Clemency Cooper
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clemencycooper.bsky.social
Clemency Cooper
@clemencycooper.bsky.social
390 followers 410 following 89 posts
Landscape Archaeologist, Engagement Practitioner | PhD @york.ac.uk @anthropocenebio.bsky.social‬ | Trustee @archaeologyuk.bsky.social | Palaeoecology and perceptions of natural and cultural heritage in the North York Moors | Views own
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clemencycooper.bsky.social
This week, I leave my role as Community Participation Coordinator @camunivmuseums.bsky.social Thank you to my colleagues in the University and wider community working tirelessly across the town-gown web. I've been a Cambridge resident for 20 years and never felt more connected with my local area.
A woman wears a blue t-shirt with a University of Cambridge Museums logo, and holds up her hand in front of a display of drawn hands on paper, hanging up in front of the window of a shopping centre.
July 30, 2025 at 11:29 AM
clemencycooper.bsky.social
This #BogDay seems apt to announce that I am starting a PhD @york.ac.uk in September with @anthropocenebio.bsky.social and the Department of Archaeology. I will be researching the past ecology of the North Yorks Moors and using this evidence to explore views about the future landscape #MoorViews 🪧
A footpath across a flat moor landscape with a grey cloudy sky. The text reads 'A new path #moorviews'
July 27, 2025 at 5:10 PM
clemencycooper.bsky.social
A mindful moment connecting with people past and present at tonight's @archaeologyuk.bsky.social #FestivalofArchaeology talk about bringing the prehistoric archaeology at Stanwick Lakes to life🏺
A hand holds a cup of tea in a cream mug on the left, with a laptop showing the opening slide of a 'This is Archaeology' talk on the right. In the middle is an open chocolate bar on a lap and in the distance is a lit candle in front of a log burner.
July 24, 2025 at 6:11 PM
clemencycooper.bsky.social
Thank you to volunteer Ian for the tour and to everyone at Flag Fen for the care you show for this living history. I wonder just how many generations of soay sheep have grazed here since I last visited! 🧵4/
Brown horned sheep, with self-moulting fleece graze dried grass under willow trees, with a reconstructed Bronze Age turfed wooden roundhouse in the far distance, the inner side of a walkway across a lush vegetated drainage dyke.
July 6, 2025 at 8:50 AM
clemencycooper.bsky.social
I last saw the Must Farm log boats in situ on an open day in 2011 when their future seemed uncertain so it was great to finally see them undergoing conservation. The journey from discovery to exhibition is long, complex and expensive, and I think it's valuable to showcase all steps along the way 🧵4/
A window onto 'the biggest archaeological chiller unit in the country' showing yellow tanks with scaffolding poles holding Bronze Age log boats submerged in polyethylene glycol. To the right is an interpretation board titled 'Discovery' with an image of a boat being lifted onto a truck. A wooden boat hand carved from one long tree timber. The boat lies in clayey silt with sand bags to support its weight as it is excavated from the ground. The boat is wet and surrounded by the legs of people taking photographs and listening to a guide. An archaeologist wearing a yellow hard hat and hi-vis vest applies water using a pump spray to a long wooden boat supported by a row of sand bags. They are on the slope of a clay quarry pit with a windmill in the far distance against a bright blue sky. There are long shadows of a line of visitors overlooking the scene.
July 6, 2025 at 8:44 AM
clemencycooper.bsky.social
More archaeological sites should take note of the approach to interpretation at Flag Fen. I think it's incredibly important to present a range of hypotheses, the evidence informing them and to recognise that 'we will never know' 🙌 🧵3/
A museum display case in the corner of a room titled 'The Flag Fen Wheel' displays fragments of wood. A black interpretation board with white writing to the right is riddled 'A Watery Mystery'. It sets out three hypotheses about the missing transom boards of the Must Farm log boats, a set of clues to inform these ideas and concludes with the answer: 'We will never know all of the facts and any hypothesis could be correct.'
July 6, 2025 at 8:28 AM
clemencycooper.bsky.social
The reconstructed causeway and accompanying mural are inspired additions to Flag Fen but following the second warmest June recorded in the UK and below average rainfall, it was a struggle to see this arid flatland as a dynamic waterscape.🧵 2/
A walkway of rough hewn upright timber posts starting to the left of the image leads to a long brick-built building with a mural of the prehistoric Fenland landscape. The building and walkway are set in a flat area with dried trodden grass, and a cloudy overcast sky.
