ROYAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE NEWSLETTER · British Archaeological Awards 2018 ED ARDILL e awards were made in Central Hall Westminster on 15 October compered by Professor Carenza

ROYAL ARCHAEOLOG IC ALINST I TUTE NEWSLETTERNo. 5 7 APR I L 2 019

In this issue Grants and Awards • Research Grant Reports • Dates for your Diary •RAI Annual Conference 2019 • Summer Meeting, Isles of Scilly • Autumn Day Meeting •RAI and Thames Discovery Programme Conference • Miscellany • My Favourite Dig

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RAI Newsletter 57April 2019

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EDITORIAL Katherine Barclaye Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) is revising the definition of Treasure and its related codes of practice. Since 2007 the associated procedures, known asthe treasure process, have been administered by the Treasure Secretariat at the BritishMuseum, where the Portable Antiquities Scheme is housed alongside BM core staff, thoughFinds Liaison Officers based at local institutions across England and Wales undertake most ofthe fieldwork.

ere is a public consultation under way, which closes on 30 April 2019. We are invited tocomment on existing proposals including: the speeding up and rationalisation of the treasureprocess; revision of the definition of treasure to focus on, and ensure that museums canacquire, finds of historical, archaeological or cultural importance; and extending to the acquirerthe duty of reporting a possible treasure object or coin to the coroner. is might include thecreation of a new offence targetting purchasers of undeclared artifacts, even the unwitting.

ey are also seeking views in relation to the long-term future of the treasure process andits sustainability; the stated aims include establishing a sound financial underpinning for theprocess. To this end, there are not uncontroversial proposals such as having all archaeologicalobjects become the property of the Crown, or the introduction of a regulation as in NorthernIreland, where archaeological digging of any sort (both by professional archaeologists andothers) is only allowed by permit. Further aims would encourage positive behaviour andstrengthen educational outreach, and not a moment too soon.

In March, Cadbury made its biggest launch of 2019, Freddo Treasures (‘Retailers can drivesales with a unit designed like a pirate ship’) contains a toy and some chocolate buttons in acomplex, half empty, folding plastic box (another controversy!). On the foil liner, there is aQR code linked to a Cadbury’s website with ideas for family outings, part of which, entitled‘Undiscovered Treasure’ suggested children go metal-detecting to look for finds that had beenoverlooked, but on Scheduled monuments and other protected or privately-pwned sites, andwithout describing any archaeological or environmental context, disregarding safety let alonethe law, and partly inaccurate to boot. is bizarre marketing exploit appears somehow tohave escaped the proper scrutiny of their legal department; the company itself may have beenin breach of the Advertising Standards Agency’s requirement not to condone or encourageunsafe or illegal acts, and the website was fostering the flouting of the law by others. Followinga massive outcry from archaeologists, the webpage was suspended on 19 March (it is stillsuspended as I write), and Michael Ellis MP, then Minister for Arts, Heritage and Tourism,has (by Tweet) reminded the CEO of Cadbury of the need to respect the law, and ‘invited’ himto attend a meeting at DCMS.

We will probably never know why Cadbury failed to take advice from appropriate specialistsin order to devise a suitable promotional campaign. ey are now, of course, well aware ofinnumerable organisations willing to guide them in the sensible promotion of archaeology.e Freddo campaign included a £6m budget for TV and outdoor advertising from May. isis an immense amount of money by archaeological standards, and the platforms will alreadybe booked. Surely Cadbury will grasp the opportunity to remedy their gaff with a newprogramme with long term impact including education aimed at protecting our heritage.

Please search online for revising-the-definition-of-treasure to access the DCMS consultationand at the very least, argue for better funding for Portable Antiquities Scheme outreach.

RAI Cheney BursariesIn 2018, the Institute received no applications –please encourage your young colleagues to apply.e investment of a bequest le by Frank Cheneyproduces a small fund of money to enable studentsto attend conferences or RAI meetings. An alloca -tion is available annually from which individualscan apply for a maximum sum of £200. Pleasecheck with the Administrator that money remainsin the yearly fund before you apply. Students whowish to apply for a bursary should [email protected] or write to theAdmin is trator, RAI, c/o Society of Antiquaries,Burlington House, Piccadilly, London, W1J 0BE, atleast six weeks before the event they wish to attend,stating: the institution in which they study, theevent they wish to attend, the sum of moneyrequested, a breakdown of how the money wouldbe spent and a summary (up to 250 words) of why

they would like to attend the event and in whatway this would be useful to them. Successfulapplicants may be asked to produce a brief reportof the event for the Institute.

RAI Dissertation Prizese RAI holds two competitions for dissertationson a subject concerned with the archaeology orarchitectural history of Britain, Ireland andadjacent areas of Europe. In even-numbered years,the competition is for the best dissertation sub -mitted by an undergraduate in full-time education,the Tony Baggs Memorial Award. In odd-numbered years, the prize is awarded to the bestdissertation submitted by a Master’s student.Nomina tions are made by University and CollegeDepartments. e winner receives a prize of £500and the opportunity for a paper based on thedissertation to be published in the Archaeological 3


GRANTS AND AWARDS

British Archaeological Awards 2018 ED ARDILLe awards were made in Central Hall Westminster on 15 October compered by Professor CarenzaLewis.Best Archaeological Book: Lost Lives, New Voices: Unlocking the Story of the Scottish Soldiers in 1650 by R. Annis, A. Caffell, C. Gerrard, P. Graves and A. MillardBest Community Engagement Archaeology Project: jointly to CITiZAN and the SCAPE Trust, using‘citizen science’ and a TV programme ‘Britain at Low Tide’ to make their discoveries accessibleBest Archaeological Project: the National Trust for ‘Archaeology at Knole Sevenoaks, Kent’Best Public Presentation of Archaeology: Bloomberg for the reconstruction of the Roman Temple ofMithras (for the report of our Autumn Meeting’s visit, see below, p. 20).

ROYAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTERESEARCH GRANTSe Institute awards the following grants annually:Tony Clark Fund Up to £500 for archaeological work and datingBunnell Lewis Fund Up to £750 towards archaeology of the Roman period in the UKRAI Award Up to £5000 towards archaeological work in the UKPlease download an application form at http://www.royalarchinst.org/grantsor write to the Administrator. Closing date for applications: 9 December 2019. Awards announced in April 2020.

Journal. e chief criteria considered are (a)quality of work and (b) appropriateness to theinterests of the RAI as reflected in the Journal.

e RAI Tony Baggs undergraduate disserta -tion prize, covering years 2017 and 2018, wasawarded to Louise Moffett from Queen’s Uni -versity Belfast for her dissertation, e Late Medi -eval Parish Churches of Counties Antrim andLondonderry. Louise received her prize at theInstitute’s meeting on 12 December 2018.

RAI Research Grants, 2019Research grants for 2019 have been awarded to thefollowing projects:Mary Peteranna e Rosemarkie Caves ProjectMichael Stratigos and Derek Hamilton At theWater’s Edge: Early Iron Age settlement patterns incentral Scotland

RAI Research Grant ReportsCulver Archaeological Projectenvironmental samples analysis (BunnellLewis and Tony Clark Memorial Funds)Robert WallaceIn 2014, the Culver Archaeological Project carriedout a 600 sq m open area excavation in a meadow

to the west of the Romano-British settlementdiscovered in 2011 adjacent to the River Ouse, nearLewes, East Sussex. is followed on from fourtrenches excavated in 2013.

e excavation targeted thirteen circular geo -physical anomalies forming a rectangular group -ing 16 m by 6.4 m, which when excavated provedto be 1 m-diameter postholes, each containing thebase of a waterlogged post averaging 0.45 m indiameter at 0.8–1 m deep. ese were interpretedas the principal posts of a building, possibly aisled,dated by pottery to the late third century A.D.

