National Archaeology Weekend
21st - 22nd July 2007
11:00am - 4:00pm

The Tower of London

COLAS's regular involvement in this popular event.

The weekend of July 21/23 once again sees COLAS celebrating ten years of outreach activities with a weekend of events at HM Tower of London, on Saturday, July 21, and Sunday, July 22 as our popular contribution to the National Archaeology Days. This annual celebration of archaeology in action is coordinated by the Council for British Archaeology (CBA) and its Young Archaeologists' Club, and supported by English Heritage (www.britarch.ac.uk/naw/index.html), with activities at museums and heritage centres all over the country.

On this special weekend, COLAS is the main contributor to a range of free public displays and activities at HM Tower of London. These are held in an open space by the river wall, where our stands include museum-quality artefacts and handling collections (lent by COLAS
members and borrowed from the London Archaeological Archive and Research Centre), as well as replicas, activities and games, covering everything from bones and burials, through shoes and coins, to mosaic-making and dressing-up in Roman costume.

COLAS will be in 'The Wood', along the path by the river wall, south of the Tower itself, between 11:30 and 16:00 each day. During the mornings' low tides, HM Tower of London will host 'Fun on the Foreshore', with access to Tower Beach (weather and environmental conditions permitting), and a team of environmentalists and archaeologists to answer questions and identify finds (http://www.hrp.org.uk). Tower Beach will be open from 12:00 to 14:00 on Saturday, 12:30 to 14:30 on Sunday. (This is, of course, the only time of the year that visitors are allowed to beachcomb on the Thames foreshore at the Tower.)

July sees COLAS at the Tower of London with our popular contribution to National Archaeology Days. This annual celebration of archaeology in action is coordinated by the Council for British Archaeology and its Young Archaeologists' Club and supported by English Heritage.

Our weekend at the Tower is scheduled to coincide with low tide at Tower Beach, which allows about two hours' of beachcombing around the middle of the day. This is the only time of the year when the public are allowed onto this stretch of the foreshore (once the City's own unlikely Lido, but now a carefully secured Crown Property), a holiday enjoyed by adults and children alike.

ARCHAEOLOGY WEEKEND IS THE ONLY TIME THAT TOWER BEACH IS OPEN TO THE PUBLIC!

COLAS is the principal contributor to a range of displays and activities at the Tower of London. These are held in the open spaces along the river wall -- and so, free to all without admission to the Tower itself. With the emphasis on hands-on engagement, COLAS offers a variety of games and exercises, from building a wattle wall to dressing like a Roman Londoner, by way of ceramics, bones, shoes, coins, pipes and

The success of the nationwide event now means that many participants offer a week and more of related activities during National Archaeology Days -- which is just as well, since low tides at the Tower do not always coincide with the weekend at the heart of the project.