Pontefract & District
Archaeology & History Society
Looking forward…to learning more about our past
About
The aims of our Society are to foster and promote the
study of archaeology and its contribution to history,
especially in and around Pontefract.
A brief look back at the Society and some well-
known members
PontArc (as it is increasingly being called) is over
sixty years old.
From four members of an evening class, sitting on a
tomb- chest in All Saints churchyard to one of the
country’s leading town archaeological societies has
been a long and often rocky road, but thanks to its
members the Society now has a string of awards,
publications and even television credits to its name.
Any society is the sum of its members, and PontArc
has certainly been lucky in that respect. From the
beginning, a number of prominent archaeologists
joined the infant organisation, and several of its
subsequent members gained national fame over
the years.
The four founders called a public meeting in All
Saints Parish Hall which resulted in the Society
being officially launched in the spring of 1957. By
1960 there were thirty-five members, whilst today
there are well over a hundred. The first President
was C Vincent Bellamy, whose WEA Evening Class
had sparked the Society’s birth. The current holder
of that office is Dr Peter Addyman CBE, founding
Director of the York Archaeological Trust, discoverer
of Coppergate, and one of the most influential
archaeologists of the last half century. Our new
Vice-President is Tony Wilmott, who is Senior
Archaeologist at Historic England. Amongst the
group of enthusiasts who joined immediately
following the first meeting, was a schoolboy, our
retiring Chairman of 2022. Today he is a respected
archaeological site photographer and Past
Chairman of the Council for British Archaeology’s
Yorkshire Regional Group.
.
President:
Dr P V Addyman, CBE, DSc, DUniv, MA, FSA, MIFA
Vice-President:
Tony Wilmott, BA, MA, FSA, MCIfA, Senior Archaeologist,
Historic England
Chairman:
Jane Hawkinsr, CISSP BSc
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