# Your local History/Archaeology



## Esioul (Mar 1, 2006)

Sometimes surprisingly, we find that our local areas can be stuffed with interestign sites and stories- anyoen got any to share? I did a project on the Roman Fenlands a few years ago, and found a load of Roman pottery froam possible villa site.


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## Cyril (Mar 3, 2006)

As a french, I live in a country where archeology is present everywhere. I grew up in Provence, which was the aera from where Caesar began his conquer of the Gaule. In my little childhood town, at the center place, there's a little roman arch. A couple of kilometers out of the city, there's ruins of an ancient greek/celtic/roman city with celtic graves buried in rocks nearby. Moreover, my father found pieces of amphora when he was young as he plunged in apnea.


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## Marky Lazer (Mar 3, 2006)

Not really the same, but my favorite author, Palahniuk, wrote about Portland and its rarities (Fugitives and Refugees - A Walk Through Portland, Oregon - Crown Publishers). I've never been in Portland, I doubt if I ever go there, but it was one of the best non-fiction things I ever read. 

I don't really know about stuff like this in my hometown, but maybe I'm going to investigate it someday, and let you all know.


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## kyektulu (Mar 3, 2006)

*I have found alot of bits of roman pottery over the years just going to local hills and feilds (known as Brushes Clough.)

I think the most amazing thing that has been found in my family was a pile of Rifles and stuff from the first world war.
I was a small child at the time, around 6, we lived in a huge victorian stone house.
My mum wanted to put a small pond in the garden so my father began to dig, most of the soil was clay and had alot of sharp stones and bits of pottery in so we ended up digging very deep.
My dad eventually hit a bit stone slab so he deciced to leave it for a few days untill he could get around it and get friends to help him move it.
Co-incidentally not long after my mother was shopping and ran in2 the old owners of the house, they told my mum there was an old well in the garden that had thier grandfathers old weapons in from, the 1st world war.
I never actually recall seeing the weapons but apparently my dad and several of his friends did move the slab and verified this story!
My mum said they left the rifles and things there and put new soil over, we did get a small pond in the end.* 
*We dont live in the house anymore but I believe they are still there.*


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## Brian G Turner (Mar 3, 2006)

Agreed - when I lived in Hull it seemed archaeologically boring - then looked into it a bit more, and it was surprising how much interesting settlement had been going on for thousands of years. The place had a fascinating history, even if not world-changing.


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## Esioul (Mar 3, 2006)

Sounds like you guys have found some interesting stuff- Iv'e never found much in my back garden, alas, despite udnertaking a few major excavations. 

A good place to go for information about local sites is the local SMR- should be based in county council offices/shire hall.


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## Rosemary (Mar 3, 2006)

Oh you lucky people...Celtic & Old British finds 

As this country is 'new' our history might seem unimportant perhaps to some.  However, I did find something of interest a few years ago.

Up in the Darling Ranges of Western Australia there is a lovely little saw-mill town called Jarrahdale.  Most of the trees in the area are jarrah and apparently these were once chopped down, sent by rail to the small seaside port of Rockingham and shipped back to Britian.  I have not been able to find out who cut the wood into blocks but apparently, these blocks were used as 'cobbles' on some of the roads in London.


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## Esioul (Mar 3, 2006)

heh, that's interesting- they might be able to dendro date them too. 

I'm sure there is penty of archaeology in Australia- just different kinds comapred to what we have here. If you ever walk past a ploughed field, it's worth keeping an eye out for flint tools.


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## Teresa Edgerton (Mar 3, 2006)

There is little (or nothing) worth finding around here.  The climate and the abundance of game made the native tribes ... very laid back.  They weren't much for creating tools or artifacts, and went in, one supposes, for cultural riches of the sort that were lost along with their languages.

There is a shell-mound and a handful of Ohlone huts kept behind a chain-link fence in a park near here.  There are some mysterious stone walls scattered around up in the hills -- not that old, but interesting because no one can figure out who built them, or why, since they don't correspond to any known boundary lines.  That's about it.


