The pleasure at the honour that you have done me in electing me to the high office of the Presidency is, I must confess, saddened when I remember that this great distinction has come to me before its appointed time. Ian Richmond's death has been spoken of and written about. His death was indeed untimely and has robbed the Society of one who gave promise of being a great President; for he was a humanist in the best sense of that much misused word: one whose studies and whose life enhanced the dignity of man. He was wise in council and deep in his love of the Society. Therefore, when I was elected to his place, I was glad and relieved that there were many experienced and well-tried members of the Society on the Council to support me. In particular I would like to offer my special thanks to Professor Sheppard Frere, who as Senior Vice-President had much business to carry out, and whose kindness I shall always remember with gratitude. My election also caused a vacancy in the Directorship, a post of great responsibility and importance. It is, therefore, with particular pleasure that I am able to welcome Dr. Nowell Myres as my successor. His great administrative experience as well as his scholarship are what the office requires most and it is a joy that he has, as it were, come home just at this time.

Castle Tower, a ring-work of Norman character, was shown by excavation to have two main structural phases, dated by pottery to XII—early XIII century A.D. In the first phase, there was an elaborate timber gate-tower, and wooden buildings in the interior. After the gate had been burned down, the entrance was refashioned in stone, and a dry stone hall was constructed.

In the spring of 1962 Mr. W. Turner, the owner of a gravel pit at Brigham, noticed the unusual occurrence of flint flakes in the top soil being removed to extend his pit. He drew the attention of Messrs. C. & E. Grantham to the site and kindly granted permission for an excavation. The greater part of the flint site had been removed by this time and only a very small portion remained for excavation. The top soil from the site had been dumped on the floor of the pit and it was possible to recover the flint assemblage from it. The arduous task of examining the dumped soil and the remaining portion of the site was carried out during 1962 and 1963 by Messrs. C. & E. Grantham assisted by Messrs. B. Brigham, T. Clarke, P. Edgar, C. Graham, M. R. Petch, and the late T. W. Wadsworth.

The Public Baths in the Roman town of Viroconium, the tribal centre of the Cornovii, have long attracted the attention of the antiquary through the miraculous preservation above ground of a length of walling. This is in fact one of the only three substantial portions of walls of Roman civil buildings in Britain which have survived the stone robbers of medieval and later times. The other two, the Mint Wall at Lincoln and the Jewry Wall at Leicester must owe their survival to being incorporated in later buildings in the middle of a medieval town. But at Wroxeter ‘The Old Work’, as it has been called since Camden's time, stands today as it has stood for centuries in the midst of cornfields. Why this wall should have stood while others were demolished and even their foundations grubbed out must remain a problem. It was clearly a place to begin excavations and Thomas Wright records that ‘on the 3rd February 1859 a pit was sunk against the northern side of the ‘Old Wall’. His excavation developed to the north and revealed the long basilican hall which can now be recognized as the palaestra of the Baths, although at the time this was not fully understood. Indeed after further work by G. E. Fox and W. H. St. John Hope in 1896 and 1899, summarized by F. Haverfield, the identification of this as the Basilica or lawcourts of the town persisted.

The 1965 season's excavation at Cirencester was carried out on behalf of the Cirencester Excavation Committee from 12th July to 21st August, with a further extension until 18th September, in order to complete the work begun on the Saxon church. Grants towards the work were received from the Society of Antiquaries of London, Ministry of Public Building and Works, Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, Cirencester Archaeological and Historical Society, and the Haverfield Trust of the University of Oxford, to all of which bodies the committee extends its thanks. Approximately £4,000 was expended during the excavation. Some 200 people took part and, with such large numbers, much depended on the site supervisors without whose experience work on such a large scale would not have been possible. We were relieved of all administrative and financial problems by the unfailing support of Mr. W. A. Blythe, to whom the committee is much indebted for his services. Thanks must also go to the Cirencester Archaeological and Historical Society for much help, and for providing guides throughout the excavation. Donations by the public and purchases from the site stall totalled £250.

This report covers the excavation of a pottery kiln producing fine Cistercian wares at a date close to 1500. The coal-fired kiln has six flues. The pottery was fired in large, coarsely made saggars and was remarkable for the wide colour range exhibited. The kiln was situated in the front garden of Potterton Grange Farm and this meant that the area available for investigation was limited.

