# Local history and archaeology



## Brian G Turner (Oct 27, 2003)

Recently I've been completely astonished at how little local history I know.

I never had any real interest in school for history. Local history sounded boring. It's only the last 5-6 years that I've developed a very real thirst.

I'm now very into the Roman, Mediaeval, and Neolithic periods – I knew of some major sites in the county of Yorkshire where I live. 

But it wasn't until I went to a local The East Riding Museum by myself (to have time to stop and really look at the exhibits, without having the chase the children!) that I realised how much rich local history there was.

For a start, something the major and extensive books I've read barely give a mention to the various Roman settlements that covered Britain – and even my local area. There's almost a dozen Roman settlements within 5 miles – most of which seem to have been built over after excavation.

(It took a chance glance at a poster at a sports centre last week, that give a brief history of the area, to find that as a child I played on a housing estate built over the site of a fortified settlement, that apparently stood from at least the Roman to Mediaeval times.

I also knew that there were quick a few Neolithic sites in Yorkshire – but not only did I not realise how many, but the patterns of settlement and geological reasons for them according to the formation of the landscape. 

There was information on the post-glacial landscape, and how the East Riding of Yorkshire is apparently one vast clay deposit from the ice-age – a village where my youngest brother lives in this area is where a single large bison horn was discovered, and is now displayed in East Riding Museum I visited. 

There's also lake patterns I didn’t know about, and the way Jurassic rocks strike out from the chalk deposits of shallow tropical seas that covered the region of Yorkshire. 

Moving on through time...and I had heard reports that my home town of Hull had once been fortified by a wall. Now I saw maps showing the wall, and even showed it once had its own castle. That was really interesting. I had no idea how the maps applied to the modern city landscape.

It was so interesting that I actually stopped at and old preserved excavation of brickwork by a major shopping area in the centre of town today. For some reason I was under the impression that it was the excavated remains of an old museum from the city, bombed during World War II.

I read the tourist information at the side and was flabbergasted to find that this was an excavation that showed not only the original timber gatehouse from the 1340's, but also the remains of the brick gatehouse from 1370s+ - and even the remains of the original mediaeval _brick_ fortifying wall! Because it was brick I had always presumed it was a recent construction – I guess the fact that the excavated remains have been rebuilt a little in places didn’t help.)

And, to cap it all, the very pedestrian walkway that follows the old cart track into the heart of the city – that I've walked so many times before – was the actual place where the Parliamentarians first openly rebelled against Charles I – by refusing to allow him to enter the city through the gatehouse that had been excavated!

However – and this is an important part of the post – I as yet simply cannot find any other information on the local history. I want to the biggest bookshop in town, where they have a respectable local history section – but not a thing on Neolithic, Roman, or Mediaeval history. 

I know there's a local archaeology group, and I'm going to have to try and remember to ring them to join, and find out about the lectures and booklets they sell on the local archaeological surveys and sites. Still, though, I'm amazed to find so little information.

So this posts makes 3 specific points:

1/ How astonished I am to find how incredibly rich the local history of Yorkshire actually is.

2/ How incredibly hard it is to find any sources of information on the topics – what I can find is actually quite scattered and disconnected..

3/ And, sadly, how most sites of archaeological significance have actually been either built over or wantonly ploughed away. It's incredible at how sites abroad can get so much attention and funding, only for the important local history to be so easily disregarded once any form of excavation has been completed.

I guess I'm even more certain now that I want to write a history of Yorkshire – Neolithic to Mediaeval periods – and really bring to life the history here. 

I'd also love to patronise local historical groups – especially re-enactment societies and education groups that go around schools, for example.

A long-winded post, but I really needed to make it.


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## littlemissattitude (Oct 27, 2003)

I am so jealous that you live in the middle of such a long and rich local history.  Not that we don't have history around here; but it doesn't go back nearly as far, or in nearly as much detail.

I guess I really am going to have to move to Wales one of these days.


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## Brian G Turner (Oct 28, 2003)

Well, if anyone ever visits Yorkshire I'll be happy to recommend places or even offer limited tours!! I still have a lot of discovery to make, first - and, like I said, a lot of the sites have been destroyed anyway. This is where reconstruction and re-enactment is really needed to bring the history to life - especially for younger people.


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