Autumn Lectures: The Archaeology of the Arun Valley

James Sainsbury is at The Richmond Room on Tuesday 3 November, giving a talk on the archaeology of the River Arun. It's part of a wider autumn lecture series, and this one follows the river from the Palaeolithic right through to the arrival of the Normans.

Sainsbury is the museum's curator, and he'll be tracing the Arun's course across Sussex from Littlehampton to Pulborough. Along the way, he stops at Ford, Lyminster, Arundel, Burpham and Amberley, so if you've got a particular stretch of the valley you know well, you'll likely hear it come up. It's a long stretch of time to cover in one go — from the earliest stone tools to the Norman Conquest — but that's exactly what he's doing: mapping the river's human history across the centuries.

This is one of eight lectures in the full programme, four of them brand new. The series as a whole ranges from the prehistoric archaeology of Worthing and the surrounding area to the dawn of photography and the town's development in the 19th and 20th centuries, so if you're into local history, there's a fair bit to get your teeth into beyond this one night. The age guidance is 16+.

The talk starts at 6:30pm and runs for 90 minutes. Tickets are from £10.75 plus a £0.75 transaction fee, and you'll find the Richmond Room inside the Assembly Hall on Stoke Abbott Road, BN11 1HE.