Rannoch Daly and Max Adams write…
The BSG meets fortnightly during academic term-time to study the early history of NE England, with a focus on Early Medieval Northumbria, although the interests of the members range far and wide.
We meet in Room 1, the Irish Centre, Gallowgate, Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
In 2025 we reviewed a number of current or recent publications; celebrated the publication of a journal paper by Dorothy Cowans and of our research directors Colm O’Brien and Max Adams’s new book on Early Medieval Northumbria.
Research studies included a project to look closely at sites along the Dere St Roman road corridor, prompted by observations from our friend Prof. Brian Roberts and led by Hilary Rimmer. The LiDAR image below shows a settlement near the village of Colwell, just to the east of Dere St.
Colm and Max were invited by our friends in the Lands of Eogain group in Inishowen (Co. Donegal) to contribute to podcasts and videos celebrating the work of the BSG and its associates over the past decade and more.
Field trips included a visit to ongoing excavations at the Anglo-Saxon royal township at Yeavering in Glendale and a weekend group trip into Deira (E. Yorks), where we explored the relationship between early churches, such as those at Stonegrave and Hovingham, with their territorial origins as early estates. At Kirkdale Minster on the north edge of the Vale of Pickering we were lucky enough to be met by one of its excavators, Lorna Watts, who with her late husband Philip Rahtz took a special interest in this precious Anglo-Saxon church and its environs.
