The Trustees

Message from our President – Wisbech is a town with a character all of its own. Architecturally it is captivating with perhaps the finest Georgian river frontage of anywhere in Britain. But it is far more than a tourist’s dream: the houses are all lived-in; the pavements are busy with people; there are also lively pubs, active shops and thriving open-air markets. Wisbech is widely regarded as ‘the capital of the Fens’, but unlike other regional centres it doesn’t dominate the area around it. It has always been part of an evolving landscape. In common with other Fenland towns, such as Spalding, it also has a long history of intellectual enlightenment, featuring Quakers and other progressive thinkers. Today the town’s rich cutural and architectural heritage is in the very capable hands of the Wisbech Society, whose prompt action has saved the Chapel of the General Cemetery and transformed it into a prominent social hub where today talks and other events have become a cherished feature of local life. An important part of this project was the careful modification of the surrounding graveyard, which has now become a peaceful haven for nature and wildlife. I know of few other places that can be more gently tranquil.

About ouur President: Dr. Francis Pryor was born in London in 1945. He read archaeology and anthropology at Trinity College, Cambridge where eventually he took a PhD. After Cambridge he emigrated to Toronto where he joined the staff of the Royal Ontario Museum. Using the Museum as a base, he began a series of major excavations (1971-78) in England, at Fengate, on the outskirts of Peterborough. Here he revealed an extensive Bronze Age field system, plus Neolithic and Iron Age settlements. After Fengate he turned his attention north of Peterborough, to the Welland Valley, where he excavated two large sites, at Maxey (1979-81) and Etton (1982-87). Etton was a superbly preserved earlier Neolithic (3500 BC) causewayed enclosure, an early type of ceremonial centre. In 1982 he also began survey work in the nearby Fens and soon discovered the timbers of a Late Bronze Age (1300-900 BC) timber causeway and religious complex at Flag Fen, just east of Peterborough. This remarkable site was opened to the public in 1987. Today it has become one of the best known Bronze Age sites in Europe and a principal visitor attraction in the region. He was awarded an MBE ‘for services to tourism’ in 1999. Fengate was published in four volumes in the 1970s and ’80s and major English Heritage monographs on Maxey, Etton and Flag Fen appeared in 1986, 1998 and 2001. His popular account of this remarkable site, Flag Fen: life and death of a prehistoric landscape (Tempus Books, Stroud), was revised for a second edition in 2005. His book on prehistoric farming, Farmers in Prehistoric Britain (also for Tempus) is also in its second edition (2006).

He regularly blogs on the trials and tribulations of writing (check out his blog HERE), broadcasting, sheep farming, gardening and archaeology.