About RAS

Rugby Archaeological Society was founded in 1961 by a group of amateur archaeologists to excavate the site of the Roman town of Tripontium. Although none of the original members are still involved, the Society's objectives remain unchanged.

Until 2006 the members of RAS, under the direction of Jack Lucas, concentrated their activities on thoroughly investigating the locality of the Roman settlement of Tripontium in order to record and publish the findings of the excavation. However, sadly Jack died in March 2006.

In 2012 the Society was relaunched under the leadership of Chairman Dr Graham Morgan. At that time a programme of open meetings and activities was organised in conjunction with Rugby Art Gallery and Museum (RAGM). Regular meetings still continue, with a range of excellent talks by prestigious speakers.

Sadly Graham suffered a stroke in 2017, which left him less mobile than he had been. Despite these problems, he continued to serve as RAS Chairman until, sadly, he died in July 2021.

 Jacob Streatfeild-James (Jake) was RAS Chairman between September 2021 and September 2023, when his work commitments made it difficult to continue as chairman.

The programme of meetings continues to operate between October and June each year, normally on the second Saturday of each month, hosted by Rugby Art Gallery and Museum. Occasionally, visits and field trips are organised, usually during the summer.

RAS is also involved in a range of fieldwork activities often in conjunction with other local societies and Jake is planning to expand the practical archaeology activities very soon.

The secondary role of the Society is to safeguard, preserve and, where necessary, take steps to conserve the valuable Tripontium Collection, which contains all the artefacts recovered from the Tripontium site. The Collection is stored in the archives of Rugby Art Galley and Museum.

In December 2006 the Rugby Museum Gallery was renamed the Jack Lucas Archaeology Gallery, to commemorate the important contribution that Jack made to Archaeology in general, but particularly to the understanding of Tripontium's place in Roman Britain. However, the Gallery and the adjacent museum space containing the town's social history, was later repurposed to accommodate the World of Rugby exhibition. After this time, a smaller display of finds from Tripontium was created on the second floor of RAGM, which is still open for visitors today. The World of Rugby exhibit has since closed.

During the lifetime of the Society many young people have worked on the Tripontium site and several of these volunteers have chosen a career in archaeology as a result of their experiences there. There have been collaborations between the Society and various other organisations and institutions at different times.

In 1994 the Society received an award at the British Archaeological Awards for the work undertaken at Tripontium. An article about this appeared in Current Archaeology number 145 in November 1995.

In 2004 the Society was awarded the prestigious Pitt Rivers Award at the British Archaeological Awards. Several publications have been produced about the excavations at Tripontium, including four reports on the archaeology and a book about Tripontium by Jack Lucas.