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Issue 66August 2002ContentsnewsNative village that dabbled in Roman culture Roman mosaic found inches below ploughsoil Egyptian seal and a ‘cave of jewels’ at Scottish mansion The 7,700-year-old woman who ate like a wolf Rare Iron Age temple excavated near Cambridge featuresWhen Burial Begins Chemical Revolution Great Sites lettersThe West Midlands in prehistory and the closure of railways issuesGeorge Lambrick on the importance of museum collections Peter EllisbooksThe Welsh Border by Trevor Rowley Digging up the Past by John Collis The Extraordinary Voyage of Pytheas the Greek by Barry Cunliffe CBA updatefavourite findsVal Turner on a Pictish stone that spooked a gravedigger
ISSN 1357-4442 Editor Simon Denison |
West MidlandsFrom Mr Mike Hodder and others Sir: Your news article about the results of archaeological work along the M6 Toll motorway ('Dig in West Midlands reveals empty landscape', June) presents an extremely misleading impression in both its title and content which demands correction. It seriously under-represents the quantity, extent and significance of the archaeological remains and perpetuates misconceptions about the region. The 'few dozen sites' described in the article represent a major advance in our knowledge of the prehistoric and Roman periods along the line of the motorway, since few sites were previously known. The sites are in fact extremely significant, including for example the first Iron Age site so far recorded within the boundary of the city of Birmingham. This particular site formed part of a whole landscape glimpsed within the road corridor, which included adjacent Roman enclosures and, in the next couple of fields, the Bronze Age burnt mound and possible barrows mentioned in the article. In addition there was another probable prehistoric enclosure - hardly an empty landscape! It is incorrect to say that the area might have been avoided because of the poverty of its soil - the road corridor includes what is now regarded as good agricultural land - but paradoxically the Iron Age enclosure was on some of the poorest soil, land which in the medieval period and up to the 18th century was heathland used for rough grazing. The difficulty of locating sites was mentioned in the article. The sites that were excavated were located by fieldwalking, aerial photography or geophysics. The conditions in which a 'watching brief' was undertaken on soil-stripping on the rest of the route meant that the only sites found were two burnt mounds, on account of their prominent nature as black areas of burnt stone and charcoal. The comparison made with other parts of the country is unhelpful and not necessarily valid. First, the archaeology of the West Midlands must be seen on its own terms and not those of elsewhere. Regional variation must be recognised. Second, we might reasonably ask whether the pattern of prehistoric and Roman settlement and land use recorded on the M6 Toll road is actually more representative of the country as a whole, than the more numerous and better known sites in Wessex, the South-East or East Anglia, which we might now regard as the exception rather than the rule. Although the sites on the M6 Toll might be regarded as being of 'low significance', as the article states, compared to some sites elsewhere, they may in fact be extremely significant in presenting a realistic picture of prehistoric and Roman Britain. Yours sincerely, RailwaysFrom Mr Alan Price Sir: I read with interest David Gwyn's report on the impact of railways on the landscape, 'Engines of Change' (June), but I must point out that the 1952 Ealing Comedy The Titfield Thunderbolt was not filmed in Devon but in Somerset. The story behind the film's location ties in well with Mr Gwyn's theme. The location was the truncated western end of the Camerton Branch, which runs broadly east-west a few miles south of Bath, and which itself was built on much of the route of the Somersetshire Coal Canal using several pieces of that waterway's infrastructure. The line had been truncated as a through route with the closure of Dunkerton and Priston Collieries around 1930, and the newer western section (opened in 1909) languished as backwater frequented only by trains serving Camerton Colliery and the meagre freight traffic from such sleepy outposts as Combe Hay and Monkton Combe. In 1950 the last coal was mined at Camerton. The track was used until February 1951, after which the line reverted slowly back to nature. It was at that time very unusual for a railway to be completely unused, and it was this, its idyllic rural location and the close proximity of Bath's hotels and watering places, that made it an ideal location for a feature film about a community's fight to retain its railway service. The railway had several unusual features that were incorporated into the film, including the point at Midford where the Somerset and Dorset line crossed it on a viaduct - which allowed a picture of a mainline express train passing over the top of the diminutive 'community' train - the playing fields of Monkton Combe School, which allowed the famous cricket match scene, and several beautiful villages such as Freshford to add rural charm. Yours sincerely, We welcome letters from readers. They may be emailed to Mike Pitts the Editor at editor@britarch.ac.uk or faxed to 01904 671384. They may be edited. |
CBA web:British ArchaeologyFebruary 2000 CBA BriefingFieldwork CBA homepage |
