Worthing Museum’s announcement of the launch of their latest summer project – the “Burpham Big Dig” – sounded intriguing enough to investigate further. Were they planning to excavate the whole village? And why Burpham? Curious to find out more about an exciting community project, the two Ginnys headed off across Sussex towards Arundel on a gloriously sunny Saturday morning.
In its setting beside the river Arun, overlooked by a magnificent medieval castle, home to the Dukes of Norfolk, the first view of the town from the busy A27 is almost impossibly beautiful. Unsurprisingly, we almost missed the small side-turning to Burpham but, within minutes, the traffic noise had disappeared and the August countryside enveloped us – hedgerows rampant with wild flowers and enticingly green meadows beyond.
Chocolate box flint cottages and roses tumbling over garden walls completed the rural idyll as we drove down narrow lanes towards the village of Burpham, with its centuries old church, community-owned pub, and village green.
An exceptional archaeological record
The launch of the Big Dig project was taking place in the village hall and as we turned into the car park we could already see rows of tables set out in front of the single-storey building, groups of volunteers busily engaged in rummaging through trays of what at first sight looked like muddy bits of old wood and pottery.
But as the objects moved down a conveyor belt of helpers and expert volunteers from Worthing Archaeological Society, all busily washing, recording, sorting and bagging the finds from nearby digs, they started to emerge as far, far more interesting.
Archaeological finds have apparently been turning up in Burpham and the surrounding villages of Wepham and Peppering for over 200 years, making the area outstanding in the British archaeological record. In the early 19th century a mammoth was discovered in Peppering, and in the last century neolithic flint tools were found in Burpham, as well as Iron Age coins. So Worthing Museum, working in conjunction with Worthing Archaeological Society, had solid evidence that the ambitious plan that they put forward for a community dig in the summer of 2024 was likely to bear fruit. And indeed it has.
Nearly 40% of the population signed up
Worthing Museum’s archaeology curator James Sainsbury explained: “This will be Worthing Museum’s first active archaeological investigation in the 21st century and has the potential to be a pilot project for further work in and around Worthing in the coming years. The residents of Burpham have been incredibly supportive of the Big Dig from its inception, and we now have close to 40% of all properties signed up, a fantastic response! This gives us a real chance to recreate the story of these villages through the medium of archaeological investigation.”
Unsurprisingly, some of the villagers were initially a little hesitant in the face of a proposal to dig small test sites in their gardens, but after the first had yielded a treasure trove of fascinating objects, including medieval coins and belt buckles, most threw themselves enthusiastically into the project. The excavations have seen a total of thirty test pits dug in the gardens of village residents and those taking part include members of the Worthing Archaeological Society, residents of the three villages, and a small number of student volunteers.
From Neolithic to Roman discoveries
At the time of our visit, the dig had been running for a week, and we were astonished at the quantities of napped flints, microlites and other flint tools that had come to light, as well as pottery dating from Roman times, coins, a savage-looking spur, a sword scabbard, and much else besides. Inside the village hall volunteers were serving tea and home-made cakes and we were able to tour the different tables on each of which carefully catalogued finds were laid out, labelled with their approximate date and use.
On one table an exquisite pottery beaker found at an ancient burial site (perhaps originally filled with an alcoholic drink to assist the grave’s inhabitant with their journey through the underworld?) lay next to flint knives and scrapers. At another, a volunteer was comparing some of the metal objects unearthed from the digs, with illustrations in a thick manual to identify their age and origin.
Leaving the village hall after a fascinating couple of hours, we stood for a moment looking out over the landscape that had yielded up some of its treasures – possibly a fraction of what will be found in the future. In the distance, Arundel castle was silhouetted against the horizon and the water meadows leading down to the river Arun were alive with flocks of waterfowl. Closer to the village, low grassy banks indicated the site of what is believed to be an iron age fort. It’s an idyllic and age-old landscape which, over thousands of years, has been inhabited by many different tribes and groups. Worthing Museum’s Big Dig project is helping to unearth the story of those peoples and the history of three extraordinary Sussex villages.
Postscript: The finds and discoveries from the Big Dig project will form the basis of a series of talks as well as an exhibition at Worthing Museum in 2025. You can find details of future events on their website: https://wtm.uk/museum/ . Worthing Archaeological Society are always keen to sign up new members: https://www.worthingarchaeological.org/upcoming-events.html.
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