Volunteering in the HER by Liberty Vaz Townsend

I volunteered for 3 weeks in July and August 2014 at GGAT as part of my Cardiff University BSc Archaeology degree with two other students. Everyone was very friendly and welcoming. On my first day the HER looked daunting, but explanation and help from Leonora when we got down to work made it a lot easier and by the end of the two weeks I had no questions. I got to do the whole process from inputting reports into the HER, using GIS via Map Info, working in the Archive and scanning the reports. The former was very interesting, the latter-well to put it this way I will be having nightmares about the spirally binding machine-.

I came across some very interesting sites while working, and my enthusiasm for castles was encouraged by Leonora who gave me some amazing castles, one of which I ended up visiting on my way home! The disappearing church has to be a highlight-I roped in the other students and after half an hour of research it had been located in three different places, and actually not in our area. I am also very proud of the fact I can now type 'Archaeological' without making a typo!

I would love to come back and volunteer again this year and I would recommend GGAT to my coursemates at Cardiff.

Liberty Vaz Townsend, Cardiff University Archaeology Student & A2A Volunteer