Milestone Ground Broadway- Dig Diaries 2

14th March 2025

Welcome back to the Broadway Dig Diaries!

In celebration of Women’s History Month, we’re excited to highlight the life and work of the archaeologist Catherine Nancy Sherwood Smith who led the first works on the area adjacent to our site at Broadway. Though we know a little bit about her work on the site, much of her personal history has been lost to time. Thanks to archive records we have managed to discover more about her life.

Map showing our current excavation and the earlier excavations.

Catherine was born in 1901 in Aldridge, Staffordshire, to Sidney and Jessie Kate Smith, the family later moved to Malvern. Often referred to by her middle name, Nancy, little is known about her formal education or how she became involved in archaeology. It is believed that she trained under Sir Mortimer Wheeler, one of the most prominent British archaeologists of the mid-20th century. Wheeler’s major excavations, such as those at Maiden Castle, alongside his role as the first director of the UCL Institute of Archaeology, led him to become a popular public archaeologist.

Two women working in the first excavations at Milestone Ground- it is thought Nancy is one of the women pictured here.

Nancy worked on the Broadway site in the 1930s in the area now covered by the football pitches. She volunteered her expertise in excavation to help uncover the remains which showed the site had been in use for a long period of time. The team excavated several large ditches and burials dating from the Roman period. The Broadway site was published in 1946 by the Worcestershire Archaeological Society, Nancy also sat on the committee from 1947 to 1953.

1945 letter from archaeologist JNL Myres to Miss Smith about dating pottery found at Milestone Ground

In the late 1930s Nancy shifted her focus to a site called Camerton, near Stratton-on-Fosse. Camerton was the site of a Romano-British settlement, the extensive remains of which were being excavated by William Wedlake. Her growing interest in the area led her to move closer to the site, where she became a founding member and the first secretary of the Camerton Excavation Club in 1948. Nancy was extremely active in arranging excavation work at the site which ran for many years between 1926-1956. The club would go on to be renamed the Bath and Counties Archaeological Society, which still thrives today.

Old record of the different archaeological layers within a large ditch from Broadway

In October of 1953, at just 52 years old, Nancy passed away in Bath. She was buried on the edge of the Malvern Hills, a place she had known well throughout her life. In her will, Nancy left money to the Camerton Excavation Club which they used in her honour to fund more excavation work at Camerton.

At the time of her death, she had been working on a catalogue of prehistoric finds from Worcestershire. Though she did not live to see it published, her work was printed posthumously in the Transactions of Worcestershire Archaeological Society in 1957—four years after her passing. This influential catalogue is still referenced by archaeologists today.

One of the things that stands out in tributes to Nancy after her passing was her passion for archaeology, particularly the hands-on aspect of fieldwork at a time when many women were discouraged from pursuing such demanding physical work. During the time she was active, archaeologists were predominantly men, but it is through work like hers that archaeology became a field for everyone. Nancy’s story is just one of countless stories of female archaeologists that have been lost in time, yet her work has been so valuable to us whilst working at our site at Milestone ground, Broadway.

Thank you for joining us on this journey through the life of Catherine Nancy Sherwood Smith and stay tuned for more stories from the Broadway Dig Diary!

If you want to read some of her work, copies of the Transactions of the Worcestershire Archaeological Society are available at The Hive in the local studies library on Level 2.

If you want to find out more about other trailblazing female archaeologists take a look at https://trowelblazers.com/ . The site highlights pioneering women from around the world in the fields of archaeology, geology, and palaeontology.

The excavation is being carried out by Worcestershire Archaeology on behalf of Wychavon District Council. The archaeological work is expected to continue until Spring 2025 and only when this work has finished, and the developer has obtained planning permission, will the land be sold for a mixed housing and sports development. The developer will share details of how the local community can comment on the plans before they submit the planning application.

Sources used:

Camertonia issue 3- Camerton Excavation Club (1954)

Camerton Excavation Club Newsletter (1949)

Transactions of the Worcestershire Archaeological Society Vol 23- 1946

Transactions of the Worcestershire Archaeological Society Vol 34- 1957