Breaking new ground

By ‘C’:

Dorchester was a new venue for us.  That’s Dorchester-on-Thames, of course, not the Dorset town – from point of view of sites we have been to before, “at the back of Wittenham Clumps”:

The street address for where we were working was Watling Lane, which sounds ever so interesting historically.  And indeed, our ‘HQ’ (vehicle with tools, equipment, and all-important tea-crate) was parked up at the entrance to a spot which is of great interest to archaeologists.

For the last ten years, every summer during the Long Vacation, students have descended on Dorchester from the University of Oxford.  First-year undergraduates reading ‘Arch & Anth’ get the chance to take part in a training excavation there, joining forces with Oxford Archaeology and local residents.  ‘Discovering Dorchester’ is a long-term research project, which has investigated several sites.  Latterly it has focused on the allotment area, to the south-west of the High Street:

Oxfordshire Dorchester is now just a village.  In the past, however, it was a very important place – and I don’t just mean that our route from RV point to work-area took us past the site where those big stars of theatre and screen, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton had plans for a beautiful house they would live in (but never did) when work brought them to Oxford.  Or that the town is often used as a set by contemporary film-makers.  ‘Credits’ include: Agatha Christie’s Poirot – episode ‘Taken at the Flood’; Midsomer Murders – ‘The Maid in Splendour’, ‘The House in the Woods’, and ‘The Ballad of Midsomer County’.

There are good strategical-location reasons why, when he came along in the 7th century to evangelize this part of the country, St Birinus chose Dorchester for his HQ.  He’s still there, BTW, buried in the Abbey, which you can see in the background of this shot in the other direction from our HQ:

From the point of view of the university’s School of Archaeology, Dorchester has two advantages.  It is:

• reasonably easy to get to from Oxford, along the A4074
• the only location in Britain which has had towns during the late Iron Age (100 BCE - 43 CE), the Roman era, and Anglo-Saxon times which have not been obscured by later development  

Apparently the highlight of last year’s dig was the finding of evidence of cob-walled buildings dating from the Roman period.  That such buildings must have existed during that period had been posited for the previous thirty years, but this was the first time that any positive proof had been discovered.

As for our own labours this morning, sometimes it is very important to wear the right kit.  To go on court, as a player, at Wimbledon one needs all-white.  To go on site, as a volunteer, at Green Gym today one needed unisex hi-vis:

For the site was the overgrown verge of what is classed as a footpath/bridleway, but is also used by motor vehicles.  Hi-vis essential on account of those who like driving in their cars, but at slightly mad speeds for countryside lanes.  It’s a matter of opinion, of course, but ideas like Proceeding at a Speed Appropriate for the Conditions, or Set ‘Road-Users’ Includes Set ‘Pedestrians’, do not seem to be much in fashion these days.

To be fair to the people of Dorchester, such old-fashioned ideas did seem very much to be still in favour there.  Nearly everyone who drove by us today slowed in good time to a very modest pace.  It was pleasant too that so many people passing, whether on foot or in a vehicle, said “Thank you” to us.

The bridleway was blocked altogether only once, very briefly, and without inconveniencing anyone else:

Most of the first tranche of vegetation removed by us this morning was made up of nettles.  Fortunately, as we had hoped, they allowed themselves to be readily pulled; so we were able to remove a good portion of the root system too.  It has been maintained that nettles really ought to be useful to modern humans in some way.  This, for example, from the fictional M. Madeleine (but surely the exasperated voice of the author), contemplating heaps of uprooted and withering plants:

“They’re dead.  But it would be a good thing if use were made of them.  The young nettle is an excellent vegetable, and as it ages it develops fibres like those of hemp or flax.  Nettle-cloth is as good as hemp-cloth.  Chopped nettles can be fed to poultry, and mashed nettles are good for cattle; nettle-seed mixed with their fodder gives the animals a glossy skin; the roots mixed with salt produce an admirable yellow dye.  Moreover, nettles are a crop that can be harvested twice a year.  And they need almost nothing – very little space and no husbanding or cultivation.  Their only drawback is that the seed falls as it ripens and is difficult to harvest.  With very little trouble nettles can be put to use; being neglected they become obnoxious and are therefore destroyed.  How many men share the fate of the nettle!”  After a moment of silence he added: “My friends, remember this, there are no bad plants or bad men.  There is only bad husbandry.”  
(Victor Hugo – Les Misérables, Pt 1, Bk V, Ch iii)

Sadly, we did not find a use for the nettle this morning.  The more substantial cropped vegetation, however, was made up into habitat piles.  While on the opposite side of the lane, the business of agriculture continued:

At tea-break, one might have been content just to enjoy the sights of high summer:

A good number of Green-Gymmers, however, gravitated to the side of the archaeological dig:

These were the only ‘finds’ Green Gym made this morning:

Inevitably, when rubbish-vegetation is cut back alongside a route used by humans today, one discovers any amount of rubbish which has been heedlessly tossed aside into the long growth.

As the finishing touches were put to the restored verge, we could reflect that – in the words of one Green-Gymmer – “The people of Dorchester can sleep soundly in their beds tonight, knowing their village isn’t going to rack and ruin.”