Time Team - your local history research group is moving on from Pandemic restrictions to holding face-to-face monthly meetings again in the Community Centre in Monk Fryston and Burton Salmon Village Hall.
At our May AGM, we were happy to report that despite the lockdown we had made good progress on research – for example documenting the history of Roselea School in Hillam and the intriguing history of Hillam Hall and its associated buildings. Reports were made too on local quarrying activities many people are not aware of the many quarries that once operated in our area and more discoveries were made about our local ‘lost’ trackways.
All these things add to the growing tapestry of information we are compiling of the history of our local townships of Burton Salmon, Hillam and Monk Fryston.
We were able share some of this with our programme of guided walking tours in Monk Fryston. So far, we have taken 3 groups around the village with 2 more scheduled for Burton Salmon. To join a walk please contact Sue Newton on 07912 270928 to reserve your place.
We have enjoyed two local talks. Fittingly St Wilfrid’s hosted the talk by James Burn ‘Fryston: Farmstead of the Frisians: what were Frisians doing in Medieval Yorkshire?’ There has been a long dispute whether the origin of our place name Monk Fryston was derived from ‘Monks Freestone’ as a result of our long association with the monastery at Selby and stone quarrying to build the Abbey, or was it ‘Fryston, Homestead of the Frisians’. Our speaker came down firmly on the side of the latter ‘Homestead of the Frisians’.
The second talk was by Simon Tomson who led our successful excavations at Monk Fryston Hall 2014-16. Simon regaled us with his recent discoveries using aerial photography in Lincolnshire.
Later this month on Tuesday 26th July we are holding another public talk at 7.30pm at the Community Centre, when local archaeologist Dr. Jon Kenny will tell us about ‘New Discoveries of Romano British and Iron Age settlements in the Vale of York’. All welcome.
Another item to report is of potentially much wider interest. The Time Team have been in discussions with a consultancy working for Selby Council on a new Heritage Interpretation Masterplan for the District. The aim is to identify heritage stories and the themes which connect them to share with residents and visitors to the area. We received some positive feedback after they reviewed our publications and they wished every village in the Selby area had such records…. and to think - nothing existed in 2009 when we set up Time Team.