As well as the waterlogged timbers listed above,adjacent, but at an oblique alignment to it, wediscovered a large fourth-century ovoid pit, beingover 2 m wide and 1.3 m deep. e lower contextsof this pit (a possible sump well) and the water -logged postholes provided us with organicremains, and had environmental bulk samplestaken, together with the fills from two hearthsdiscovered.

ese samples were initially processed on siteusing a SIRAF flotation unit with the >4 mmresidues investigated for organics. ese were sub -sequently sent together with the floating material(flots) collected by 300 mu mesh for specialistanalysis. e results provided valuable information

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Culver : drone image of thecompleted excavation, 2014

(R. Wallace)

for the interpretation of the site and its widerenvironment during the occupation period.

e data extracted included no evidence of cessdisposal or crop processing, suggesting that grainwas in storage awaiting consumption. e wellcontained waterlogged roundwood suitable for awattle structure. e plant debris was mainly fromthe surrounding environment rather than foodwaste, with no exotic species observed. Some iron-hammerscale was detected in the primary fills ofboth the possible forging hearth and the well,provid ing evidence of metal working in thevicinity.

e specialist’s report highlighted the rarity ofwaterlogged material in the archaeological recordfor south-east England and offered valuable adviceon how we can improve our procedures to obtaineven more data in the future. It also recommendeditems that should be considered for radiocarbondating.

Fieldwork at Copt Howe, Cumbria RichardBradley, Aaron Watson and Peter StyleUntil 1999 the Neolithic site at Copt Howe was bestknown to rock climbers. It was aer excavationson the Langdale Pikes above the site had beenpublished, that pecked designs were identified on

two of the prominent stones known as the Lang -dale Boulders. Although they had been transportedby ice, the decorated rocks provide a monumentalportal into the valley itself. ey command a directview of the stone sources on Harrison Stickle andLo Crag.

ere have been important developments sincethe fieldwork carried out on the high ground in the1980s. One is the redating of the axe productionsites employing samples collected in the originalfieldwork. It is clear that their main period of usewas between 3800 and 3300 B.C. at means thattheir products cannot have been exchangedthrough the henge monuments of north-westEngland, as was long believed. e second was therecording of the rock art which showed that it wasdifferent from most decorated outcrops in thenorth and more like the imagery associated withIrish tombs. at raised another problem as thosemonuments are dated between about 3300 and2900 BC, meaning that the pecked designs werelater than the quarries.

In 2018 small scale excavation was conducted atCopt Howe to shed further light on this problem.It showed that a platform had been built at the footof the principal decorated surface and that itsconstruction sealed two additional motifs with

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Copt Howe: the remains of the platform built against the principal decorated surface (A. Watson)

obvious Irish parallels. Stone tools for pecking thedesigns had been deposited in the material of theplatform, but there were no pieces of the distinc -tive tuff employed to make axes. e only struckflakes were of poor quality raw material obtainedon the site itself.

Langdale axes were widely distributed in Britainand many were taken across the Pennines to theNorth Sea coast. As their production diminishedor ceased it seems that connections with Irelandassumed a greater significance. at is why therocks at Copt Howe were embellished in the samestyle as the passage graves of the Boyne valley.

Tombs of the North: exploring theNeolithic chambered tombs of theNorthern Isles Vicki CummingsIn 2018 a 12 m by 10 m trench was opened over thechambered tomb of Tresness, Sanday, Orkney. eremains of an exceptionally well-preserved cairnsurviving to a considerable height was revealed. Asignificant quantity of later prehistoric stone toolswere recovered from across the cairn – notably ardpoints, flaked stone bars, hammerstones and othercoarse stone tools typical of Bronze or Iron Agedate in Orkney. Indeed, the most distinctive

charac ter istic of these stone tools was the absenceof diagnostically Neolithic objects.

Investigations also explored the northern andcentral component of the chamber. First, whatappeared to be collapsed or displaced roof slabswere removed to reveal the uppermost com -ponents of a chamber. is was comprised of areasof dry-stone walling built around upright stones –orthostatic stalls typical for stalled cairns. enorthern end of the chamber was defined by abackslab. Five courses of dry-stone walling wererevealed; measurements from photogrammetryindicate that if the tomb was constructed on flatground the orthostats of the stall may survive upto 2.1 m high and the masonry could be 2.3 m fromground surface. Within the chamber and under -neath the collapsed roof slabs were some massiveslabs which required two people to li, along withmedium- and gravel-sized stones. e large stonessat at acute angles showing they had been tippedin.

Towards the southern end of the chamber asvisible in the trench, a wall running east–west wasfound. While the dry-stone walling is found to thenorth of this wall, immediately around it and tothe south, the dry-stone walling is missing. is

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The extent of excavations of the chamber at Tresness with the well-preserved cairn also visible (V. Cummings)

suggests that the east–west wall is a later additioninto the chamber. In fact, it would appear that thewalls of the chamber have been removed here toenable a later feature to be inserted. is in turnsuggests that the change is Iron Age – souterrainsare documented as being inserted into chamberedtombs elsewhere on Orkney, and there is an IronAge broch just 500 m to the north. ere is a well-preserved chambered tomb at Tresness. However,there is also evidence that some of the monumenthas been reused at a later date.

Hoppen Bank: field walking and test pittingof a prehistoric landscape Paul GethingHoppen Hall Farm (Northumberland) is the siteof a prehistoric landscape that has been investi -gated over the last decade by the BamburghResearch Project (BRP) as part of the BradfordKaims Project. is is investigating an expanse offarmland and fenland around 3 miles inland fromBamburgh Castle. Initial test pits of a promisinglandscape located in situ Bronze Age, Neolithicand Mesolithic remains in various low-lying areasof the landscape. Information from excavationswas added to, using drone photography, geo -physics and coring. e work to date has identifieda large group of burnt mounds.

Aerial and satellite images give clear indicationof further prehistoric activity on the hillside atHoppen Bank, to the north-west of the previousexcavations. is is probably of Iron Age date, byanalogy with excavated sites. Geophysical surveysadded further data. We decided to field walk toconfirm its identification as an Iron Age enclosureand to locate dating evidence. A small trial trenchwas also dug to ascertain the dimensions and date.

Community volunteers and student volunteers(21 in total) set out a grid over the site. Each ten-metre square was given a number and five minutesof intensive field-walking. All finds were retained,but an initial on-site si was made to remove non-archaeological material. e artefacts werecleaned, catalogued and recorded before beingplotted by square. e whole process was used forteaching: many of the volunteers participate inother projects and field-walking and artefactidenti fication are valuable skills.

A 5 m by 1 m trench was excavated over a maingeophysical anomaly using volunteers alongsideBRP staff. Plough soil was removed and the top ofarchaeology identified. A small sample was exca -vated and recorded.

In total, 100 ten-metre squares were field-walked. e data collected allowed us to highlightareas of specific interest including concentrationsof flint and some possible prehistoric pottery.

e trial trench demonstrated that there isarchaeology remaining that has not been eradi -cated by ploughing.

At the Water’s Edge Michael Stratigos andDerek Hamiltonis project sought to elucidate the Early Iron Agesettlement pattern around Loch Tay (Perth andKinross), which contains an exceptional group ofcrannogs with known phases of use in the EarlyIron Age (800–400 BC). However, outside of thecrannogs, there are virtually no traces of settlementdating to this period, and few known recorded siteseven potentially from the period.

To test this apparent lack of settlement, inSeptember 2018, magnetic gradiometer survey was

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Hoppen Bank: west-facing section of the ditch [1007] (T. Gardner)

carried out on 3.2 ha over three sites along the lochshore. Test trenches over anomalies confirmedthem as post-medieval features, and uncovered noevidence for later prehistoric archaeology, appar -ently a true representation of the surviving archae -ology. Additionally, geophysics was under takenover two purported ring-ditched houses at EasterCrointygan (situated on the terraces above thenorth shore). e geophysical survey showed clearpositive results. Test trenches in the better pre -served of the two houses revealed relatively shallowstratigraphy in its interior with the remnants of ahearth and small pit feature, but also the potentialfor a considerable depth of remains in the ringditch surviving beneath the collapsed wall debris.

e results have important implications for ourunderstanding of settlement patterns in this partof Scotland. Primarily, there does not appear to beextensive or intensive later prehistoric activity onshore near the crannogs. However, this is not tosay that the crannogs existed in isolation and itseems more likely that contemporary settlement inthe area could be found higher upslope from theloch shore, such as at Easter Crointygan.

e project was only possible with volunteersupport. ose involved included: local volunteers(with support from the Perth and Kinross HeritageTrust), staff from the Scottish Crannog Centre, andstudents from the Universities of Aberdeen andGlasgow. We also welcomed a member of theScottish Crannog Centre Young ArchaeologistsClub, William, who is visually impaired. He wasable to gather magnetic gradiometer data owingespecially to the machine’s audio cadence. So withonly minimal aid, William successfully gathereddata over two full grids (800 m2).

