AGM 20 March 2011

SSARG's third AGM was held at North Cadbury Village Hall and 27 members attended, apologies having been received from Michael Costen, the President and Neil Tinkley. The meeting was chaired by Clare Randall, in the President’s absence.  A get well card for Michael was circulated for signature.

Under 'Matters Arising', the Treasurer, Tony Dickinson, reported that the suggestion from last year’s AGM, that the society should apply for Charitable status, no longer applied as the annual turnover this year did not exceed £5,000.  Having announced that, in 2010/2011, there had been a £57.32 deficit of income over expenditure, the Treasurer added that SSARG had a healthy balance of £3009.28.  He informed the members that he had been pleasantly surprised during the year, because there had been a steady stream of new people joining the Group to replace some of those who joined during the Castle Farm dig and did not continue their membership.

The Chair succinctly listed the year’s varied activities (fieldwork being covered in detail in the later presentations).  Talks included: Barry Lane on White Coal and Lead Mining on Mendip; the Duncan Black Memorial Lecture by Chris Webster on the WW2 archaeology of Somerset and The Conservation of Archaeological Finds by Laura Ratcliffe.  Outings and social events had included: a guided walk on the landscape between Donyatt and Ilminster; a Time Team visit to Wincanton; the Archaeology of Dartmoor; a Fossil day in Lyme Regis; behind the scenes at the Roman Baths and our contribution to the Festival of Archaeology, the Sutton Montis Exhibition opened by Valerie Singleton.  Liz concluded with the good news that a shop in Wincanton was going to raise funds for us by selling signed copies of a Terry Pratchett book or Discworld badges.  She reminded the audience that we were to have a talk by Julian Richards in May and a workshop by James Gerrard at the beginning of April.

The Research Director, Clare Randall, gave the Annual Report and listed future plans for the Society.  As in previous years, this would be lodged with the HER, so the full report will be available soon for members.  The Parsonage Farm work had resulted in proving that there was a Romano British landscape with an Iron Age past, with a possible Bronze Age linear along the terrace; the radio carbon dates for Chrissell’s Green had come out as 1300BC (Early and Middle Bronze Age) and at Townsend Farm, Poyntington, it had been very encouraging to find a sherd during fieldwalking which seemed to come from the tail end of the Black Burnished ware industry around Poole Harbour.  This was all the more frustrating as the farming activities would prevent access to the area for most of this year.

The Chair, Treasurer, and Secretary were re-elected, proposed by Nigel Harvey and seconded by Peter Wright, and the Committee was re-elected en bloc, proposed by Anita Jewell-Harris, seconded by Giles Cooper.  Giles Cooper proposed a vote of thanks, which was unanimously supported, to the members of the Committee for all their hard work.

It was agreed to write to S.C.C. asking what was going to happen to The South Cadbury Shield now that Yeovil Museum was closing.

The Research Director suggested that the Group should be more proactive in making concerns felt about local archaeological issues.

After the business part of the meeting, there were 3 very informative presentations on activities in which SSARG had been involved; Liz Caldwell on geophysics; Dave Durkin on the Sturminster Newton Project and Clare Randall on work at Parsonage Farm and Poyntington.

The Annual Report is available to view here as a pdf document (685kB).