ tab):