Leicestershire Landscapes

Preface

This book is largely made up of the papers presented to the 25th anniversary conference of the Leicestershire Museums Archaeological Fieldwork Group held on 7th and 8th September 2001 at the University of Leicester, which was well supported by the local archaeological community. The papers attempt to synthesise the most recent knowledge of Leicestershire and Rutland’s archaeology. It is some twenty years since the last attempt to do this in the publication of ‘Leicestershire Archaeology – The Present State of Knowledge’ (Liddle 1982). It is the membership of the Fieldwork Group, along with the Museums’ Survey Team and Archaeological Unit and, in more recent years, the University of Leicester Archaeological Services and other contracting units, that have expanded our body of knowledge so dramatically in this time.

Acknowledgements

The editors would like to thank the contributors who have made time in busy schedules to complete their papers (even if this has sometimes taken some time!). We would particularly like to thank Richard Buckley, Nick Cooper and Peter Liddle who produced papers to fill gaps caused by speakers at the conference who were unable to complete their contributions. It is regrettable that completion of the volume has taken 21⁄2 years, but most papers have been updated to reflect recent discoveries.

Special thanks to Kathy Harman for taking the brunt of the practical organisation of the conference and Ernie Miller for chairing the conference and dealing with the finances. The committee of the Leicestershire Museums Archaeological Fieldwork Group have been unceasingly supportive and we would like to thank those who attended the conference and paid for this book in advance for their patience.