Just catching up on a post I meant to write a while back – the day after I surveyed the site in the snow. Whilst the site itself was only covered in a shallow few inches of snow, the snow on the Juggs Road (Drove Avenue) just on the northern side of the ridge leading […]
Category: Science
500 on the Dewey Classification System – Science
Another hurdle has been cleared! Smiths Gore, who manage Brighton & Hove City Council’s farmland portfolio (including Castle Hill Nature Reserve), have obtained formal permission for me to go ahead with my excavation project. There is now only one more permission to be obtained – namely that of being able to dig on a nature […]
Time Team get a lot done in just 3 days – but they are professionals, and they know what they are doing. Their routines are just that – routine. What we see is really just the tip of a very efficient iceberg. I found a guide to this archaeological routine in a publication by the […]
I like snow – so am looking forward to helping clear the rest of the site of its brambles, etc tomorrow – in about 10cm or more of snow! Malcolm Emery, the Reserve Warden, agreed with me that we should go ahead as planned – unless it snows again in the night. I was up […]
Thanks to Malcolm Emery and a couple of colleagues from Natural England, as well as a group from the South Downs Volunteer Ranger Service, at least half the site was cleared yesterday (Weds 10th January 2013), and a second day has been planned to complete the job. The farmyard, in the centre of the photo, […]
Just visited the picture website Geograph. It has lots of wonderful pictures people have taken of geographical locations all over the UK. I thought I would load all those that people have taken of Castle Hill Nature Reserve.
Taken in 2010…
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Within the enclosure are many 1 m square areas marked out with green string. Castle Hill itself is the hill straight ahead – this part of the reserve is on the slopes of Newmarket Hill. (27 February, 2010)[/caption]
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Yesterday I was really pleased to receive a positive reply to my proposal to excavate the site of Newmarket Farm from Natural England’s, Senior Reserves Manager, Malcolm Emery. I wrote my proposal to conduct an archaeological dig shortly before Christmas, and sent a copy to Malcolm Emery, who is responsible for Castle Hill National Nature […]
Welcome to Newmarket Hill – a South Down Blog!

In 1830, in the heart of the South Downs, a remote farm labourer’s cottage and barns was built. This blog records my efforts to discover some of its many stories.