The Sedgeford Historical and Archaeological Research Project is a long-term, large-scale, multi-disciplinary, multi-period investigation of human settlement and land use in a north-west Norfolk rural parish. Its main field-work· activity each year is a six-week summer excavation, with 50-75 volunteers active each week. Work currently is focused on two main sites: the medieval church and manor complexes in the centre of the modern village; and the large middle-to-late-Saxon rural settlement and cemetery centred in a small field a few hundred metres away. The project is selfconsciously an exercise in 'democratic archaeology'. Since the project was formed back in 1996, thousands of people have arrived at the Boneyard Field site to excavate, carry out research, or take one of the many courses offered. Many archaeologists got their start at SHARP.