The Alfred jewel, found in 1693 in Newton Park near the Island of Athelney in Somerset, now in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, is one of the most famous pieces of late Saxon jewellery. It is an intriguing object which has never been satisfactorily explained. The main facts and theories about it are conveniently summarized in the booklet by Miss Joan Kirk (now Mrs. J. R. Clarke) published by the Ashmolean Museum. This present note is mainly concerned with the use of the Alfred jewel and the Minster Lovell jewel, an object of similar character also described in Miss Kirk's booklet, and with the interpretation of the human figure contained in the Alfred jewel.

The documentary evidence relating to the foundation and early history of the almshouse founded by William Brown at Stamford is somewhat extensive and contradictory. The project was in hand towards the end of Edward IV's reign: an undated petition for letters patent for licence to establish the almshouse is extant, wherein reference is made to its chapel as being ‘lately built’. There is no record of this petition having been presented. However, on 27 January 1485 William Brown was authorized by letters patent to found and endow the almshouse. Here again the chapel and other houses and buildings are referred to as ‘newly built’. William Brown and his wife Margaret both died in 1489. The management of the hospital then passed to Thomas Stokke, brother of Margaret Brown. He obtained fresh letters patent from Henry VII on 28th November 1493. The text of these letters patent contradicts the licence of 1485 as it states: ‘Whereas William Browne of Staunford, county Lincoln, one of the Staple of Calais, had proposed to build a chapel and houses in the town of Staunford for divers chaplains and poor of both sexes for an almshouse, but was prevented by death, licence for Thomas Stokke, clerk, the brother of Dame Margaret Browne, relict of the said William Browne and executrix of the will of the said William, to found an almshouse at Staunford aforesaid, (etc.)’. The chapel was consecrated on 22nd December 1494 and Thomas Stokke issued the Statutes for the management of the hospital on 9th October 1495.

On 29th March 1770, Sir Joseph Ayloffe, Vice-President of the Society of Antiquaries, read a learned paper to his colleagues on a painting, then at Windsor Castle and now preserved at Hampton Court, depicting the interview of June 1520 between Henry VIII and Francis I at the Field of Cloth of Gold. Ayloffe presented a long and minutely circumstantial account of the painting, which, in view of the considerable deterioration of the canvas over the last 200 years, is of inestimable value for details concerning colour and design. He also compared the painting with such documentary evidence as was available at the time, and concluded that it was an accurate representation of major features of the Anglo-French interview. Since Ayloffe's time a mass of contemporary descriptive source material has come to light, and it has even been thought that the profusion of seemingly inconsistent details relating to the Field of Cloth of Gold renders impossible any attempt to reconcile the documentary records either one with another or with the pictorial representation. However, a close examination of the sources reveals several fundamental consistencies which enable us to reconstruct, with reasonable certitude, both the scene and the events at the Field of Cloth of Gold: and this synthesis may be used to check the value and authenticity of the Hampton Court painting as an historical document.

In 1965 the Winchester Excavations Committee was again joined by the University of North Carolina and Duke University in excavations on five sites in the city. The work lasted eleven weeks from the latter part of June to the beginning of September and an average of 130 people took part, slightly under £10,000 being spent. Special thanks are due to the U.N.C.—Duke Committee, under the chairmanship of Professor F. T. de Vyver and including Professors Hall, Holcomb, Holmes, and Schnorrenberg, for their efforts which ensured the successful continuation of the Anglo-American co-operation. The heavy burden of administration was again carried by the City of Winchester, to whose Town Clerk, Mr. R. H. McCall, a special debt is owed, and the Hampshire County Council, particularly the Supplies Officer, Mr. R. E. V. Fardell. Through the good offices of the Army, Bushfield Camp was again made available and the Ministry of Public Building and Works gave great help in this connexion. All arrangements concerning volunteers were made by Mrs. J. Gosling, to whom particular thanks are due, and my own administrative work has been handled throughout by Mrs. M. Channer, to whom I am greatly indebted. Financial assistance from the following bodies is most gratefully acknowledged: the University of North Carolina, Duke University, the University of Exeter, the Old Dominion Foundation, the Ministry of Public Building and Works, the Hampshire County Council, the City of Winchester, the British Academy, the Society of Antiquaries, the British Museum, and many private donors. Additional funds were received in site collections and from the sale of publications, the whole of which, including guided tours of the sites, was organized by Mr. F. C. Mallett, Assistant Secretary of the Excavations Committee. The many problems of financial administration were again handled by Mr. W. D. Rider, City Treasurer, and his staff, particularly Mr. G. P. Grey.