Ivan Clowsley

Archaeology and Beer October 2011

What a great experience this was learning excavation techniques from Phil.

After going to the Time Team (TT) episode at Newmarket Tim Taylor started some training digs for TT club members and the first one was at Gear Down in Cornwall. A long way from the midlands but I was determined to go and it took me over six hours to get there by train. I stopped at a hotel in Newquay near the beach.

John Gater explaining the Geo Phys to us.

I took the train again for the short journey to Quintrell Downs and met up with my fellow club members at the Premier Inn our base for the duration. Tim greeted me like an old friend and we all had a great night and several beers. The next day we undertook some training nearby studying Maps of the area. We had lectures from Tim talking about what the weekend would consist of and what we’d be up to. He told us the mini excavation we would be involved with was of a mystery site about which very little was known. Phil Harding talked about excavation techniques, Carl Thorpe explained about the local area and our archaeological target. Jim Mower talked about how the production team choose a site and John Gater talked about various aspects of Geo Physics and that he’d already surveyed the site. We had a big reveal of the exciting results. Dani Wootten talked about field walking and small finds identification. The main principle I took away from them all this was do not, under any circumstances, start digging until you’ve done all of your research properly and got the relevant permissions. We also had a candle lit tour of Trerice Elizabethan Manor House which was good fun. https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/trerice

Some of the keen trainee diggers.

The field walkers looking for surface finds.

We then de camped to a local hostelry for a Halloween themed dinner party which was great fun.

Our last day was out in the field and we split into two groups one helping Phil with a small excavation and the others field walking and then we swapped. You can see what we were looking for on the photo of John presenting his geo phys results. Phil can also be seen teaching us trowelology! I think I may have invented a new word there. The most memorable moment was when two green behind the ears trainees stepped into Phil’s trench with out asking permission. A mighty roar of disapproval of roughly 100 decibels issued forth and can still be heard echoing around Cornwall I believe. A mistake I don’t think either of them will make again! In fact one of them is now an archaeologist at Mola ( Museum of London Archaeology). We went on to find some post holes which confirmed John’s geo phys results and that we had found a Romano British fortified settlement of the 1st to 2nd century AD.

The legend Mr Harding pointing out a post hole.

Dani explaining a find the metal detectorist had found.

Who could this be doing his stuff?

Some great friendships were forged that weekend and continue still but also the nucleus of the Time Team Academy was created. A bunch of strangers from different walks of life scattered around all corners of the country went on to great things with Time Team Dig Village. They’ll be more adventures in archaeology to follow.

Post script - The site now has a wind turbine on it and houses were built nearby shortly after we’d left.