Some twenty-five years later, the membership of the Merseyside Archaeological Society currently stands at 101 full or concessionary members 14 family members and 18 institutional members. Membership runs for 12 months from January to January though exception is sometimes made for those joining late in the year!
Lecture and Field Meetings
The Annual General Meeting is held on the third Thursday in April.
An events sub-committee is responsible for organising a series of lecture meetings on the third Thursday of each month between September and April. These meetings are free to members but a small charge of £1 is made for visiting non-member - see Evening Lectures.
During the summer months the sub-committee also organised several Saturday field trips to places of historical and archaeological interest and, if possible, one residential weekend away each year is also organised by the Events sub-committee.
Other Society Activities
The Merseyside Archaeological Society’s Graveyard Survey Group is currently working on a survey of the graveyard at Childwall Parish Church. This small group, which is able to provide on site training, is always seeking new members. The group will welcome members of the Society interested in learning more. More details can be found on the Fieldwork page.
The Society regularly contributes to the National Festival of Archaeology and in 2009 organised a poster display and two days of conducted tours of the nationally important Neolithic burial monument, the Calderstones. Members of the Society also supervised 5-days of excavation and survey at the National Trust Property, Speke Hall, under the overall direction of Carolanne King, archaeologist for the National Trust. Excavation in the new orchard demonstrated that archaeology had survived at a considerable depth below the present surface in the area where the old farm buildings were thought to have existed.
The Society regularly takes a stall at local history fairs in Cheshire, Wirral and at the annual Local History Fair held in St George’s Hall, Liverpool as well at meetings of the Council for British Archaeology (North West). These occasions provide an ideal opportunity to bring the activities of the Society to the wider archaeological and historical public and also offer an opportunity to sell copies of our Journals and other publications.
Conferences
The Society arranges a major conference approximately every 3 years, the proceedings of which are included, whenever possible, in the next Journal. Recent conferences include:
A Quarter Century of Archaeology on Merseyside held on 10th November 2001;
The Archaeology of Merseyside 1500 to 1750 on 15th November 2003;
Building the Future, Revealing the Past: The Archaeology of Merseyside 1750-1900 on 18th October 2008.
The proceedings of the 2001 and 2003 conferences were published in Volume 12 of the Merseyside Archaeological Society Journal.
Involvement with other Institutions
University of Liverpool
i) Merseyside Archaeological Society currently provides an annual prize to the first year undergraduate student in the School of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology (SACE), University of Liverpool, who attains the highest marks in the examination on ‘Methods in Archaeology’.
ii) Members of the Society are welcome at all open lectures organised through the School of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology. A list of lectures which include topics from British and European prehistory to the archaeology of the Ancient Near East are reproduced in the quarterly Society Newsletters.
The Merseyside Archaeological Society has also agreed to provide the skill and expertise to assist with the production of and final publication of a booklet to accompany the exhibition.
Centre for Lifelong Learning – Continuing Education
Merseyside Archaeological Society liases with course providers to present modules on many different aspects of archaeology.
Museum of Liverpool (Field Archaeology Unit)
Merseyside Archaeological Society publishes grey literature/past excavations undertaken by museum staff and is contributing material for the new Museum of Liverpool History Detective Gallery Mapping interactive
Merseyside Historic Environment Record (Dr Ben Croxford)
The
management of the Merseyside Historic Environment Record (HER)
transferred on 1 April 2014 to the Merseyside Environmental Advisory
Service (MEAS), having been based at National Museums Liverpool till
that date..
Through
funding from the five borough councils of Merseyside and support from
English Heritage, the HER is now in the process of being digitised.
During this process the skeleton digital records (GIS point data and
limited information on the record concerned) can be requested via the
HER enquiries service.
Enquiries should be sent to Merseyside.her@eas.sefton.gov.uk|,
specifying National Grid coordinates for the centre point of the area
you wish searched and a radius for the search area. Given the
developing nature of the HER it is not currently possible to run
thematic or period based searches. Data will be supplied as GIS MapInfo
tables within seven working days. There is no charge for this service.
If
you require additional information, including details on sites
identified in the digital data supplied in response to an enquiry, you
may request an appointment to review the paper records held at the HER
office in Bootle. There is a charge of £60 per hour, or part hour, and
access is by appointment only. This charge applies to all commercial and
non-commercial/research enquiries. Developers and consultants are
strongly encouraged to make use of the service as a source of
information to support the planning application process.
Merseyside Industrial History Society
Merseyside Archaeological Society participates in joint meetings and field trips.
CBA North West
Merseyside Archaeological Society is affiliated to this body.
Norton Priory
Merseyside Archaeological society members have provided assistance at Open Days.
National Trust
Merseyside Archaeological Society members have supervised and participated in field work carried out at Speke Hall.
Liverpool City Council
Merseyside Archaeological Society contributes towards the on-going debate regarding the future of The Calderstones.
Aims and Objectives of the Merseyside Archaeology Society today
Due to changes in archaeological practice and the passage of time, the Merseyside Archaeological Society has moved forward and changed direction marginally since its inception in 1976, although the aims and objectives of the Society remain today much as those set out above. Full Rules of the Society are available to download.