FRG Meetings

Our meetings - open to all but with preferential rates for members - are held regularly and include one-day events focusing on themes related to the identification and interpretation of small finds. With no regional bias, FRG meetings are made accessible to the widest membership and are held across Britain and Ireland and beyond. Venues have included Dublin, Durham, Edinburgh, the Isle of Man, Lincoln, Liverpool, London, Orkney and Perth; with our most recent gatherings in Plymouth, Devizes and at the Dutch National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden. Our short trips to museums to view exhibitions have taken us to Paris, Nuremberg, the Netherlands and London and Glasgow.

We co-host meetings with other finds study groups and societies - such as the Society for Post-Medieval Archaeology, the Roman Finds Group, the Portable Antiquities Scheme, Instrumentum and the Architectural and Archaeological Society of Durham and Northumberland - and with professional bodies, in order to widen our network and encourage information exchange. These have proved very popular and productive in the past. We hope to continue these collaborations and welcome suggestions from groups for future joint meetings and conferences.

Details of future (and recent) FRG Meetings will be listed below...

Finds Research Group Meeting
Chester

9th–10th May 2026.

Post-Roman finds from the Chester Amphitheatre excavations and beyond

Please join us at the Grosvenor Museum, Chester, for what promises to be an excellent weekend of finds-based research and discussion on 9–10 May 2026. Originally planned around two new exhibitions arising from excavations at the Roman Amphitheatre (2004–2006), the meeting has now expanded to include new research on Early Medieval and later finds from Chester, Cheshire, the Welsh Marches, and the wider West Midlands.

Saturday will consist of a full day of illustrated talks, opportunities to visit the museum exhibitions, and a dedicated finds viewing session. On Sunday, delegates are invited to join a guided walking tour of historic Chester, including the medieval Rows, followed by a visit to the Norman church of St John the Baptist, founded in AD 689. The weekend will be hosted by Julie Edwards.

Confirmed speakers include:

• Pauline Clarke – Life in the Welsh Marches in the Early Medieval period through the Portable Antiquities Scheme
• Dan Garner – An Anglo-Saxon site in Bunbury, Cheshire
• Jim Glazzard – Making Bling: Viking-age silver working explored through experimental archaeology
• Teresa Gilmour – Medieval finds reported to the West Midlands and Staffordshire PAS (pre-recorded)
• Tony Wilmott – Excavations at the Chester Amphitheatre
• Karla Graham – From armour to owls: conserving the Chester Amphitheatre finds
• Julie Edwards – Medieval and later finds from the Chester Amphitheatre excavations, 2004–2006

Sunday programme:
A guided walking tour of medieval Chester, meeting at the Cross, finishing at the Roman Amphitheatre, followed by a visit to the Church of St John the Baptist, with access to Anglo-Saxon stone sculpture housed within the nave.

Tickets:
ONLY £5.00 for FRG members and £10.00 for non-members.

Booking: Secure your place via Eventbrite