Maud Cunnington


Maud Edith Cunnington was a Welsh-born archaeologist, most famous for her pioneering work on the prehistoric sites of Salisbury Plain.

Early life and education

Maud Pegge was born at Briton Ferry in Glamorgan to Catherine Milton Leach and her husband Charles Pegge, a doctor who ran Vernon House, the last privately owned asylum in Wales. She was one of seven children. Cunnington's older brother Edward followed his father as a doctor, and was also a notable rugby player and Welsh international. Maud was educated briefly at Cheltenham Ladies' College.

Career

From 1897, Maud carried out early rescue archaeology work during development in the area but also carried out full excavations at some of the most important sites in British archaeology. These included the first known Neolithic causewayed enclosure at Knap Hill, the Iron Age village at All Cannings Cross, West Kennet Long Barrow, Figsbury Ring, Woodhenge, and The Sanctuary. This last monument she rediscovered as it had been lost since William Stukeley saw it in the eighteenth century. Woodhenge and The Sanctuary were bought by the Cunningtons and given to the nation.
In 1912 she excavated and re-erected one of the two surviving stones in the Beckhampton Avenue and one of the stones in the West Kennet Avenue at Avebury. In 1933, she was elected president of the Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society, the first woman to hold that position. In addition to technical reports, she published a short handbook, Avebury: A Guide, and a children's guide to Devizes Museum.

Personal life

In 1889, Maud Pegge married Ben Cunnington who was the honorary curator of Devizes Museum. Their only son, Edward, was killed in the First World War.
Cunnington was named a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1948 Birthday Honours for services to archaeology, the first woman archaeologist to receive the honour. However, she had been bedridden since 1947, and suffering from Alzheimer's disease, so she never knew of the accolade. When she died at home a few years later she left almost all her property to Devizes Museum, allowing a salaried curator to be appointed for the first time. Her husband had died a few months earlier.

Additional sources