ANDREW Marchant and family are tucking in this week to a hefty chunk of Roundhead Pudding. Royalists and Roundheads are among those visiting Parkend this Thursday for an archaeology open day, which includes demonstrations of old-style cooking.

The Dean Archaeological Group (DAG) is displaying the result of recent "digs" and surveys at the Beaver hut 10am-10pm, entry free. As well as showing models, maps, photographs and artefacts, members will be providing demonstrations of ancient craft techniques – some of them dressed in Stone Age garb.

Also exhibiting are members of the Chepstow and Monmouth archaeological societies, and the county archaeology services. Visiting during the morning will be a hundred-strong group of the Cambrian Archaeological Society. Staying at the Speech House all this week, they are touring Forest of Dean and Wye Valley sites – with local experts as guides.

One theme of the Open Day is the Civil War, which raged across the area in the 1640s. The event sees the publication of a new history, Civil War in Dean, written by DAG's director of archaeology Alf Webb – and his accompanying booklet on Civil War recipes.

"When we were at school before the war, our mother gave myself and my three younger brothers a cold packed lunch which we knew as 'Cromwell's Head'," says Alf.

"I have been collecting old cookery books over the years, and I was delighted to find one of 1650 which was basically what my mother produced and bore the title 'Roundhead Pudding'."

As members of the local re-enactment group as well as DAG, Clearwell postman Andrew Marchant and family will be in Civil War costume at Thursday's event.