POWYSLAND CLUB LECTURES AUTUMN 2026
Saturday 26 September
Glenn Foard – Montgomery 1644: Civil War in the Marches
Montgomery Town Hall, 1.30pm
The Montgomery Civil War project, begun in 2023, is currently the Battlefields Trust’s largest survey project and has become one of the most comprehensive studies of any battlefield or siege site of the period in Britain. Dr Foard’s lecture will combine primary accounts of the action, evidence of the historic terrain, and the archaeology of the fighting, to tell a detailed story of the two weeks in September 1644 when events at Montgomery made national news.
The Battlefields Trust is a volunteer run registered charity dedicated to the protection, research and interpretation of Britain’s battlefields. The Montgomery project is being undertaken by an experienced Battlefields Trust survey team made up of volunteers and directed by Dr Glenn Foard, who has 30 years experience as a professional battlefield archaeologist working on sites across Britain and in Europe. The team are being supported by the Montgomery Civic Society.
Following Dr Foard’s lecture it will be possible to visit the site of Montgomery castle itself.
Attendance at the lecture is free, but as we anticipate considerable interest in this event it would helpful to know if you are planning to attend, and also if you would like to join a tour of the castle. Please email the Powysland Club Programme Secretary, Dr Mary Oldham, momilford@hotmail.com or telephone 07713 111583
Saturday 21 November
Andy Seaman – New Pieces – An Elite Settlement on the Breiddin Hills: Preliminary Results from the 2025 Excavations.
Brynhafren Primary School, Crew Green, 2pm.
Dr Seaman and his team’s excavations at New Pieces on the Breiddin are part of a project entitled Making the March: Contesting Lands in the Early Medieval Frontier.
Dr Seaman writes: “During the later first millennium CE the landscape known today as the Welsh March became a contested frontier zone between opposed Welsh and English kingdoms.
The frontier in the Welsh March is of fundamental importance for our understanding of early medieval Britain, but its existence is rarely considered by scholars. Making the March offers the first interdisciplinary, multi-scalar analysis of the creation and development of this 200 km-long frontier.”
Dr Seaman is a Reader in Archaeology at Cardiff University.
For more information about the Autumn lecture programme, please email the Excursions Secretary Mary Oldham at momilford@hotmail.com.