Charmian Catherine Woodfield (née Phillips; 1929–2014) was a British archaeologist.

Career

Charmian started worked for the Ministry of Works as a field archaeologist. She excavated many sites, including

Verulamium Verulamium was a town in Roman Britain. It was sited southwest of the modern city of St Albans in Hertfordshire, England. A large portion of the Roman city remains unexcavated, being now park and agricultural land, though much has been built upon ...

(

St Albans St Albans () is a cathedral city in Hertfordshire, England, east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, Hatfield, north-west of London, south-west of Welwyn Garden City and south-east of Luton. St Albans was the first major ...

) with

Sheppard Frere Sheppard Sunderland Frere, CBE, FSA, FBA (23 August 1916 – 26 February 2015) was a British historian and archaeologist who studied the Roman Empire. He was a fellow at All Souls College, Oxford. Biography The son of Noel Gray Frere, of the ...

and Whitefriars, Coventry. Her publication record included excavation reports and monographs, specialist pottery reports, and reports of other finds, mainly focused on sites around

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...

, and the Midlands. Following her death, archaeologist

David Breeze David John Breeze, OBE, FSA, FRSE, HonFSAScot, Hon MIFA (born 25 July 1944) is a British archaeologist, teacher and scholar of Hadrian's Wall, the Antonine Wall and the Roman army. He studied under Eric Birley and is a member of the so-ca ...

commented that Charmian had "set a new standard" for the level of reporting and recording of

Hadrian's Wall Hadrian's Wall ( la, Vallum Aelium), also known as the Roman Wall, Picts' Wall, or ''Vallum Hadriani'' in Latin, is a former defensive fortification of the Roman province of Britannia, begun in AD 122 in the reign of the Emperor Hadrian. R ...

after her 1965 publication of six excavations of Turrets in that region. Excavations carried out in the 1960s on the site of the Carmelite Friary at Coventry, England, by Charmain, revealed the lost church, of unexpected size and splendour, adjoining the standing cloister E range. It was founded in 1342 by Sir John Poulteney, a pre-eminent merchant and Draper, and Lord Mayor of London. The report by Charmain includes the first detailed examination of the standing E claustral range by the Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, probably the finest medieval friary claustral range to survive in N Europe. This is augmented by historical illustrations, many published for the first time in this report. There is also a study of the exceptionally fine surviving choir stalls, with the arms of several later London mayors, which originally seated up to 90 friars. These were set above acoustic chambers in the choir to amplify their singing. Only three other sets of friary choir stalls are known to exist in Britain. An attempt is made to reconstruct the appearance of the friary in its 10-acre (c.4ha) precinct in the 15th century, including the highly unusual architectural expression of the chapter house; the reredorter and the gate houses. Comparative plans of other Carmelite houses in Britain and Europe are illustrated for comparison, some for the first time. Woodfield was involved in the discovery and excavation of the

Milton Keynes Hoard The Milton Keynes Hoard is a hoard of Bronze Age gold found in September 2000 in a field at Monkston Park in Milton Keynes, England. The hoard consisted of two torcs, three bracelets, and a fragment of bronze rod contained in a pottery vesse ...

in 2000. She was elected as a fellow of the

Society of Antiquaries of London A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Societ ...

on 27 November 1986.

Personal life

Charmian had a twin brother, Nicholas. She first met her husband, the architect Paul Woodfield, during excavations at Verulamium and they worked together on many subsequent projects.

Selected publications

* *Woodfield, C. 1980. "A Roman military site at

Magiovinium Fenny Stratford is a constituent town of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England and in the Civil Parish of Bletchley and Fenny Stratford. Originally an independent town, it was included in the Milton Keynes " designated area" in 1967. From 1895 ...

?" ''Records of Buckinghamshire'' 20, 384–399. *Woodfield, C. and Woodfield, P. 1981–2
"The Palace of the Bishops of Lincoln at Lyddington"
''Transactions of the Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society'' 57 *Woodfield, C. 2005.
The Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and some conventual buildings at Whitefriars, Coventry
. BAR British Series 389 *Woodfield, C. 2006. "Rare tazze, paterae and a broad hint at lararium from ''

Lactodorum Lactodurum was a town in the Roman province of Britannia. Today it is known as Towcester, located in the English county of Northamptonshire. Towcester lays claim to being the oldest town in Northamptonshire and possibly, because of the antiquity ...

'' (Towcester), ''Journal of Roman Pottery Studies'' 12 *Woodfield, C, (July – August 2007). "The White Friars of Coventry". Current Archaeology. 18, No.6 (210): 9–16.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Woodfield, Charmian 1929 births 2014 deaths British women archaeologists British archaeologists People from Leicester Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London British women historians Women classical scholars