Those who remember our failed attempt to get a grant for a major archaeological project in Levens Park will be reassured to know that our time was well spent, because we decided to use our preliminary research as the base for a reappraisal of the the findings of David Sturdy's "rescue dig" carried out in the late 1960s when the proposed alignment of the Kendal to Crooklands M6 link road threatened to cross the northern end of Levens Park.

The reappraisal was led by Tom Clare, former Cumbria County Archaeologist, ably assisted by LLHG members Ian Hodkinson, Geoff Cook, Mark Simpson and Stephen Read, and has produced a paper which has been accepted for publication in the Archaeological Journal which is the journal of the Royal Archaeological Institute. 

We are very proud to have been published in a major academic journal. You can read the paper HERE.

See the Meetings page for an update, plus we are NOT wasting the 17 June date either.

The LLHG Committee hopes that all members and our followers are keeping well and that they and their families have avoided the effects of the C19 plague.
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We couldn't go on for ever postponing our meetings so we had the AGM by Zoom and it proved quite successful as did the first speaker meeting (18 February) by Zoom. We are therefore continuing the 2021 programme via Zoom until at least the middle of the year. We hope that social distancing requirements will allow us to have an outdoor meeting in mid June, after which we will take our usual summer break and with luck re-commence normal indoor meetings in September. Our programme is posted in the "Meetings" section of this website.

After a good deal of thought the LLHG Committee has decided (w.e.f. 24 July) that the remaining 3 meetings in our 2020 programme are cancelled. We are not confident that the need for social distancing will evaporate in the near future thus making it unfeasible for Levens Institute to host our members and visitors.  We hope that we will be able to welcome everyone back in January 2021 when our AGM falls due.

Although there has been some relaxation of the stay safe rules and there might well be more to come soon there is neither the certainty that it will be enough to make our "Great Fire of Flookburgh" walk hosted by Helen Evans of Oxford Archaeology feasible, nor that our members would wish to be in a gathering. On behalf of LLHG Committee I have emailed Helen to cancel and to ask if it can be rescheduled to 2021..

​Allan Steward 

Having had to cancel the March and April meetings we regret to tell you that the one scheduled for MAY 21st is also CANCELLED.
We are still hoping that the outdoor meeting on June 18th when Helen Evans is due to tell us about The Great Fire of Flookburgh will be able to go ahead but the chances are diminishing.

Remember our WW1 centenary exhibition on Armistice Sunday 2018?

That was part of our WW1 project for which we received a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund. The grant also funded the other part of the project, a commemorative book.

​This book, which was researched, written and produced by LLHG members, will be launched at an event in the Levens village Institute on Saturday 1 February from 14.00 to 17.00. There is no admission charge and refreshments (wine, soft drinks and nibbles) will be provided, and copies of the book will be available - all are welcome, see the poster below.

Please note that we are NOT selling the book but instead will ask for recipients to make a donation which will be split 50/50 between LLHG and SSAFA - the Armed Forces charity, formerly known as Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Families Association, which provides lifelong support to serving men and women and veterans from the British Armed Forces and their families or dependents. We have chosen this particular charity because one of the people mentioned in the book was the local organiser for its predecessor “The Soldiers, Sailors and Families Association” at the outbreak of the war in 1914.