July 6, 2025 at 8:23 AM
clemencycooper.bsky.social
Yesterday I returned to Flag Fen for the first time in over two decades. Seeing how much of the causeway timbers have decayed and disappeared in the intervening years was both a poignant reminder of the passage of time and the critical threat to the diminishing archaeological record of the Fens.🧵1/
A lined sunken tank of water with fragments of timber posts poking out. There is an overhead sprinkler system and the tank is surrounded by a fenced off walkway and enclosed in a building. The walls around the tank are painted with a reconstruction of the prehistoric Fenland landscape and the Bronze Age timber causeway preserved in the tank. A photo taken in low light levels of the same in situ Bronze Age causeway timbers captured over twenty years ago. The image shows an assortment of wet ancient timber planks and posts at different angles and lying collapsed on top of one another.
July 6, 2025 at 8:18 AM
clemencycooper.bsky.social
I've seen some wonderful heritage sites in and around #Cambridge this week but I always gravitate to this graffiti palimpsest when I think about archaeology on my doorstep - 🍆 and all!
A wall of graffiti on the right side of a pedestrian underpass. In the background is the word 'PAST' in large pink letters, which have been graffitied over by other tags and messages in different colours and directions on top of each other.
May 25, 2025 at 3:28 PM
clemencycooper.bsky.social
I've loved wearing my archaeology goggles bringing the past into focus for @archaeologyuk.bsky.social #OutAndAboutArchaeology this week. Strolling down the #Cambridge backs this afternoon, there was this stone mounting block which I must have passed countless times before but I've only now seen.
To the right is a well worn set of three stone steps, surrounded by bare stony ground. It is set back a couple of metres away from a paved footpath to the right, in amongst a wooded area. A woman wearing sunglasses and a bright yellow top stands to the left, with grassy meadows and trees behind her. There is the end of a spired chapel with a large window in the distance, next to a lower white building with lots of smaller windows.
May 25, 2025 at 2:58 PM
clemencycooper.bsky.social
I like that you're met with this bog oak at the entrance, a reminder of the dry woodland environment that would have existed before the inundation of water and the formation of the peat.
An interpretation panel at Wickes Fen titled 'Bog oaks' in front of an ancient oak log partially hidden by long grass cordoned off from a café area in the background.
May 24, 2025 at 4:47 PM
clemencycooper.bsky.social
Ventured to @nationaltrust.org.uk #WickenFen for #OutAndAboutArchaeology where work is underway to restore the drained fen peat, which is not only an important carbon sink and wildlife habitat, but provides a window on the past landscape www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/cambri...
A round black timber windmill with white sails stands in an area of long grass, with a wooden boardwalk with benches in front, a wooden bridge behind and a building in the distance. The sky is grey and cloudy.
May 24, 2025 at 4:32 PM
clemencycooper.bsky.social
I went searching for the grave of Ida Darwin, a campaigner for social reform and mental health services in #Cambridge Her husband was Horace Darwin, son of Charles Darwin, who co-founded Cambridge Scientific Instrument Company, later taken over by Robert Whipple of @whipplemuseum.bsky.social
A cream stone headstone is on the left, partially hidden by lush green spring vegetation. It reads 'Horace Darwin Born 1851 Died 1928 Son of Charles Darwin And in memory of his only son Erasmus Born Dec 1881 who fell near Ypres April 1915. Ida Darwin Wife of Horace Darwin Born 1854 Died 1946'. Other headstones are in the background on the right.
May 23, 2025 at 4:26 PM
clemencycooper.bsky.social
Inspiration for today's #OutAndAboutArchaeology walk came from Churchill College who recently shared a video about the Ascension Burial Ground in #Cambridge This 19th century cemetery includes the graves of over 2000 people years including 3 Nobel prize winners ascensionparishburialground.uk
A path through an overgrown graveyard with a stone cross memorial on the right under a yew tree and a line of headstones on the left.
May 23, 2025 at 4:17 PM
clemencycooper.bsky.social
And here's a selection of the other Iron Age and Roman road names found in Arbury and King's Hedges...
A road name reads 'Chariot Way' in front black railings and a block of flats and next to a tree lined pavement. A road sign reads 'Iceni Way' on a road corner lined with black railings. There's a hedge and a block of flats on the other side of the road. A road sign on the side of a white painted building reads 'Villa Court'. The sign is next to an arched walk through the building. A set of signs on the side of a brick building read 'Apollo Way leading to Neptune Close' and 'Legion Court, Consul Court, Tribune Court, Emperor Court, Pavilion Court, Forum Court, Temple Court'. There is a school building on the other side of a road alongside the building.
