The annual Pocklington Heritage Festival will get underway on Thursday 9 November with a Roman-themed daytime conference at Burnby Hall community hall.

The event is titled ‘Revealing The Romans: Roman and Romano-British discoveries from Eastern Yorkshire and beyond’ and is organised by Pocklington District Heritage Trust. The conference will bring together local and regional experts to describe their recent and on-going work from a range of fields to uncover our Roman past from almost two thousand years ago.

Tony Hunt and Claire Whiteley will give separate presentations showing how drone surveys, aerial photography and satellite imagery have enhanced our understanding of the East Riding’s historic landscape in recent times. Alison Spence details her archaeology group’s search for local Roman remains around Wetwang; and English Heritage’s Rachael Baldwin-Gledhill will report on the latest developments at Hadrian’s Wall.

In the afternoon, pottery expert, Chris Cumberpatch, will make observations from his investigations across East Yorkshire, including the Holderness electricity pipeline and Pocklington’s Balk developments; and Pete Wilson will speak about the unexpected discoveries from the Yorkshire coast at Eastfield.

The day’s final speaker is Nunburnholme-based archaeologist, Peter Halkon, who has been closely involved with excavations of Roman sites at Hayton, Shiptonthorpe and Brough, and is describing recent discoveries across the south-east Vale of York.

There will also be an exhibition and pop-up museum of local finds, including Roman and Romano-British artefacts.

The ‘Revealing The Romans’ conference is the first of three days of heritage activities on the festival programme. There will also be visits to local primary schools, the unique ‘Beanfeast’ mix of history and music, and a day of family activities on the Saturday.

The heritage festival programme can be viewed on the Pocklington District Heritage Trust website – https://pocklingtondistrictheritagetrust.org- and tickets for the conference are available online via Eventbrite, or from Moonlight Bedrooms, Pocklington.