Speaker: Tim Bennett
Tim is a professional artist, illustrator, and experimental archaeologist - he introduces this topic as follows:
The journey of the Elka Project began after a deeply personal moment: my brother and I reconnected at the funeral of one of our siblings. Though we lived in the same town, we rarely saw each other. To keep in touch, we decided to share a hobby, and our mutual love of history led us to take up metal detecting. It wasn’t long before I realised that my true interest lay not in the detecting itself, but in the research - exploring potential sites of past human activity through LiDAR imaging and historical map analysis.
One day, while studying LiDAR data, I noticed a series of intriguing features hidden within a local woodland. After contacting the DCC Archaeology Department, I was encouraged to turn this discovery into a community archaeology project - and that’s how the Elka Project Ilkeston was born. Since that first woodland discovery, many more sites of archaeological potential have come to light in my local area. My brother and I worked side by side to build the community group and plan excavations, but tragically, he passed away before we could begin our first dig.
Despite my loss, the project continued to grow and evolve. It led me back to university, where I completed an MA in Experimental Archaeology. Today, thanks to support from EMH Homes, we have our own dedicated space for experimental archaeology and educational workshops. By chance, our workshop sits beside a six-acre site containing possible evidence of a medieval coal mine plant and the area of a once 15th-century bridge. An excavation of the site with a test trench is scheduled for May 2026.