Excavations and pottery assessment atHanging Grimston, Yorkshire WoldsMarcus JecockOur joint venture for the High Wolds HeritageGroup and Scarborough Archaeological andHistorical Society, was a fourth season of com -munity excavation at the eponymous desertedmedi eval village, the earthworks of which arelocated on the slopes of the western scarp edge ofthe Yorkshire Wolds, north of Kirby Underdale.e site is scheduled as a village with attached8


D. Hamilton surveying at Loch Tay (M. Stratigos)

manorial enclosure, but our project has alreadyestablished that the village and its open fieldsoverlie features of late Iron Age to Romano-Britishdate. is year, we commissioned Peter Didsburyto report on the pottery from the first three yearsof excavation.

Trench 1, sited over the entrance to one of theditched enclosures on the west side of the centraltrackway of the ladder settlement, was re-openedand extended, revealing three phases of ditch. Twohave previously produced handmade pottery,which Peter has now confirmed conforms withknown late Iron Age traditions on the Wolds (bothCalcareous- and Erratic-Tempered Wares), use ofwhich probably continued in to the second centuryAD. Ditch 3 – essentially a recut of ditch 2 – wasonly recognised for the first time this year. epottery it contained has yet to be reported on, butseems to include mostly Roman-period wares ofthe second to earlier third century. Large amountsof stone in the top of the re-cut hint that ditch 3may have been accompanied by a low wall or facedbank. e trackway beyond the enclosure had

shallow flanking ditches sealed beneath a final-phase metalled surface.

e pottery assessment has indicated thatactivity in the other four trenches, all sited toinvestigate particular aspects of the medieval andlater settlement at Hanging Grimston, spans fromthe twelh to the fieenth century. e dearth ofpottery later than fieenth century suggests thatthe village is likely to have been in serious declineby that date. is is in agreement with docu -mentary and earthwork evidence that suggest thevillage was depopulated by 1575 when RalphBourchier of nearby Beningbrough bought theestate and constructed a mansion (demolished butidentifiable in the earthworks) for his second son.

Dendrochronology of Furniture at St Peter’s Church, Laneham, Notts Gavin SimpsonSt Peter’s is essentially Norman, and one of themost important churches in the county, being in the manor of the archbishop of York which hehas held since before the Conquest. ere are 9


Hanging Grimston: the ladder settlement looking south: ditch 1 far right (west), ditch 2 by vertical scale, andditch 3 (re-cut) by the stone in section, with ‘berm’ in the natural clay beneath corresponding to the

base of the re-cut (C. Hall)

numerous Romanesque features and apart fromthe west tower which has been renovated in thePerpen dicular style, the only other major struc -tural addi tion is the Early English arcade openingonto the north aisle. Two items of oak furniturewere tree-ring dated by Oxford DendrochronologyLabora tory: the former south door, now displayedon the west wall of the nave, and a clamped chest

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with wide stiles, three chip-carved roundels andthree vertical iron straps with split curl terminalsat the front and a pin-hinged lid.

e door retained some evidence of sapwoodand dated in the range (OxCal Modelled) 1157–78.It was made up of four square-edged sawn boardsheld tightly rigid by stopped loose tenons betweenthem. e inside is reinforced by two pairs ofsaltire braces with a batten across above and belowand the exterior has an iron band around thecurved top of the door ending in split curls and thetwo hinge straps end in thin tendrils and two Csending in split curls. e dating is a generationearlier than thought previously and gives a closeindication of when the church was completed,while Archbishop Roger de Pont-L’Eveque heldthe manor (1154–81), and also a close date for theRoman esque sculptured surround of the doorway.e dendrochronology of the oak matches wellwith local chronologies and suggests that the car -pen try and the ironwork are the products of localcrasmen.

e chest had no sapwood evidence and canonly be assigned a terminus post quem of 1237 andtherefore associated with the Early English phaseof the church. e base of the westernmost colon -ette of the arcade had been cut back so that thechest could be fitted tightly into the north-westcorner of the nave. e tree-ring analysis alsodemon strated that the oak was from a differentlocation from the door, in the Hampshire/Wiltshire/Somerset region, conforming with themainly southern distribution of chests of this type.

The Laneham door is affixed to the west wall of thenave (R. Sheppard)

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

2019

Spring Meeting 10–12 May at Peterborough, led byStephen Ashby

Summer Meeting 6–13 July to Dumfries andGalloway, led by Hedley Swain

Autumn Day Meeting 19 October, at Reading, ledby Hedley Swain (details to be confirmed)

RAI 10th Annual Conference 29 November – 1 December at University College, London, eRomans in the North-East (see below)

Please check our website for news and earlydetails, at www.royalarchinst.org/events. As soon

as they are confirmed, full details and bookingforms for Meetings will be made available on the Meetings Programme page http://www.royalarchinst.org/meetings. Places are limited, soplease book promptly. If you would like furtherdetails of any of these meetings sent to you, pleasesend your e-mail or postal details to theAdministrator, RAI, c/o Society of Antiquaries ofLondon, Burlington House, London, W1J 0BE [email protected] or to Caroline Raison,RAI Assistant Meetings Secretary, 48 Park Avenue,Princes Avenue, Kingston upon Hull, HU5 3ES, [email protected].

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Aer an early start, we met at Swindon and joinedthe Barnes coach, with knowledgeable driver Phil,familiar to some from previous trips. Fortunately,we didn’t drive round the Magic Roundabout, butnevertheless, would we arrive at our overnight stopbefore the England/Sweden football World Cupkick off at 3 p.m.? We were soon on to the Somer -set Levels, where the sea used to extend towardsGlastonbury, and saw buildings on small raisedareas, hedgerows interspersed by reeds, bul rushesand huge willow trees, sure signs of water nearby.ere were distant views of mud flats as we passedthe slip road to Weston-super-Mare. ere are farmore solar roofs here than those of us from aroundLondon are used to; no wonder solar had justmade a record weekly contribution to UK elec -tricity generation. We drove past Serena de laHey’s ‘Willow Man’ sculpture (sometimes knownas ‘the Angel of the South’), heading west pastExeter, across wild Bodmin Moor, the setting of duMaurier’s Jamaica Inn, and towards St Austell,where china clay has been mined since theeighteenth century. Redruth, the next key town, isfamous for its tin mines and we were regaled with

its many firsts: an early horse traction railway, thefirst place to have gas lamps, where Boulton &Watt’s representative William Murdoch mademany innovations and where Isambard KingdomBrunel made the chains for the Clion SuspensionBridge and laid them out on the road near Hallbefore transporting them to Bristol.

Eventually we arrived in Camborne, famous forits nineteenth-century School of Mines, still todayrunning specialist courses. Many pitheads arevisible throughout the landscape. e town’s otheroutstanding edifices include both chapels andpubs. is day, the pubs were full of exuberant red-and white-flag draped supporters shouting ‘It’scoming home!’ out of the windows. On a wanderthrough the town, we saw examples of Camborne’sindustrial past celebrated in the form of pumpingengine and pithead shaped pasties in a baker’swindow, an interesting cultural fusion. We settledinto the comfortable John Francis Bassett Hotel,Wetherspoons with adjoining pub that had morethan a little in common with Fawlty Towers. isGrade II listed building (1866–7), with four-stagecorner tower, replaced a smaller Market House


Organised by the Royal Archaeological Institute inassociation with the Roman Society, our tenthannual conference will concentrate on recent workon Roman north-east England, from Yorkshire toHadrian’s Wall. e programme includes lecturesby leading academics and unit-based professionalsand will cover major sites from Aldborough, Cor -bridge, Scotch Corner, and Catterick to Brough-on-Humber, as well as recent work on rural sites.

Conference fees will include teas and coffees. earea around the venue is well-provided with placesfor lunch.

Booking deadline: 18 November 2019.

For further details please send your e-mail or postaldetails to the Administrator, RAI, c/o Society of Antiquaries of London, Burlington House,London, W1J 0BE or at [email protected]

ROYAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE ANNUALCONFERENCE 2019

Romans in North-East England29 November – 1 December at Senate House, Malet Street, London, WC1E 7HU.(N.B. This is a non-residential conference.)

MEETINGS NOTES

164th SUMMER MEETING 7–13 July 2018: Isles of Scilly M. AMORY, D. AND L . CHAMBERS, J . AND V. COAD, W. HUSBAND, J . KNIGHT,A. SCOTT, S . SHAW, K . STUBBS, T. TATTON-BROWN

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attack. e Scillies’ defences were oen ambitiousand well designed, but time and again, becausebuilding works advance more slowly than politicaldevelopments elsewhere, they were abandonedwhen only half finished. Perhaps it was fortunate,if ironic, that the only serious and successful attackon the islands came from England, led by AdmiralBlake.

Our Sunday afternoon walk, around e Gar -ri son, guided by Jonathan Coad, took in the Walls.ese were built in the 1740s, during the War ofthe Austrian Succession, no doubt with thepossibility of invasion in mind. With their redansand gun emplacements they are formidable, andthe Woolpack and Bartholomew Batteries in par -ticu lar are skilfully and solidly constructed. Aplanned extension to the west to take in the wholepeninsula was abandoned. At the north end, theKing Charles Battery was re-armed in 1793 on

and has housed variously the Town Hall andMagistrate’s Court, the Camborne Savings Bank,and Assembly Rooms. It was paid for by theepony mous Basset, aka ‘Squire of Tehidy’, aleading local landowner, whose family coat of armsis set in the North facade, an Italian palazzo-styleextension added in 1911. e conversion to hotel and pub includes nods to the local story inthe copious artwork and shovel-shaped doorhandles.

Next day aer a short coach hop to Penzance weembarked the ferry, the latest, only just over40-year-old, version of the Scillonian, numberedIII. We enjoyed fine views of the open-air Minackeatre, the cliffs of southern Cornwall and theremains of the Porthcurno Intercontinental Tele -graph Station, still the landing for some fibre-opticcables. en we crossed open sea, passing the 130-feet high Wolf Rock lighthouse (1869). ere aremore than 500 registered wrecks around the Islesof Scilly, the Torrey Canyon being one of the bestknown. She went aground on the Seven Stones reefbetween Land’s End and St Martin’s in 1967,causing one of the worst man-made disasters ever.Despite our vessel’s reputation for a shallow butnot particularly stable hull, our voyage was calm,and as we drew into Hugh Town Harbour, StMary’s, we could see the Scottish-style fortresshousing our hotel on the top of the cliff. Unlike therest of the Isles Hugh Town is not owned by theDuchy of Cornwall, but by its inhabitants, thoughthe Duchy does control the port.

Sir Francis Godolphin, governor of the islandsfrom 1568–1608, claimed that ‘no other place canso aptly permit or restrain the traffic of Ireland andthe north of Scotland with France or Spain’. It waswith this in mind that various attempts at fortifica -tion were made.

e Star Castle, begun in 1593, was our base forsix days. It is formidable in appearance, with pro -jecting bastions to give interlocking fields of fire.ere is a substantial magazine and some survivingbarrack buildings. It makes an excellent hotel, buta poor fortress; in its present role, it is wonderfullypicturesque. In the sunshine and clear air of aflawless week in July, the islands took on a Medi -terranean or even a Caribbean appearance, buthowever commanding the castle may look on itspromontory above the harbour, its constructionmust have been too flimsy to withstand a serious


Detail of the bell-cote and parapet of the GarrisonGate as remodelled (1742) by Abraham Tovey,resident master gunner (the initials are of King

George II, Francis Godolphin, and Tovey). (M. O’Brien)

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the outbreak of war with France. Some cannonhave been mounted to give an impression of itsappearance, and a reconstructed traversing plat -form shows how the guns could be laid to coverthe approaches to the island. roughout the nine -teenth century and during the two World Wars,the defences were constantly updated to includerifled breechloaders and electric searchlights, butthey saw little, if any, action. e murderous rocksand shoals around the islands must have destroyedfar more ships than were ever damaged by theshore-based artillery, without distinction of friendor enemy.

e aernoon’s walk had introduced us to theisland of St Mary’s dominant vegetation – bracken.Quite why this invasive and noxious weed has beenallowed to establish itself in such density andprofusion is not obvious. ere are no sheep beingfarmed in the parts of the island which the RAIvisited, so perhaps there is no incentive to tackleit. Soay sheep, said to be resistant, eat the base ofthe plant and are used on Dartmoor to controlbracken. A modest suggestion …

Monday was a very full day. Scillonian residentand guide Chas Wood, of Scilly Walks, took us ona tour of St Mary’s, visiting sites from the BronzeAge, Tudor and Civil War defences, and war timePill boxes. e party took a local bus to HalangyDown, the highest point of St Mary’s. It is markedby a BBC mast and Telegraph Tower, now a resi -dence but built for semaphore in 1841. On the sideof the hill, the Down is criss-crossed by foot paths,with trees, hedges and low vegetation. En routeChas told us much about the history and archae -ology of the islands, their flora, geology, weather,the bulb industry and occupants. Botan ists andgarden lovers marvelled at the variety of plantscommon to the Canaries and New Zealand, paus -ing to admire the tall flowering spike of the AgaveAeonomium, and amazing ‘giant’ nastur tiums withleaves the size of dinner plates! Walking downtowards the sea, we reached Bant’s Carn, a largeand impressive Bronze Age burial chamber with acurved stone lined passage to the interior andcapped by four large stones. Another much smallerburial chamber, Halangy Porth, is close by, below

Garrison Walls: view N-E across King Charles’ Battery, with reconstructed turf bank and replica gun carriages (M. O’Brien)

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Halangy Down settlement, although diffi cult tospot, as it was subsumed in bracken.

Down the hill slope on a series of banks andterraces, the settlement dates to the later IronAge/Roman period. Excavated in the 1950s, it haswell preserved low walls of eleven interconnectingstone-built structures and a field system. esettlement was apparently long lived with evidenceof the houses being altered and repaired and it wasa productive, sheltered area for farming andanimal raising. As sea levels have risen by about300 m, it is now close to the coast line, but fromour vantage point it was easy to imagine a lowersea level and extensive larger islands.

At this point we took a leisurely route to OldTown, walking along a narrow coastal path withfrequent stops to admire the view, the boats,flowers, butterflies, and monuments. In places wesaw remains of kelp pits, stone lined shallow pitsused to burn dried kelp, producing soda ash. ereare over one hundred such pits on the islands andthe soda was exported to Bristol and Gloucester forthe manufacture of blue glass, soap and bleach. Itwas a very important, if pungent, part of theislands’ economy from the seventeenth century


until 1835. e route took us past the golf courseand there was much consternation and wavingwhen the tail end of our party found themselvesclose to the tee of the challenging and scenicFourth Hole above the cliffs – at a critical point ofthe game!

e next stop was the defences of Harry’s Walls,built in the 1550s and described by Chas andJonathan Coad. Overlooking Porthcressa andTown Beaches, and facing e Garrison, it isintriguing and incomplete, with V-shapeddefences, designed by the Italian, Portonari. eremains show that it was an innovative design anda considerable investment in the defence of thecountry. Was it abandoned because e Garrisonwas thought to be a more strategic position (someof the granite was taken for building Star Castle),because the site was too small for the defencesneeded or because the threat of French invasionwas removed? Whatever the explanation, theremains are a further demonstration of the stra -tegic significance of the islands. Intriguingly, thereis another monument here – a Bronze Age stand -ing stone, probably moved from its original loca -tion and standing sentinel with a modern naviga -tion marker, guidance for boats in the harbour.

We then took a meandering walk throughLower Moor nature reserves managed by the Islesof Scilly Wildlife Trust. A network of paths led tosecluded pools and nature hides and we glimpsedviews, of planes arriving and landing at St Mary’sAirport, and of the remaining part of the NormanEnnor Castle, built against a granite outcrop.Emerging into Old Town, we had a welcome andgenerous lunch at a very busy café overlooking OldTown Bay, catching up on the mornings’ activities,paddling and for the well-prepared, swimming.

We walked towards the west coast of the islandin the aernoon through an area of dunes and bulbfields. At Porthellick Cove we paid due respects tothe original grave (now marked by a simple andstark quartz memorial) of Admiral Sir CloudesleyShovell who died in 1707 and is now buried inWestminster Abbey. One of the greatest naval dis -asters in the area, his was one of four ships wreckedon the Western Rocks, with many lives lost. estate of navigational aids at that time meant thatships could go off course and become disorientatedif it was difficult to fix their exact location. isdisaster was a further spur to the Board of the

Halangy Porth Bronze Age burial chamber (M. O’Brien)

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Admiralty which instituted a competition for amore precise method to determine longitude.

Climbing uphill, we reached the impressiveBronze age entrance grave chamber known as theGreat Tomb. It is almost circular with a turf andgorse capping and has a narrow unroofed passageleading to the central tomb and surrounded by alow outer platform. e tomb was found to beempty when excavated. e chamber is the largestin a scattered cemetery including six others, andtwo cairns. It is well maintained by English Heri -tage and surrounded by mown grass. Nearby, a pillbox overlooks the sea.

We then took a bus back to Buzza Hill in HughTown, waiting for it amongst the characteristicsmall fields of Agapanthus and Narcissi, sur -rounded by high protective hedges. Buzza Towerat the top of the hill was originally a windmill builtin 1821. It was restored in 1912 as a memorial toKing Edward VII and is now a camera obscura.Nearby is a later Neolithic/ early Bronze Age burial chamber, very small, deep and again,overgrown.

Aer an early evening dinner, we strolled backinto Hugh Town to the Methodist Church to meetChas again and see the fantastic slide show byKatharine Sawyer, also of Scilly Walks. Katharinetook us through the long history and archaeologyof the islands with wonderful images. It was excel -lent background for some of the sites we had seenand a tantalising introduction to the followingdays’ visits; many thanks to both Chas andKatharine.

On Tuesday morning we caught a boat toTresco, guided by Heather Sebire, Senior PropertyCurator, English Heritage. Owing to the tide welanded at the southern end of the island, and ashort walk from the entrance to the Abbey Gar -dens. Close to the landing stage is evidence ofsubmerged landscape: to the west, a prehistoricfield system and post-medieval enclosure and tothe east another field system and two possibleround houses. Just inland is Oliver’s Battery, con -structed in 1651 aer the Parliamentary forcescaptured Tresco on 18 April. Gunfire from thisBattery pounded the Garrison on St Mary’s, lead -ing to the Royalists’ surrender on 23 May.

St Nicholas’s Priory, an early twelh-centuryBenedictine foundation, was probably abandonedbefore the Reformation though the cemetery con -

tinued in use until 1811. e visible remains includethe nave and chancel of the small priory churchwith two surviving arches in the south wall,formerly the entrances to the south transept andthe cloister. A sill slab at the base of the smallerarch is a reused Christian inscribed memorialstone thought to date from the later sixth century,the earliest evidence for Christian activity at ornear the site. Just to the west of the church is astone perforated by two round holes, possiblyBronze Age, brought to its present position fromelsewhere on Tresco or from Bryher.

Augustus Smith (1804–72) acquired the ScillyIsles’ lease from the Duchy of Cornwall; the Crownstipulated that as Lord Proprietor he build StMary’s a new pier and complete the parish church,among other improvements, to the tune of £5000,within six years from 1834. He brought muchneeded social and economic benefits to these smallislands, though his actions were not always popu -lar. He lived on St Mary’s while he built the familyhome adjacent to the priory on Tresco, which isthe almost central island, and began to create thegarden; over time he extended both the house andthe garden. e ruins are attractively integratedinto the now world-famous Tresco Abbey Garden,which has thrived under five generations ofAugustus Smith’s family. e garden, six to sevenhectares, and its woodland now occupy aboutthirty of Tresco’s 297 hectares (1.15 sq. miles). isisland remains leased to the family.

Augustus took advantage of natural shelterafforded by Tresco’s high ridge and south-facingslope, carving out three terraces, adding windbreakwalls and an extensive belt of sheltering trees.Realising the asset of a warm, virtually winter-freeclimate, he acquired plants from English nurseriesand private gardens, and from Scillonian seafarerssailing abroad. He had long-term productive con -tact with Kew. His heir, nephew omas Dorrien-Smith, helped the island economy by growingsupplies for the London flower market. omas’sson Arthur in his turn added to the garden range,having collected plants while serving in the armyin South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.Arthur’s son and grandson maintained the gar -den’s progress. e Abbey Garden is not Paradise,however; massive storms brought severe damagein 1929, 1987, and 1990.

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Every year now, the result of the family’s collec -ting and gardening efforts draws many visitors tosee a subtropical display in which species from 80countries flourish, hundreds blooming even inmidwinter. Admittedly visitors do not find innova -tive garden design: a grid of lengthy paths, somewith steps, covers the slope, Long Walk stretchingthe full width east to west, and Neptune’s Stepswith Lighthouse Walk from north to south, downthe three terraces. e draw is the presence of somany striking and exotic species in the open air,many of which could not survive on the Cornishmainland only 30 miles away. ey are locatedwhere they are best suited, Australian and SouthAfrican plants mainly on the drier top levels, thosefrom New Zealand and South America in the morehumid lower reaches. Many plants are stronglysculptural in effect, with distinctive spires, spikes,whorls, fans, fronds, pyramids or mounds, theflowers oen brilliant, complex and ostentatious.

Within the grid of beds you come upon theMediterranean Garden, Pebble Garden (in UnionJack design), Palm Circle, Succulent Cliff, and, atthe edge, the Eucalyptus Field and Bamboos.Monterey Pines and Cypresses abound in theshelterbelt; there are palms and tree-ferns aplenty,Yucca, Echium and Agave, Banksia and bottle -brush: the diversity is amazing.

Eye-catching objects mark junctions or ends ofpaths: a statue of earth-mother Gaia, another ofthree leaping Tresco Children, the gothic arches ofthe old priory, a figurehead of Neptune, the AgaveFountain, a Shell House. Of particular interest tothe RAI was a Roman altar with carved side-panelsdepicting a cleaver and a long-handled axe, foundat e Garrison on St Mary’s, unfinished and soprobably unused. More eye-catchers are found inthe garden’s ‘Valhalla’, a group, not of Norseheroes, but certainly of those lost in battle – withthe sea: the tireless Augustus Smith started thiscollection of 28 figureheads and other relics fromlocal shipwrecks of the late nineteenth century.e most dashing is Palinurus, helmsman toVirgil’s Aeneas, here as a Victorian swashbuckler,fully and formally dressed down to the brassbuttons on his blue jacket, waving his cutlass overhis head. e vessel, inward bound from Demerarain 1848, went aground on the Lion Rock, north ofSt. Martin’s, its 17 crewmen all lost; of its cargo,

locals salvaged 14 hogsheads and 71 puncheons ofspirits, and nine quarter-casks of rum.

From the top terrace and from Abbey Hill thereare views outwards to several islands, Bryher,St Mary’s, St Agnes, and Samson, their nearness areminder that the 55 isles and some 80 islets of theScillies were once one. (In certain calm, low-seaconditions it is still possible to wade between someof them; Caroline was relieved that we missed theopportunity by a day!) It also reminded me of theexperience of a friend who, early in her career inhorticulture and its history, spent a memorableyear working at the Abbey Garden, very happily,although at that time transport was so limited youwere virtually marooned – apart from the weeklyboat to St Mary’s, where there was A Shop.

Having made our separate ways around thegardens and ruins, following our various interests,we joined forces to set off for Tresco’s sixteenth-and seventeenth-century defences, getting anexternal view of the garden boundary and luxuri -ous shelter-belt of trees as we le.

Aer the delights of lush gardens we turnedagain to the serious business of warfare. We beganour walk round the east side of the island, passingthe end of the great pool before making our waynorthwards to the Old Blockhouse. Heather Sebirereminded us of the vulnerability of the islands toattack by foreign warships and privateers. e OldBlockhouse clearly occupied a strategic positioncommanding Tresco’s main port, Old Grimsby,with views over to St Martin’s, Tean and StHelen’s. Built in 1554, it was originally armed withat least three heavy guns. Little is known, however,about the use of the blockhouse from its com -pletion until the Civil War when it was used byRoyalists in their unsuccessful defence of Tresco.

From Old Grimsby, a challenging uphill climbover a boulder strewn path brought us to CastleDown where attempts to locate prehistoric cairns,enclosures and entrance graves were frustrated bythe heather and natural outcrops of granite,though we did identify part of a field system. KingCharles’ Castle, guarding the inner channel andNew Grimsby harbour, was clearly a more sophis -ti cated fortification than the Old Blockhouse. Itwas built probably between 1550 and 1554 and wasoriginally two storied to accommodate at least twotiers of guns. e somewhat Spartan and crampedliving quarters consisted of a hall with kitchen at


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its north end containing a fireplace with breadoven. Two smaller chambers, north and south ofthe main room were probably sleeping quartersand to the east lay the guard room.

We then scrambled downhill to Cromwell’sCastle which effectively replaced King Charles’Castle in the defence of New Grimsby harbour.is is a somewhat enigmatic fortification of morethan one period. A sixteenth-century blockhousethought to have been here was superseded by theunusual tall cylindrical tower. Documentary evi -dence gives a construction date of 1651–2 when theislands, threatened by a Dutch fleet intent oneradi ca ting privateers here, were captured byforces under the command of Robert Blake,General-at-Sea. ose members of the RAI whomounted the internal stair of the tower wererewarded with impressive if puzzling internalfeatures that suggest an earlier date, including a

fine ribbed stone vault, fireplace and decorativecapitals. On the open platform above there weresix gunports.

e original date of the substantial gun platformon the seaward side is unknown as the platformwas apparently remodelled in the 1740s to itspresent appearance. ese alterations seeminglyincluded the blocking of the original doorway tothe tower and its replacement with a new entrancevia the platform.

e final leg of our walk to New Grimsby andthe boat back to St Mary’s took us along a some -what tortuous coastal path. On the way we passeda simple memorial to a secret naval flotilla basedin Grimsby Sound in 1942 and 1943 that had trans -ported agents to and from Occupied France andplayed a role in bringing back details of Germandefences on the Normandy coast.


View S-W over Cromwell’sCastle and across the channelbetween Tresco and Bryher(A. Williams)

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On Wednesday we visited St Martin’s and theeastern and northern isles.

We landed at Lowertown Quay, St Martin’s ataround low tide, aer our short crossing fromSt Mary’s. is was the perfect time to see themany fragments of the 290-million-year-oldgranite pluton that project from the flats (anddestroy ships) between Tresco, St Mary’s andSt Martin’s. Before 7000 BC, Scilly was one largegranite island that stretched continuously as farsouth-west as the Bishopstone rock, until a rapidpost-glacial sea-level rise flooded the island, andby the end of the Bronze Age almost all of thepresent ‘Isles of Scilly’ had been separated fromone another, as recent work (paid for by HistoricEngland) has shown. Over thirty years ago, asplendid book by the late Charles omas waspublished (Exploration of a drowned Landscape:Archaeology and History of the Isles of Scilly: 1985),which proposed, from the then scientific evidence,and from place-names evidence, that the floodingof the flats did not take place until much later. Asthe new sea-level curve shows, there was a morerapid sea-level rise in the Stone Age, which tailedoff in the last few thousand years. Marshall andJohns (2018, HE Research Issue 8, 58–65) outlinethe latest ideas on this. Charles’ book still has muchelse of value.

From Lowertown we walked to the north-westside of the island, and trekked over Tinker’s Hillto see another of the many kelp pits that weremade in the islands from the late seventeenth tothe mid-nineteenth century. Beyond this, to theeast on Top Rock Hill, we tried to find (in denseheather) the remains of a large prehistoric fieldsystem, with cairns, a hut circle, and a bank andditch. is area is now perhaps more famous for the detailed work carried out in recent years by Quaternary geologists. e northern side ofSt Martin’s (as well as Trescoe and Bryher) hasmany deposits and erratics relating to the southernlimit of the last vast glacier of the Ice Ages. About21,000 years ago, this great glacier flowed south -wards down the Irish Sea Basin to the north sideof the great granite pluton of Scilly. On Scilly therewere cold tundra conditions, and orange-browndeposits of ‘ram’ can be found in the cliffs. esecontain organic matter which have been radio -carbon dated to between 21,000 and 30,000 yearsago, as well as some worked flints that were used

in the Palaeolithic. We saw some of these in theMuseum on St Mary’s on our last day.

Aer lunch we had a magnificent boat trip, firstto observe Nornour and the Eastern Isles, and thenwest of St Martin’s to Teän, St Helen’s and RoundIsland. Nornour, which in the Prehistoric andRoman periods was part of Great Ganilly, was thesite of a well-known excavation undertaken by thelate Sarnia Butcher. e remains of a Bronze Ageto Roman settlement was discovered in the early1960s, when it was being washed away by the sea.A remarkable collection of early first-century ADobjects were also found (all now splendidly dis -played in the Museum on St Mary’s), which wereperhaps votive offerings for a nearby Romanshrine, and Charles omas has suggested that thearea of deeper water, north of Nornour, was thena Roman harbour, which looked east to the main -land of Cornwall.

Aer Nornour, we turned west, roundedCruther’s Point on the south side of St Martin’s,and passing through many rocky ‘ledges’ west ofLowertown, we went into the sheltered bay on thesouth side of Teän. Like a number of other sites onScilly, Teän has produced sherds of seventh-century pottery (omas’s E ware) imported fromwestern France. In all, some thirty vessels areknown, along with a few scraps of earlier EastMediterranean amphorae.

From the boat we observed the site of Charlesomas’s 1956–60 excavations around St eona’sChapel. is was another remarkable site withearly Medieval stone-lined cist graves and aneighth-century stone chapel, all now surroundedby seventeenth- to nineteenth-century walls, anda cottage built for the Nance family, who lived hereand started the kelp industry in Scilly. We con -tinued west around Teän to St Helen’s, which wasused as a quarantine island (with a Pest House) inthe eighteenth century. Here was another earlyChristian site and chapel.

St Elidius’s Chapel – St Helen’s was the mistakeof a sixteenth-century map maker – was excavated(appropriately) by Helen O’Neil. It is one of aseries of island hermitage sites along the Atlanticseaways in western Britain and Ireland. In its initialphase it comprised a small rectangular oratory, around dry-stone hut and a group of graves, allwithin an enclosure. Church Island, Valencia,County Kerry is very similar. In later phases, the


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hut was retained, perhaps as the original cell of the‘saint’; three rectangular dwelling huts and a newchurch were added, the latter with a north chapel.is may have housed the remains of the saint andfragments of a twelh-century Purbeck marbleshrine or reliquary were found.

We finished our boat trip by going around thenorth side of St Helen’s to Round Island, where weobserved closely the landings leading up to theScillies’ great northern lighthouse. Built in 1887, itstands on the northern edge of Scilly’s vast granitebatholith, and is oen lashed by huge waves, likethe Bishop’s Rock lighthouse. e top of thelantern is sixty metres above the sea. We thenturned west to see some seals and the last of thisyear’s puffins on, and around, the three great pieslices of Men-a-vaur, with its huge vertical cliffs.Our direct return to St Mary’s was down thechannel between Bryher and Tresco, where wepassed very close to Cromwell’s Castle, that we hadvisited the previous day, which is perhaps thesecond oldest surviving ‘castle’ (aer Ennor Castleon St Mary’s) in the Scillies.

ThursdayIf any member – distracted by guillemot or moltenice-cream – had not been paying attention at everymoment of our stay, ursday morning was thechance for revision. e Isles of Scilly Museum onChurch Street, St Mary’s, has two purpose-builtstoreys packed to the gunwales with a well-curateddisplay of these islands’ prehistory and history,including nauticalia and wrecks (notably Colossus,and the Association on which Sir CloudesleyShovell came to grief), agricultural, social and warhistory. Members were impressed with BronzeAge urns from the chambered tombs seen earlierin the week; the mirror and scabbarded swordfrom the Bryher cist of c. 200 B.C.; a greenstone axefrom Halangy Porth; and fine Roman broochesfound on Nornour. An entire pilot gig took centrestage in the museum’s open basement. ere waseven a wall of natural history displays, including astuffed Black Kite so rare it was just asking to beshot (in 1942). e museum – founded in 1967 andrun largely by volunteers – is exemplary in the waythat such a wide variety of objects is given space toconvey the interest and importance of each item.Staff should be proud of the clarity of presentationof so many disparate items. Behind the scenes, this


independent museum also supports the com -munity through its family history resources andarchives.

Another item on display was the Gannex macaffected by Harold Wilson, Lord Wilson ofRievaulx, who had retired here to his holidayhome. As we le the museum, flags were at halfmast across Hugh Town; a sign, not of sadness atthe Institute’s last day here, but of respect for hiswidow, the poet Mary Wilson, whose memorialservice would be held that morning. She now liesbeside him, in the beautiful coastal graveyard bySt Mary’s. On this day of blue sky and waves thatcould not refrain from sparkling, there was timefor members to pause in the truncated but homelyold town church, before walking on round theheadland, past rocks that Henry Moore wouldhave died for, back to Hugh Town’s fudgiferousshops, the cool shade of taverns, and the queue tore-board Scillonian III.

Members were as ever grateful for Caroline’sorganisation and care, and for Hedley’s knowledgeand leadership.

Further notes can be seen via the RAI’s Eventswebpage.

Memorials to Scillonians and the shipwrecked (W. Husband)

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The tauroctony from the Mithraeumon display in the Museum of London

(C. von Patzelt)


It was a cold Saturday morning when we managedto find our way out of Bank Underground Stationand gathered at the new Mithraeum Museum at 12Walbrook in the City of London. is new display,which includes an ‘immersive experience’, is thelatest chapter in the history of an extraordinarysite, which was first found in the early 1950s duringthe excavation of a Second World War bomb site.

e temple lies by the course of one of London’s‘lost’ rivers, the Walbrook. When Londinium wasfounded by the Romans, the Walbrook marked thelimits of their first settlement, but it wasn’t untilthe third century A.D. that a temple to the godMithras was built on reclaimed ground by theriver.

e worship of Mithras first appeared in the eastof the Roman Empire in the first century B.C.Differ ent forms of the men-only cult then spreadacross the Empire, following the travels of the mer -chants, soldiers and imperial administrators whowere drawn to this exotic god of light who couldact as an intermediary between men and eternity.e worshippers met in rectangular temples,which were oen constructed below ground, darkand windowless spaces that imitated the originalcave in which Mithras killed a bull as an act ofcreation or fertility. is scene, the ‘tauroctony’, isthe focal point of each mithraeum and its fullmeaning is the subject of much specu la tion.

Sophie Jackson and Mike Tetro of MOLA(Museum of London Archaeology) told us thestory of how William Grimes had excavated thesite, attracting more than 30,000 visitors a day.ere was much debate at the time as to what todo with the site and it was finally decided todismantle it and reconstruct it about 100 metresfrom its original location. Many of us visited thisrebuild aer it was opened in 1962, but it is recalledas being rather sad and lonely amongst the high-rise buildings that increasingly surrounded it. In2010 Bloomberg acquired the site for its Europeanheadquarters and worked with the City of Londonand conservation specialists to dismantle thetemple again and reconstruct it as close to its origi -nal position as possible. An interesting decisionwas made to resist the temptation to reconstructthe temple as the Romans would have seen itaround 250 A.D. or rebuild the ruin that thousandsof enthusiastic Londoners saw in the early fiies.

No expense has been spared to display the siteand the finds from the 1950s and 2010–14 excava -tions in an elegant and informative way. As wewended our way down the stairs, we were literallygoing back in time, as was explained by graphicson the walls of the staircase. In the ruins them -selves an ‘immersive’ sound and light displayintroduces visitors to the cult of Mithras and to theWalbrook Mithraeum. is is a very modern

AUTUMN DAY MEETING 27 October 2018: The London Mithraeum,Roman Amphitheatre and Museum of London LINDSAY ALLASON-JONES

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pre senta tion which will appeal to many people andis proving popular.

Before striding out to Guildhall we also inspec -ted the London Stone in its new aedicula. is isanother antiquity which has had a wander inghabit, both before and aer Jack Cade, the leaderof the rebellion against Henry VI’s government in1450, struck it with his sword and claimed to beLord of London. e original age and purpose ofthe stone is open to debate but it was generally feltby our group that its present setting was moreelegant than the stone’s own appearance war -ranted.

At Guildhall another basement was explored,this time containing the Roman amphitheatre. Ithad long been presumed that Londinium musthave had a major sporting venue but it was notuntil the 1980s, during the building of theGuildhall Art Gallery, that it was discovered. eamphitheatre’s remains are now on permanentdisplay and, like the Mithraeum, good use has beenmade of lighting to display it to its advantage. efootprint of the old amphitheatre is marked out ingrey paving in Guildhall Yard but one wondershow many visitors to the area know what thiscurved line in the ground indicates or are awarethat the real amphitheatre is visitable below theirfeet, complete with its drains and sump pits.

On our way to the Museum of London to seethe sculpture from Grimes’s excavations at theWalbrook Mithraeum, we stopped to view thevisible stretches of the Roman walls of Londiniumand the Roman fort. An especial treat was to be

taken underground again, through a hidden andsomewhat unprepossessing door, to see the westgate of the fort and city. Even those of us whoknow Roman London well had never seen theseremains, which included the gate’s north guard -room, gravelled roadway and central piers.

Aer admiring the displays of marble sculpturefrom the Mithraeum and neighbouring temples,we ended an excellent morning with lunch atBenugo’s at the Museum of London. is may bethe last time that the RAI visit the Museum ofLondon before it is bodily lied to its new site atSmithfield. Somehow, given that we had spent themorning visiting archaeological sites that havebeen moved around, it seemed only reasonablethat the Museum should also continue on itsjourney around our capital. Many thanks are dueto Caroline Raison for organizing and HedleySwain for leading us on a fascinating and thought-provoking tour.

Londinium: model of the west gate of the fort and city

e Royal Archaeological Institute teamed up withthe ames Discovery Programme (TDP) whowere celebrating their tenth anniversary in Octo -ber with their annual Foreshore Forum. is wasa special two-day event held at UCL and gener -ously supported by Team 2100. e first sessioncomprised a round up of the TDP’s work in 2018by Eliott Wragg (TDP) followed by papers fromForeshore Recording and Observation Group(FROG) members Martin Hatton and MelvynDresner looking at the Greenwich foreshore and

ROYAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE and THAMES DISCOVERYPROGRAMME CONFERENCE 13–14 October 2018: Ten Years ofThames Discovery ELIOTT WRAGG

‘art and the City’ foreshore respectively, beforeNathalie Cohen (FROG and former TDP) gave herperspective on the ten years of TDP.

