Over the years the Time Team crew has found itself stranded on coastal promontories in the fog, squelching across muddy river banks and enduring the worst the British weather can provide. With this in mind a few days in leafy woodland should be a doddle, right?
The site of Derwentcote in County Durham didn't, at first, seem too tricky. The site is a heavily wooded monument on the English Heritage 'At Risk' register. This means that the organisation sees the site as being in need of attention, both to maintain the site and to, potentially, investigate it. The structures remaining on site have several watercourses running through them and some are unstable. From initial visits it was clear that we would need to remove a good deal of vegetation if we were to have any hope of accessing the site. This work would be vital in assessing the condition of monuments as well as the health and safety implications of any work we would like to carry out.
Working closely with English Heritage, Durham County Council, Natural England, The Forestry Commission, Durham Wildlife Trust the Durham County Badger Group areas of the site were chosen for clearance and potential investigation. Whilst it quickly became clear that the geophysical survey team were going to have a tricky time getting any work done at all none of us had anticipated quite how uncomfortable the working conditions were to become over three days on site. Aside from mosquitoes the size of light aircraft the uneven ground and wet, boggy conditions made life quite difficult for the intrepid team of archaeologists working with us.
Despite the challenges and the number of agencies and organisations with vested interests in the site the team managed to safely investigate a site that had only previously been subject to a topographical survey. Time Team added a huge amount of information to the records of the site. All this information will be written up in a report and submitted to English Heritage and the County Council, contributing to the future management of the site and helping to preserve it for generations to come.
