Gentlemen Behaving Badly: The Victorian Excavations at Creswell Crags
Monday 29th September 2025, 6pm BST (originally scheduled for 21st April)
Speaker: Professor Mark White (Durham University)
The Victorian triumvirate of William Boyd Dawkins, John Magens Mello and Thomas Heath were the first to excavate the Pleistocene sediments preserved in the caves at Creswell Crags, undertaking three seasons of excavation in 1875, 1876 and 1878. Each man had his own reasons for being at Creswell, but all saw it as a potential English equivalent to Les Eyzies and a place that, if properly worked, could help further their own social and academic standings. It didn’t quite go to plan. Using contemporary records, this talk examines the legacy of these excavations, exploring the daily running of the excavation, the nature and quality of the work, the evidence it yielded, and the vicious controversy surrounding some of the most spectacular finds.
This is one of a series of related talks celebrating 150 years since the first official excavations at Creswell Crags, and links to a temporary exhibition on the same theme.
This talk will be hosted via Zoom webinar. The Zoom link will be sent to your email address the day before the event (remember to check spam/junk/other folders in your inbox).
This talk is free to attend but we do ask for a suggested donation of £4. This money really does mean we can continue this online talk series. We are very grateful for any support you can give.
You may be interested in our Patreon channel (https://www.patreon.com/CreswellCrags), which contains recordings of our past online talks, in addition to other digital content.
