CASkits
Introduction
CASkits are County Archaeological Service kits. They are handling kits of archaeological artefacts accompanied by a CD of suggested activities and supporting resources.
50 CASkits were made. Every school who took part in the Unlocking Buckinghamshire's Past project received a CASkit for free as a thank you. Several other schools also benefited from a free CASkit.
Resources
If you are a school with a CASkit but have lost the CD or if you would like to use the resources, you can download them from this page.
Please send us examples of other resources so we can share them with other schools.
Getting your hands on a CASkit
There are several ways you can now get your hands on a CASkit:
1. Borrow one from the Schools Library Service. CASkit 47 and Virtual Excavation Box 2 are at the Schools Library Service - click on either of these to find out what's in them.
2. Hire an archaeologist from us who will bring a CASkit along with them and can do other archaeological activities. Contact the County Archaeological Service. We have CASkit 48 and Virtual Excavation Box 1 - click on either of these to find out what's in them.
3. Borrow one from a nearby school. Below you can see a list of schools arranged geographically. Click on a school to see what's in their CASkit. Then contact the school directly to ask if you can borrow it.
Aylesbury
Haydon Abbey School, Aylesbury
St Edward’s Catholic, Aylesbury
Bernwood (Western Aylesbury Vale)
Buckingham
Chiltern
Chalfont St Giles Infants/Junior
Little Kingshill, Great Missenden
Eastern Aylesbury Vale
St Michael’s CE School, Stewkley
Princes Risborough area
South Bucks
St Mary’s and All Saints, Beaconsfield
Wycombe
Chiltern Gate School, High Wycombe
Disraeli Combined, High Wycombe
Hannah Ball Infants, High Wycombe
Manor Farm Community School, Hazlemere
Marsh First School, Abbey Barn Road
St Augustine’s Catholic Primary, High Wycombe
St Bernard’s Secondary, High Wycombe
Credits
There are lots of people and companies who contributed to making the CASkits.
- Toolboxes provided by Hertfordshire Supplies.
- Foam provided by Polyformes.
- CASkit branding created by Buckinghamshire County Council's Graphics Team.
- Archaeological artefacts provided by: Cambridgeshire Field Archaeology, Chess Valley Archaeology and History Society, Gillian Beckley, Julia Wise, Northamptonshire Archaeology.
- Snail shells provided by Buckinghamshire County Council's Countryside Initiatives Team.
- Replicas provided by: Neil Burridge, John Lord, Andrew Macdonald.
- The Whiteleaf Excavation Game created by Oxford Archaeology.
The following volunteers and staff helped to crawl over spoilheaps, wash and identify finds, sort snail shells, carve foam and deliver the boxes to schools, so a great big thank you to them!
Gillian Beckley; Betty Bell-Smith; Michael McCann; Rachel McIntyre; Lorna Pope; Nicola Savage; John Shipley.
And, of course, they were funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund.