Abstract

This paper reports on the second year of the University
of Cambridge Higher Education Field Academy (HEFA)
project which combines education and oulrcach with the
archaeological investigation of currently occupied rural
selllemcnts (CORS). As reported in the last MSRG
Annual Report (Lewis 2006a). this project commenced
in 2005 with the aim of (a) raising the educationAl
aspirations of teenagers (mostly from non-universityeducated
backgrounds) by enabling them to excavate,
record and write up Iheirown test pit (under professional
archaeological supervision), thereby developing a range
of new transferable organisational, interpersonal and
academic skills and bu ild their academic selfconfidence;
and (b) increasing the number of occupied
villages and hamlets to have scen proactive rescarchoriented
archaeological investigation. After a successful
pilot year in 2005 whcn test pits were dug in fou r
different settlements (ibid.) fundi ng was secured for the
continuation and expansion of the HEFA programme in
2006-8. In 2006 a total of 12 Field Academies were
carried out across four counties in eastern England (fig
I), plus onc in Yorkshire. These involved more than 350
young people digging scores of test pits and in the
process raising the numbers interested in going to
university by more than 60% (Lcwis 2006b). This repon
will provide a preliminary summary of the HEFA
archaeological interventions in 2006. Archive repons
have been prepared for each scttlement investigated in
2006, while those investigated in both 2005 and 2006,
from which enough evidence has been recovered to
a llow some preliminary consideration of the
implications of the results, are discussed in more detai l
elsewhere (Lewis 2007). Fuller formal publication will
take place at a later stage in the project.