May 22, 2025 at 5:30 PM
clemencycooper.bsky.social
One of my favourite I-Spy activities is spotting archaeology themed road names and north #Cambridge is a hot spot! Ring Fort Road follows the circular plan of an Iron Age hillfort bank and ditch capturingcambridge.org/arbury/arbur... #OutAndAboutArchaeology
A free standing road sign reading 'Ring Fort Road' next to a tarmacked pavement and parched grass verge, with buildings beyond a fence in the background.
May 22, 2025 at 5:19 PM
clemencycooper.bsky.social
A very dry spring means the parch marks for World War II air raid shelters on Jesus Green #Cambridge are already showing #OutAndAboutArchaeology
Read more about the archaeology of this green space via this @ads-update.bsky.social entry archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/library/brow...
A closely mown green grassy park area with dried yellow lines in a rectangular outline. There is a path and tree in the background.
May 21, 2025 at 5:06 PM
clemencycooper.bsky.social
Today I've used the new Historic England Local Heritage Hub as my inspiration for #OutAboutArchaeology Not a perfect recreation, but here's my picture of Hobson's Conduit #Cambridge and here's a photo from HE's archives historicengland.org.uk/images-books...
A large hexagonal stone monument with carvings at the top and a pointed lead roof, surrounded by fencing.
May 21, 2025 at 4:25 PM
clemencycooper.bsky.social
One of the things I've appreciated sorting #OutAndAboutArchaeology this week are all the interpretation boards in #Cambridge This one highlights the incredible story of Olaudah Equiano, an influential writer and abolitionist, now commemorated by the Equiano Bridge near @museumoftechnology.com
An side-on view of an interpretation board about Olaudah Equiano attached to metal railings alongside a river with a modern metal arched bridge in the background.
May 20, 2025 at 8:29 PM
clemencycooper.bsky.social
A brilliant evening spent exploring the industrial heritage of #Cambridge at @museumoftechnology.com with the @camunivmuseums.bsky.social Community Panel and @whipplemuseum.bsky.social staff, exchanging insights and ideas. A few more steps clocked up for #OutAndAboutArchaeology too!
A tall narrow brick chimney towers above the nearby trees and buildings, and is reflected on the surface of a river in the foreground. Two large red iron mechanical wheeled pumps contained within a Victorian tiled building.
May 20, 2025 at 8:09 PM
clemencycooper.bsky.social
It's easy to miss the #Cambridge Core at this busy crossing so I enjoyed the chance to pause today and take a closer look for #OutAndAboutArchaeology It was inspired by finds from an excavation by @cambridgearch.bsky.social including a late Saxon cemetery and a medieval coin hoard.
A tall cylindrical bronze sculpture cast from a wood carved mould depicting layers of archaeological finds. The picture shows a close up of a crouched inhumation burial. In the background is a road, with pedestrian crossing to the left and a brick wall to the right. A tall bronze cylindrical sculpture is shown in shadow to the right of a four-way road crossing with the buildings of Museum of Cambridge and Kettle's Yard to the left.
May 20, 2025 at 1:12 PM
clemencycooper.bsky.social
The chapel was granted a licence to hold a fair on nearby Stourbridge Common which grew to become one of the largest medieval fairs in Europe.
www.cam.ac.uk/research/new...
A view of a grazed common with cattle in the far distance among a line of trees. There's a footpath along a river to the left.
May 19, 2025 at 7:37 AM
clemencycooper.bsky.social
Took a detour on my morning commute for #OutAndAboutArchaeology to see the Leper Chapel #Cambridge @cambridgeppf.bsky.social Dating to the 12th century, it is the city's second oldest complete building and nearly 85 years older than @cambridgeuni.bsky.social
cambridgeppf.org/leper-chapel/
A woman wearing a cycle helmet stands to the left of a stone built chapel with a path leading to the door.
May 19, 2025 at 7:35 AM
clemencycooper.bsky.social
Walk on to St Mary's Church #Bartlow and you'll see some breathtaking 15th century wall paintings. Originally a scene of St George slaying the dragon, it now stands alone triumphant #OutAndAboutArchaeology @archaeologyuk.bsky.social historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-...
A stone built church with round Norman crenellated tower at the far end, and nave, chancel and north transept at the near end. There is a cemetery with gravestones in the foreground. A medieval church wall painting of a red figurative dragon with long looped tail to the left and, on the right, a head with large ears or horns and tongue or fire from its mouth. A mounted stone memorial plaque partially covers the painting.
May 18, 2025 at 2:44 PM
clemencycooper.bsky.social
A now abandoned railway line was constructed through the barrow group at Bartlow Hills in the 1860s, and the cutting between two of the mounds can still be seen from the public footpath through the site.
A view looking down into the cutting of a former rail line with brick-lined walls and an arched bridge across. There are iron railings in the foreground.
May 18, 2025 at 2:24 PM