Jon Kenny came into Archaeology as a volunteer in the Welsh Marches in his late 20s (the late 1980s). After a lot of saving he was able to study Archaeology at York, graduating in 1995 and then completing a Masters before jumping the Pennines to obtain a PhD.
Jon found work at York Archaeological Trust and the University. Finding opportunities to undertake fieldwork with community groups in his spare time. In 2005 he was able to land a role at York Archaeological Trust as a Community Archaeologist. Funded for 5 years by the HLF Jon was able to develop an approach to Community work, starting with communities themselves and finding out what interested them, finding different ways to fund projects. The projects have been scattered around Yorkshire.
The Archaeology he has worked on has varied from Iron Age and Romano-British through to Victorian. The communities have varied widely from traditional history groups to schools, young people, people with learning difficulties, and people working on their mental wellbeing (which most of us do taking part in community archaeology). Clearly Jon’s specialism in Archaeology is working with non-professionals developing their confidence and skills.
Thornborough Archaeology Group 