Masters fieldwork funding - Tessa Verney Wheeler Award

Through the generosity of an anonymous donor who has endowed the Tessa Verney Wheeler Memorial fund, we are delighted to offer up to 2 fully funded places on the UCL archaeological fieldwork school at Alpheton, Suffolk for Masters students enrolled on a MA or MSc degree in Archaeology or Archaeological Sciences.

To apply for this opportunity, students should submit an application via this link Forms Application detailing their previous archaeological experience,  the skills they hope to learn on the project, and how fieldwork experience will benefit their academic and career prospects. No prior fieldwork experience is required.

As a condition of the award, you will be required to write a report based on your work at Alpheton (deadline: Monday 21 July 2025):

• 300 words (max 500) on what you have learned from the project and how the skills will help them with their future academic and career prospects (this will be given to the donor to read)
• We will also ask you to provide at least 1 picture of you ‘in action in the field’ (we can take this of you).
• The deadline for the report will be the Monday following your departure from site (Monday 21 July, please email your report to Dr Stuart Brookes s.brookes@ucl.ac.uk & Prof Corisande Fenwick (c.fenwick@ucl.ac.uk. You will have time in the evenings to write this up towards the end of the fieldschool.

Eligibility

Full-time and part-time students enrolled on the following taught postgraduate degree programmes at the Institute of Archaeology and in good standing are eligible:

• Archaeology MA
• Archaeology and Heritage of Asia MA
• Archaeology and Heritage of Egypt and the Middle East MA
• Archaeological Science: Technology and Materials MSc
• Bioarchaeology and Forensic Archaeology MSc
• Computational Archaeology: GIS, Data Science and Complexity MSc
• Environmental Archaeology MSc
• Palaeoanthropology and Palaeolithic Archaeology MSc

The Field School Alpheton 2025

In 2025 the UCL Institute of Archaeology will be carrying out excavations on an area of land to the east of Aveley Lane, Alpheton, Suffolk (NGR 587619 249357).

Roman material has been recovered from the field since the 1980s. Metal detecting and fieldwalking has produced coins and pottery dating from the mid-1st to the 4th century. Trenches in 1989 and 1992 identified various ditches and pits, and large quantities of Roman finds including evidence for a villa-type building, mainly from the brow of the hill. Further excavations were carried out by a local amateur history group in 2018 which uncovered the remains of a Roman bathhouse consisting of four rooms (possibly in multiple phases), one of which containing a hypocaust.

Subsequent magnetometry survey, carried out in 2019–20 across the whole field has revealed a complex comprising a core rectangular enclosure containing several probable buildings, a series of parallel ditches probably representing approach roads or avenues, and at least three ring-ditches perhaps denoting earlier (?Bronze Age) activity on the site. Metal-detecting in 2020 recovered a belt of linked enamelled copper alloy pieces, one a small box. The object is not easy to parallel and might be priestly wear – which raises the possibility that this might be a religious sanctuary complex rather than a wealthy agricultural estate.

The 2025 campaign will open three areas to explore several structures visible in the geophysical data: i) the bathhouse, ii) the linear enclosure ditches, entrance, and largest ring-ditch; iii) a probable masonry structure lying outside and to the east of the enclosure, close to the river. The project will be directed by Stuart Brookes, supported by experienced IoA and Archaeology South-East (ASE) staff.

During the field school participants will be equipped with essential excavation and survey skills. These skills are benchmarked against those outlined in the CiFA Archaeology Skills Passport.

The field school will run for 6 weeks - Monday to Saturday - and Masters participants will be joining UCL First Year Undergraduates for the final two weeks of the campaign. Sunday (day off) includes visits to nearby historic attractions.

The award covers student’s expenses: food (breakfast, sandwich, hot evening meal), access to welfare facilities, travel to and from London. Students camp together in field close to the site and are required to bring their own camping equipment.  

Contact

For more information about the site and to apply for the grant, please contact Charlotte Frearson c.frearson@ucl.ac.uk