Next was an update on the City Bridge Trust‘older Londoners’ project by Helen Johnston(TDP), followed by Josh Frost (TDP) discussingthe Tideway TaDPoles project for young people.eresa O’Mahony, a FROG member, thendescribed her work with the Enabled Archae-ology Foundation and possible future links withTDP.

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RAI Newsletter 57April 2019 Institute scarves and ties

e old stock of RAI ties and scarves is almostexhausted, and we would like to offer new designsfor sale to members. Once the samples areprepared, images will be posted on our website.Depend ing on the level of interest, and so the number ordered, prices should probably be about £20. Please email feedback to me [email protected]

Online access to RAI journals and lectures

e video recording of the Institute’s lectures is nolonger available from the Society of Antiquaries’

technological services. e President is exploringother possible services.

If you would like online access to lectures or tothe journals, please contact the administrator withyour e-mail address. You will be sent a usernameand password, which you can use to login to ourwebsite using the boxes at the top of its first page.Once logged in, you will be able to change yourpassword to something more memorable, and toaccess the journals.

Subscriptionse current rates are: Ordinary member, £40 andAssociate or Student, £20, with discounts when paid22


TDP staff past and present cutting the cake

MISCELLANY

e last session of Day 1 saw Stella Bickelman ofMuseum of London Archaeology (MOLA) givingan overview of the Tideway river-front excavationswhile Sadie Watson (MOLA) answered thequestion ‘Who were Roman Londoners?’. StuartWyatt of the Portable Antiquities Scheme dis -cussed their work in relation to ames foreshorefinds. Lastly Jane Sidell of Historic England pre -sented the Annual FROG Awards before every oneenjoyed our birthday party – the high point ofwhich being the astonishing foreshore cakes bakedby Matt Hoskins, formerly a MOLA apprentice.

Sunday morning kicked off with three FROGpapers; Suzanne Taylor discussing the Rosetheatre, Samantha Brummage talking about her

PhD work in the Colne valley and Claire Milling -ton discussing her PhD work on Roman officers’households. en Damian Goodburn (MOLA)presented the evidence for tidal levels on theames and Jon Cotton, formerly of the Museumof London, discussed the golden age of amesantiquarians.

e second session looked at intertidal workaround the British Isles; Stephanie Ostrich(MOLA) outlining the work of the Coastal andInter tidal Zone Archaeological Network(CITiZAN), Professor Martin Bell of the Uni -versity of Reading discussing his work on pre -historic route-ways in the Severn Estuary andclosing with Tom Dawson of the SCAPE Trustlooking on video at intertidal archaeology aroundthe country.

e final session took the conference intouncharted waters; Jose Manuel Mates Luque ofArqueocean discussed his work on the foreshoresof Biscay, Sarah Miller of the Florida PublicArchae ology Network presented volunteer archae -ology in the Sunshine State, and Mark Beattie-Edwards of the Nautical Archaeology Society tookus into the murky depths of the underwater worldbefore Gustav Milne (CITiZAN) and NathalieCohen brought proceedings to a close.

We couldn’t have made the conference such asuccess without a lot of help so would like to thankall the TDP volunteers; our MOLA colleagues, inparticular Suzie Haworth, Amy Reid and EmmaBakel; Chris Haworth for taking the pictures; andTeam 2100 and the RAI for supporting the event.

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MY FAVOURITE DIG

Coppergate memories: Erik Bloodaxe Rules OK MARGARET NIEKE

Nearing retirement I have been looking back overthe many and varied areas of archaeologicalendeavour I have been associated with over the years and it is clear that chief and pivotalamongst many experiences was the time I spent in1977 and 1980 digging on the now internationallyfamous and significant urban site at Coppergate,York.

Being a strange, bookish (well I still am!), childI had caught ‘history and archaeology’ fever at avery early age; a passion ignited and nurtured bythe amateur local historian I had the great fortuneto live next door to. Here was a man who hap -pened by chance one day to find the owners of aneighbouring farm about to begin burning thelocal medieval manorial court rolls which lan -guished in a dusty wooden chest they wanted toreuse. Having quickly learnt medieval Latin hespent the next decade patiently transcribing themfor publication. Also a skilled drasman he workedrecording many 1950s and 60s York excavations;all in his spare time alongside work in the local Co-op Offices; a remarkable act to try and follow. Bythe age of 11, I was proudly announcing to my newGrammar School Head that I was determined tobe an archaeologist! Living in York I had the luckto see and help with several early excavations runby the newly founded York Archaeological Trust(YAT). You can probably imagine my determina -tion to get involved with the major site appearing

at Coppergate in the mid 1970s and I was indeedfortunate to spend the summer of 1977 onsitetrying to get my head around the scale and com -plexity of it all. Having previously worked on dryand dusty shallow urban sites the depth of strati -graphy (several metres of it) and the quality ofsurviving remains, especially the extensive water -logged remains, were mind-blowing. is windowinto the Viking period got me hooked on the EarlyHistoric period and, little did I know it then, wasto provide a major guide and influence on mydeveloping career. Once ‘hooked’ I had to returnto the site following my undergraduate degree tospend most of a gap year (1980) there, beforefurther studies took me on to other Early Historicadventures and, eventually, a long Civil Servicecareer; firstly with English Heritage and latterlyNatural England. Looking back, Coppergate fedmy academic appetite for a more balanced under -standing of Viking-age life, firmly engraving onour hearts that we were dealing with more thanwild and wilful warriors. It also taught me endlessarchaeological skills from excavation, recording,sampling and careful finds recovery. Based onthese I sailed into later projects immediately ableto take on supervisory and directorial roles. Con -tinued contact with YAT, including with the greatand much missed Richard Hall, helped me under -stand how the ‘raw’ site data could be furtherstudied to transform international understanding

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of the Vikings. What luck it was to engage withsuch a prestige project!

Notable also was the introduction the siteprovided to ‘Public’ Archaeology. Whilst workingon-site with a constant flow of visitors overheadfelt like being in a goldfish bowl, the careful andsubtle ways YAT worked to fund-raise and main -tain support for the site have remained firmly withme throughout my career. In the days beforePPG16 and the advent of developer funded archae -ology this was one of the last, and perhaps best,major publicly supported excavations. is level ofsupport was crucial rolling forward to underpincreation of the Jorvik visitor attraction. Whowould have imagined that this would still be goingstrong in 2019 and remains a crucial part of theYork cultural experience? Which local school childhas not been to visit and been enthralled by trans -port into this ancient world? How many familieshave joined the holiday queues outside the centre?How strange to be able to tell folk ‘I was therewhen it all happened’.

To record and celebrate the experience that wasthe excavation YAT is now running a CoppergateMemories project and I am delighted to have beenable to record my thoughts on the site for posterity.It’s odd to think that my experiences – whichsometimes feel as if they were only yesterday – nowform part of an oral history project ! e search for new contributions continues; (search forcoppergate-memories for further details). Copper -gate had a deep impact on both my professional

and personal life; without it my life experience andcareer path would have been quite different. If anyreaders have their own recollections YAT wouldbe extremely pleased to hear from them.

ROYAL ARCHAEOLOG IC AL INST I TUTE NEWSLETTEReditor Katherine Barclay, Williamsgate, Governor’s Green, Pembroke Road,Portsmouth, Hants. po1 2ns. Email: [email protected] issue Copy for the next issue must reach the editor by the end of May 2019 forpublication in August 2019.this issue’s cover picture: The entrance to the Star Castle Hotel, St Mary’s (I. of Scillies) is throughthe original Garrison Gate as remodelled (1742) by Abraham Tovey, with the guardhouse partly visiblewithin. (Taken during the 2018 Summer Meeting by K. Stubbs)

visit our web site at www.royalarchinst.org

View north over the Coppergate site in full swing. (© YAT)

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ROYAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE NEWSLETTER · British Archaeological Awards 2018 ED ARDILL e awards were made in Central Hall Westminster on 15 October compered by Professor Carenza