5 August 1912 – 8 September 1994

See also: Piggott, Stuart Ernest

Cecily Margaret Preston was born in Beckenham, Kent, to Elsie Fidgeon and Arthur Preston, a wealthy ironmaster. When Peggy was eight her father drowned in Cornwall and after her mother remarried, she was brought up by an aunt.

As a young woman Peggy Preston began her archaeological career digging with the Wheelers at Verulamium. She studied at Cambridge and progression to the Institute of Archaeology, London, brought her into contact with Stuart Piggott. They were married in November 1936 and made their home in Rockbourne, near Fordingbridge.

The following year, Mrs Piggott excavated a Bronze Age barrow and urnfield at Latch Farm near Christchurch (then in Hampshire) which was speedily published. She then worked on a variety of prestigious sites, including Sutton Hoo, Suffolk, before excavating a number of barrows in the New Forest area which were threatened by wartime preparations.

In the post-war period much of her work was in Scotland, until her marriage ended in 1956. She moved to Sicily, marrying Luigi Guido, but this relationship lasted only a year or two. Returning to British archaeology Mrs Guido made glass beads the focus of her research, publishing definitive works in 1978 and (posthumously) in 1999.

From 1977, she lived in Devizes and was closely involved with the North Wiltshire museum.

Sources

Portrait

Contribution to county’s history

An accomplished excavator by the age of 25, Peggy Piggott’s first Hampshire site was the complex Bronze Age burial monument at Latch Farm in the lower Avon valley. She followed this with a number of barrow excavations in the New Forest and various other works, sometimes in the company of her husband Stuart.

Relevant published works

• Piggott, C. M. (1938). A Middle Bronze Age barrow and Deverel-Rimbury urnfield at Latch Farm, Christchurch, Hampshire. Proc Prehist Soc 4, 169–187.

• Piggott, C. M. (1943). Excavation of fifteen barrows in the New Forest, 1941-2. Proc Prehist Soc 9, 1–27.

• Piggott, C M (1945) Two linear earthworks in the New Forest, Proc Hants Field Club & Archaeol Soc, 16 166-7.

• Piggott S & Piggott CM (1945) The excavation of a barrow on Rockbourne Down, Proc Hants Field Club & Archaeol Soc, 16, 156 -62

Critical Comments

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Contributor

Dave Allen

Key Words

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