The CBA take on the Local Explorer Challenge 

Each year during the Festival of Archaeology, the CBA challenge you to go out and find historic features in your local area – anything from horse mounting blocks to dragons! But we wouldn’t ask you to do anything we wouldn’t do ourselves. So when two teams of CBA staff took on the Local Explorer Challenge 2022, how did we get on? 

From our offices in Micklegate, York, each team was given a challenge sheet and sent out with an hour to find as many of this year’s things to spot as they could. To avoid cheating (we know there are competitive people at the CBA!), every time a team found a feature, they had to take a photo featuring another team member. Cue some fantastic posing... 

 

 

For the 2022 Festival, the Local Explorer Challenge is following the theme of Journeys. Things to spot include ways to travel and communicate which changed the shape of our towns and cities, like bridges, railways and post offices. As well, the challenge asks you to find things linked to the reasons why people have historically travelled from place to place, including markets, food from elsewhere, and even coffee! 

York is a small city with lots of layers of history, so in a quick tour of the city centre our teams ticked off lots of the list! Some things were easier than others – both teams found a local coffee shop no problem! 

 

 

Since York is built around the great River Ouse, bridges and boats posed no problem either. 

 

 

Stables were tougher to spot, since they’ve mostly been changed to other uses now not many people travel by horse! Since each team had a Listed Building caseworker with them, there was some hasty research done while walking! Team 2 struggled to find a coaching inn, but Team 1 found a handy hint during their walk... 

Both teams spotted lots of features, including many things we’d never noticed before! But Team 1 struggled to find a petrol station in the city centre, and were beaten by the quick walkers and forward planners in Team 2, who took the victory.  

Congratulations to winners Catherine, Jo, Tracey, Ellie and Debbie! 

Do you want to take on the challenge? Find it in the Festival Resources: https://www.archaeologyuk.org/resource/local-explorer-challenge-2022--journeys.html 

Or if you’re wanting to do the challenge as a family, there’s also a special challenge for young explorers here! https://www.archaeologyuk.org/resource/young-local-explorer-challenge-2022--journeys.html 

Let us know how you get on and what you find - share your star finds on Instagram or Twitter using the hashtag #LocalExplorerChallenge and tagging @archaeologyuk, or you can email them directly to us at [email protected] for us to see. (If you're under 16, please ask an adult to share them for you.)