The collection of a remarkable amateur archaeologist, the late William Lamplough, has now gone on public display, close to the area where they were first discovered, in Pickering, Yorkshire (UK). The collection dates back to 2,000 BCE and has over 40 Bronze Age items included. At the time the collection was started it was feared that the expansion of the forestry, following the end of World War II, could lead to the destruction of the artefacts. So William Lamplough, accompanied by a colleague, John Lidster, and William's son David, set out to salvage what they could.
     Natalie McCaul, a curator at the nearby Yorkshire Museum, in York, is quoted as saying "They were quite advanced in what they did, for amateurs, they recorded everything. David, who gave us the collection, was William's son and he was about eight or ten and he would go out with them. They would cycle out on their bikes and set up camp and then record the items and then bring them back on a cart attached to their bike."
     The exhibition is being displayed at the Dalby Forest Visitor Centre, of which Miss McCaul is further quoted as saying "Since being donated we have been carefully cataloguing, photographing and researching the artefacts. Dalby is the perfect place to show them as we are very keen to link objects back to the landscape in which they were found. Simple objects can tell us quite a lot about the habits and customs of people who seem 
very distant in history but are very much part of our cultural fabric."

Edited from Yorkshire Post (23 March 2013)