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## Foxbat (Mar 3, 2006)

A place called Traprain Law is near me. It had a horde of artifacts and an Iron Age Fort on top. Legend has it that the warlord threw his daughter over the cliffs when she refused to marry a suitor. 

Also, Doon Hill is just a couple of miles away.....where Cromwell and his New Model Army defeated the Covenanters in 1650 (in what was one of the greatest defeats in Scottish History).

William Wallace also fought the first battle of Dunbar here in 1292 but was defeated.

Black Agnes (around the 14th century I think) the wife of the local lord successfully held Dunbar Castle for 15 months against the English. The Lord was fighting elsewhere. It's said that Black Agnes' ghost still stalks the (alleged) secret passages beneath the town.


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## Esioul (Mar 3, 2006)

Heh, sounds like you've got a fair few exciting things, Foxbat.We've got a ghost thingie too- some big black dog called black Shuck. 

Kelpie, maybe there are some later things near you- like some oldish churches etc?


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## Brian G Turner (Mar 3, 2006)

History doesn't have to be about finding physical objects, or being able to relate significant events - simply being able to walk in the places people have been known to gather for thousands of years is enough for me. 

I went to the hills by the eastern side of Kinross, overlooking the loch. There were no physical signs of past living, but I was overwhelmed with a sense of a past history - of the loch being higher up the shore, and an actual shoreline instead of ploughed fields - and of people having lived here. It was a very strong feeling. On the drive home, about 10 miles away, we passed a neolithic stone-circle. I felt validated, but it wasn't necessary.


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## Esioul (Mar 3, 2006)

True (but its kind of fun to find stuff, heh). There's an Iron Age hillfort near where I live- there's a definite sense of past history and events about it.


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## Rosemary (Mar 3, 2006)

There's a great book on historical sites -

The Penguin Guide To Prehistoric Sites in England and Wales by James Dyer
IBSN 0 7139 1164 6

It has hillforts, sites of the various kinds of barrows and what was found in them; and of course the Roman Sites.  
This has been very helpful in my research....


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## hermi-nomi (Mar 4, 2006)

There was a large find of objects a year or two ago in Prittlewell, Southend-on-Sea. These were found when the Council were digging a wider road. A Roman and Anglo-Saxon cemetry was discovered in the area in 1923, so they wanted to investigate further while construction work was underway. A chamber was found complete with burial goods suggesting that a Prince had been buried there in the 7th century with Christian goods, a Lyre (am not lying ) a sword and other goods.  I have just found a link to the project I've been describing. Not got a lot of time left on the computer, so can't investigate how comprehensive it is, but click http://www.molas.org.uk/pages/siteReports.asp?siteid=pr03&section=preface nevertheless  This is the Museum of London Archeology Service site. Essex is a very rich area for these sorts of finds, although you do tend to have to dig up busy roads first. We have loads of graded buildings too ~ everything from Tilbury Fort to who knoows what.


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## Esioul (Mar 4, 2006)

I remember them finding that- its interesting. Are you from East Anglia too? MOLAS is a good organisation. 

I don't know if a load of Christian goods in a grave necessarily mean they were Christian- gravegoods werent' really a Christian practice. It's an interestign issue to think about.


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## Teresa Edgerton (Mar 4, 2006)

Esioul said:
			
		

> Kelpie, maybe there are some later things near you- like some oldish churches etc?



Except for the Spanish missions -- and they've mostly been renovated on the inside -- there's nothing that is older than Victorian.  There are remnants of Old California in Los Angeles, but that's 400 miles from here.

There are some wonderful California Arts and Crafts style houses from the early part of the twentieth century, but I don't suppose those are anything someone from the UK or Europe or even the eastern parts of the US would consider particularly old.

And it's not just a matter of buildings and artifacts. The Indian tribes were fairly scattered, so in most parts of California there just isn't that sense of continuous occupation.  The Indians might pass through once a year on a hunting or fishing expedition, but that's not the same thing, is it?

