|
|
 |
|
 |
|
Wednesday 25 June 03
|
|
|
|
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall
|
 |
Get a sneak preview of Hugh excavating his garden, here. You will need RealPlayer to view this file.
|
Zinch House, Taunton
|
Celia Vardy has lived in her 14 Century home for over 40 years. A keen gardener, Celia has discovered loads of pottery in her flower beds and this, together with growing up in a house surrounded by 600 year old timbers, has fired her enthusiasm. The house itself is surrounded by interesting earthworks which suggest an even earlier occupation of the site, especially when you add to these the find of an Iron Age loom weight! Old plans indicate that another building once stood where the lawn is today. There is the possibility that it was a medieval settlement. She hopes that there may be enough information to schedule the site and thereby protect it forever.
The trench in the garden yielded some 12th or 13th century Saxo Norman pottery and perhaps this will contribute to the bid to schedule Zinch House.
|
 |
 |
What Does 'Scheduling A Site' Mean?
'To schedule a site basically adds a layer of protection, probably the only layer of protection there can be.' says Professor Mick Aston, 'What happens is the site, if it's of national importance, is added to a list: that's what the schedule is. This list is held by all the planning departments and if somebody wants to build or change the land the planners get some warning that something important could be under threat. They can then investigate further or deny the planning application. However, even with scheduling it's still difficult to actually stop people from doing anything.'
|
 |
Test pit 2
Considering the background to this site, and it's potential, it was decided to open a second test pit in a field over the garden fence between the house and the village church. 'We thought it would be a good idea to see what was happening.' says Mick, 'So the County Archaeologist, Bob Croft, has come down and he's got permission from the landowner to open a second test pit. With so much archaeology around here it'll be interesting to see what comes out.'
Guess who was the first County Archaeologist for Somerset?………None other than our own Mick Aston!
The pit has proved interesting and given us evidence for a structure, probably a building foundation which is pre-1840 - if the landowner's research is correct!
|
Church of St. John Lee, Hexham
|
Since his days as a Royal Navy Chaplain on Polaris submarines the Rev Roger Cutler has been tending a rather different flock as the Vicar of the Church of St John Lee, just outside Hexham, Northumberland. With Hadrian's Wall 3 kilometres to the North and the ancient Saxon Bishopric of Hexham on the other side of the river to the South, Roger is floating in a sea of history and archaeology.
Roger is keen to explore the religious history of the site of his church. There's a curate's list that goes back to 1310 but he wants to go further back in time and investigate the Venerable Bede's claim that, in the 7th century, the Saxon Bishop St John of Beverly established an oratory (a prayer chapel) at the site.
But that's not all he's up to. Roger's church and rectory garden also boasts not two but three Roman altars - but no one knows where they came from. Did they come from the area around the church or were they brought in from far afield? Is there a connection between the altars and the long lost route of the Stanegate that connected the Roman forts of Vindolanda and Corbridge? The Stanegate was one of the most important roads in the Roman Empire. Until Hadrian built the famous wall early in the 2nd century AD, the Stanegate was the northern boundary of the Roman Empire.
So far the test pit has yielded one very important find. It's a shard of green, glazed pottery which the team believe to be 13th or 14th century. If that's true then the find is the first archeaological evidence of a medieval church of the site. And that makes it pretty important!
|
Warren House, Methwold
|
Set in the midst of Thetford Forest in Norfolk, Warren House is a picturesque Victorian flint cottage, home to 17 year-old Rachel Scarrott and her family. Only the name of the house indicates the huge importance of the site during medieval times when it was occupied by a two-storey, fortified lodge, provided by the lord of the manor to his warrener who farmed rabbits on the estate to ensure all year round meat for his lordship. The defensive nature of these structures are a reminder of how valuable the rabbit fur and meat were and the magnitude of the threat by poachers. Brought to Britain in the mid 1300's from France and Spain, rabbits quickly became an integral and highly prized source of food by even Charles II who dined on 'Muel' rabbit, a Norman variation on the name 'Methwold'.
Warren House is not only blessed with a fascinating medieval history, but has been the site of a plethora of amazing multi-period finds, including a Bronze Age axe head and Prehistoric worked flints and arrowheads of outstanding quality. It is only a few miles away from the world famous 'Grimes Graves', Britain's biggest Neolithic flint mining site, over 4000 yrs old.
Rachel's mum Jane has a hazy recollection of electricians laying cable under the front lawn about 20 years ago and hitting some foundations. They could have been the remains of the medieval warren lodge. And in fact although no evidence for the walls has been discovered there have been lots of interesting finds.
There's extensive evidence of activity in the site, for instance a roof tile has been uncovered but it doesn't match the victorian house which is now on the site, so we think it's from the former warren house. Rabbit teeth have been unearthed and a medieval dog's skull which looks like a terrier. This is the kind of dog which the warrener's would have used - but the rest of the body is not there! They'd love to keep digging!
If you want more information on warrenry check out this page from English Heritage.
|
^ back to top
|
|
|
|
|
