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Tuesday 24 June 03
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Howick House, Preston
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Howick House, on the outskirts of Preston, was built in 1790 by the Norris's, a family of wealthy local industrialists. In the 18th and 19th century Preston lived the high life and Howick House was the social hub of this thriving community, where the rich and famous came to socialise and enjoy themselves. It contained a superb collection of 18th century art, with paintings by Gainsborough and Rembrandt. In 1951 Howick House became the headquarters of the Galloway Society for the Blind in Penwortham and is used as an educational, training and residential centre for blind and partially-sighted people in the local area.
Howick House is rich in historical mysteries, including an unreachable bricked-up tower, but it is not the only historic site in the area - the Norman 'motte' castle of Penwortham lies a kilometre away to the northeast and the enigmatic 400 year old 'Howick Cross' is just round the corner. When the residents heard about the Time Team Big Dig, members of the society leapt at the opportunity to get their hands dirty and delve into the past of the old country house. They might not have far to dig, as the area was requisitioned by the Penwortham branch of Dad's Army - whose Nissen huts occupied the lawns between 1939 and 1944. There are local residents who still remember being on parade here and they will no doubt be on hand to offer their recollections of what the buildings originally looked like, as blind and partially-sighted diggers literally feel their way back into the past...
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Kyle Lodge, Cheltenham
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Since moving into their current home 30 years ago, Paddy and Kate Chronnell have been baffled by a series of mysterious shapes that appear as 'parch marks' in their lawn when the grass dries out every summer.
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Recording
One of the most important parts of digging a test pit is to record everything properly as you dig. It's important to remember what finds come from where and the best way to do that is to record everything on special context sheets and take pictures with a camera.
'Recording is just so important.' says Time Team archaeologist Brigid Gallagher, 'It validates the archaeology. If no recording was done the digging would mean nothing. It's also important to record everything so that people in the future can see what was done, and I don't just mean professional archaeologists, anybody should be able to look up and find out about the archaeology that has been done. Without recording it just means nothing.'
After a day of excavation the Chronnells have discovered that their circular feature once housed a tree. 'It's a tree bowl!' proclaimed Francis Pryor, 'A tree was once here and it must have fallen over leaving the circular shape in the ground. It's still an interesting survey though because we now know what happened here.'
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Tony talks public archeaology
'One of the things we have always tried to impress on people with Time Team is that archaeology is for everybody, but you need some skills before you can do it properly.' says Tony, 'It's a bit like driving a car: There's no way that you can deny people the right to mobility but you need to pass a test first. If people just started digging into archaeology and ruining it that would be terrible because it can never be replaced. I think it's vital that as many people as possible in this country have a good understanding of the processes involved and of how valuable our archaeology is because that's the only way to save it.'
Francis Pryor On Who Owns The Past
Francis Pryor is another great promoter of people getting involved in their own history and archaeology: 'Archaeology and the past belongs to everybody,' he says with genuine gusto, 'and not just archaeologists. All that matters is that people get the most information that they can out of the ground in an archaeological way. It's a bit like that old song: 'The sun belongs to everyone, the best things in life are free'. Technically speaking if you discover an artefact it usually belongs to the land owner, but the past is something quite different. In my opinion the past belongs to the whole of mankind.'
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Upminster, Essex
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What is now an outdoor adventure centre on the outskirts of bustling Upminster was once the site of a magnificent 16th century house with six walled gardens, once the private estate of William Coys, the eminent naturalist and plant collector. Many of his exotic plants, which he acquired from extensive voyages around the world, were sent off to Kew Gardens and, as a result, he was knighted by King Charles II. However, many today will consider his greatest legacy to be the introduction of hops from the continent to Britain to make beer in 1580! The grand old house was sadly demolished around 1960 because it was considered too expensive to repair and an adventure centre eventually took its place. However one of the walled gardens is still there and some of the centre's most frequent visitors, boys from the Lazer Youth FC, dug two test pits to find out more about gardening history and how the walled garden evolved.
There were a number of interesting finds from the dig. Carenza is sure that a piece of ceramic pegged roof tile, probably late Victorian, is evidence of the potting shed from the Victorian walled garden. More gardening finds included some broken porcelain from a dinner service, the kind of porcelain that only the wealthiest could afford, was found in the test pit. It's likely that this was mulched in with the rubbish to provide drainage for the plants in the garden. There was also a find of some volcanic rock! A puzzle? Well, not if it had been brought across with exotic plants that were planted in the garden!
A great time and lots to find out about a wealthy household.
For more information on 16th century uses of herbs and plants visit The Lindley Library.
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