I actually have studied some of the history of our little town here, but that's hardly more than 100 years old.


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## Esioul (Mar 4, 2006)

The arts and crafts style houses look interesting, anyphotos? I like lookign at buildings when I walk through a town.


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## Rosemary (Mar 4, 2006)

I wish I had taken more time and visited the Colchester Dykes, while I was visiting Britain.  Their history is so interesting.  

The Lexden Tumulus near Colchester is obviously a barrow of significance.  There were bronzes, a robe embroidered with gold threads etc.  I understand that it was possibly the burial of Addedomaros, the ruler of the Trinovantes.


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## Foxbat (Mar 4, 2006)

I'd advise anybody with an interest to visit Orkney. Mae's Howe is impressive (and has a load of Viking graffiti) The stones of Brodgur worth a look, and Skara Brae (5000 years old) is wonderfully preserved and almost resembles a Hobbitish type of dwelling place 



> History doesn't have to be about finding physical objects, or being able to relate significant events - simply being able to walk in the places people have been known to gather for thousands of years is enough for me.


 
So true. There's a place near Loch Ness (a small tunnel and cave with a bowl carved into the rock and through which a stream flows. The story goes that seven bandits were beheaded and their severed heads washed in this place before being set upon pikes and displayed as a warning to others. Going into that small cave is extremely eerie and feels like the event took place only yesterday.


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## hermi-nomi (Mar 5, 2006)

I'm from Essex not East Anglia  .
In Essex Past and Present issue 7, the author of the article on the Prittlewell Prince writes that 





> 'while our 'Prince' may not have been a king, he was probably a member of the royal family, buried in his principal estate. He was an early convert to Christainity, accompanied by objects that announced to the community his status in life. The discovery of the 'Prince of Prittlewell' is sur eto raise more questions about the symbolism of high status  burials, c9onnections betweeen high status individuals within the kingdom of Essex and between Esssex, Kent and the Franks, and the place of Christainity in the lives, and deaths of these people'.


 
I think that even if burial with gravegoods wasn't or isn't a Christain practice, an early convert would certainly wish to be buried with his crosses to ensure safe passage to heaven in the same way that a warrior would wish to be buried with his sword, as an early convert would still hold alot of pre-Christain beliefs. The early monks and priests (would have) used a lot of pagan symbolism that iron age Britain would understand (am being very general as I don't know alot  .)

This burial was found in Southend (half hour train journey in one direction, and half an hour train journey in the opposite direction is London.) There's also, as you may suspect, alot of history to see in London. I pass through Fenchurch Street and Tower Hill quite alot. There you have the remains of a Roman wall, the Tower of London, London Bridge and a war memorial thing. A couple of years ago I went to Barbican (in London) and saw the remains of the Barbican (obviously ... doh.) That was wierd for me, 'cos obviously such an old city must once have had actual city defences ... but it always reminds me of Anhk-Morpork and it's city defences (read Jingo.)


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## cornelius (Mar 5, 2006)

_"in flanders fields, where the poppies grow..."_

the things in my backyard are mostly related to WWI (and II), there Ypers is five miles from where I live. I usually find some gunshells, but a lot of farmers find bombs and ammo. Some say a train got of the rails in our backyard during  WWI; it had gold, ammo and paintings abort, to prevent thosefrom falling into german hands. I might take a shovel one day and go for a bit of exploration ...


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## Teresa Edgerton (Mar 5, 2006)

Esioul said:
			
		

> The arts and crafts style houses look interesting, any photos?



I don't have any photos (or a scanner, for that matter), but here is a link to a website about one of the greatest and most famous houses designed in that style, so you can get an idea.  (The local examples are somewhat less spectacular.)  


http://www.gamblehouse.org/photos/index.html


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## kyektulu (Mar 5, 2006)

*Does anyone know the history of the Avebury stone circle in Wiltshire or live near them?

