BRIGG BRONZE-AGED BOATS

Taken before the talk beside the Brigg 'raft' in Brigg's Heritage Centre, Dr Kevin Leahy - David Rose, Chair CPRE (Local Branch) - Cllr Jane Kitching, CPRE member & BTBP - Malcolm Bailey, BTBP Chair.  

REPORT & PICTURE BY KEN HARRISON

Coming to national prominence as an expert on the Staffordshire Saxon Hoard and one-time curator of Scunthorpe Museum, Broughton resident and archeologist , Dr Kevin Leahy offered a talk on the life and times of the Brigg's Bronze-aged boats - the Brigg Longboat and the Brigg 'raft'.  His talk also made reference to the known, but under-investigated massive Bronze-Age plankway, - partly exposed in 1886 and 1933 - crossing the Ancholme Vale's 'pinch-point' near Brigg.

Dr Leahy's talk was sponsored by the North Linc's branch of the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE) and which is a member of Brigg Town Business Partnership (BTBP) group.

The talk was held in the lecture rooms of the Brigg  Heritage Centre in the the Angel and, in itself, represented the first of such projects that the Heritage Centre wishes to promote in the future.

Those attending had the additional opportunities of viewing the Brigg 'raft' in the Centre and, separately, following a short guided tour demonstrating the sites of Bronze-Age finds and offering an insight of the environs about Brigg some 3 thousand years ago.

Following Dr Kevin Leahy's talk, members of the CPRE held their AGM.

The talk was extremely successful and followed Dr Leahy's well-attended talk on the Arthurian Legend at the Buttercross's refurbished public rooms a few weeks ago.

At that talk, Dr Leahy offered the hypothesis that Arthurian Legend originated in North Lincolnshire; the earliest references refer specifically to  'Lindsey' (now northern Lincolnshire) and descriptions of places and Arthurian battle-sites could  relate to such a post-Roman city of Lincoln  and even to places about the River Ancholme.  As a well-organised stronghold,  Dr Leahy, indicated that that there has been unusually very high concentrations of Celtic sword-belt buckle finds in the area, perhaps offering further evidence  that north Lincolnshire was the focus of the 'Arthurian' Celtic defence from the invading European tribes during the very early Middle Ages.