I want to go and visit them in spring...*


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## jackokent (Mar 5, 2006)

It's worth a visit if you haven't been there.  I think it's better then stonehenge. I attended a druid wedding there a couple of years ago precided over by the traditional "green man". Quite an experience.  It's meant to date to about 2500BC (but who knows).  The site is still a mystery however, which is much more fun.  It's aligned to Silbury Hill (again worth a visit) and a number of churches.  There are only 27 stones left standing but old drawings show up to 100.  If you are going it's worth visiting the nearby longbarrow too.  The whole area is fascinating.  As for the history, your guess is probably as good as anyones.


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## kyektulu (Mar 5, 2006)

*Thank you for the info Jackokent, im definetly going there soon. *


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## Esioul (Mar 5, 2006)

Avebury is great, Stone Henge is ok although you can't get very close to STone Henge. Silbury hill is good. I've neevr seen West Kennet Long Barrow. 

Kelpie, those buildings do look rather spectacular!


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## Rosemary (Mar 5, 2006)

There are hundreds of barrows in the UK Esioul.

Long barrows, saucer and bowl barrows and bell barrows.  And all I can do is to read about them at the moment!!!


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## Esioul (Apr 23, 2006)

Wouldn't it be fun to excavate one and find some really good stuff?


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## Adasunshine (Apr 24, 2006)

Well, I live in Salisbury which is just jam-packed with historical sites and it has a very interesting history. 

My partner was born and bred here and people who live here can sometimes take their surroundings for granted but I get to walk through the Cathedral Close almost every day and it never fails to take my breath away - it's an absolutely stunning building and has in it's walls one of the only surviving copies of the Magna Carta and one of Britain's first clocks.

www.*salisburycathedral*.org.uk

There are also some stunning churches in and around Salisbury dating back as far as the 12th and 13th centuries, my personal favourite being St. Lawrence’s which is where I had my son's Thanksgiving ceremony. Such a beautiful little church set in a little village called Stratford-sub-Castle, so called because it's just down the road from Old Sarum, which is the remains of an iron-age fort/castle and was the original site of the Cathedral.

http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/oldsarum/visit_old_sarum/index.asp

http://stratfordsubcastle.org.uk/StLawrencePlan.htm

Another famous church in Salisbury is St. Thomas’ Church in the Town Centre, which has one of the only surviving Doom Paintings. My mother-in-law is a member of St. Thomas' Parish and she, unlike me, prefers it to St. Lawrence's!

http://www.eluk.co.uk/parishes/salisbury/salisbury/st_thomas/history.htm

There's also Stonehenge and Avebury (both worth a look although, no, you can't touch the stones at Stonehenge anymore due to a few that obviously had no respect for the ancient circle and defaced the stones). It also doesn’t help it’s case that it’s situated in the middle of a motorway!

They also believe that there is a path that leads from the Avebury Stone Circle to Stonehenge (the Kennet Avenue) which has Burial Mounds dotted along the way. They believe the Burial Mounds were placed there because the path was so significant!

http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/nav.876

http://www.prehistoric.org.uk/wiltshire/avebury.html

So, you see, I’m never short of a humble lesson or two living around here, it’s a gorgeous city and I would recommend that should you get the opportunity, to visit Salisbury, it’s a truly wonderful place and I love living here!

xx


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## Spook (Apr 24, 2006)

Have any of you ever walked the Ridgeway ? Have a look here if you're interested; http://www.nationaltrail.co.uk/ridgeway/text.asp?PageId=2

It's Britains oldest road dating to Pre-Historic times. Along the route (which includes Avebury), there are lots of old barrows, iron age hill forts and other odds and ends of interest like the White Horse at Uffington. It's 43 miles long, so not exactly a case of popping out for a five minute stroll. Took me several dozen walks over a period of about three years, but it was great fun.


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## FantasyFreak (Apr 24, 2006)

I live in Windsor, England, which is pretty historical. The main thing is the castle that William the Conquerer started building in 1066, and which has been expanded and improved over the years, so is now a mixture of a number of different periods. There's also lots of other historical buildings in Windsor because of the castle.


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