Mists of time, fogs of war… Treasured Islands! Episode 1, part 2

Blog 6 23rd July 2011

Throbbingly aching feet, from twelve hours standing on them or marching around the property yesterday, were going to be no reason to be “excused duty” today – not that I’d have missed it for the world.

This was always going to the busier of the two days of this first part of the project, even before a much sunnier day dawned. The splendid redcoated re-enactors of Pulteney’s regiment of the Lace Wars society were guaranteed to bring in lots of visitors, in addition to the following we’re already building up online and by word of mouth. I have previously had my reservations about using re-enactors at archaeological events – occasionally they can just be an easy, popularist “fix” to enliven an event while having only limited relevance with the archaeological project itself. However, given both William Aislabie’s role in running the army, and the reports that the Quebec was used in the 18th century to commemorate the battle, the presence of Redcoats today was entirely relevant and fitting to the site. So much for theory – the more relevant practice is that the five of them looked absolutely splendid, really brought the gardens to life, and were brilliant interacting with visitors. We couldn’t have asked for more.

The archaeological aspects of the project also moved into top gear. Ciceley and Robert from Field Archaeology Specialists continued the survey of the interior of the site, regularly interrupted by entrants in “Mr Aislabie’s Patriotic Challenge”. Initially named “Pin the Island on the Garden”, this was a family activity, using copies of the historic mapping to invite young archaeologists to spy out the positions of the French harbour and British gun battery. The family with the closest guess will win a VIP behind the scenes visit to the estate, and lunch as Mr Aislabie’s guests.

Our first archaeological results really started taking shape today. The surface topography of the site really isn’t what might have been expected, and there’s certainly no clear trace of the central large island. This raises a concerning possibility. We’ve been assuming that the pond was simply filled in 1900, implying that the archaeology of the original features should survive relatively untouched, buried beneath the filling layers. But the absence of any sign of the island now raises the possibility that it had its top sliced off, to provide soil for infilling the pond. This is only a possibility at present, one that we’ll need to explore further in September. It’s worth noting, though, that the large Scot’s pine in the centre of the site survived the slicing (if that’s what happened) and it’s hard to see how it could have done so and continued growing happily. I had been assuming that the pine was C18 in date (there are others of that vintage at Studley) but Michael Ridsdale (Head of Landscape) advises that its nineteenth century – though it’s harder to date trees accurately when they’re rooted in waterlogged soil. (The conditions are less favourable and that can slow down growth a lot). Cicely and Robert have now finished their mapping of the trees, so that we can accurately relate the present stock to the position of the islands, which should help with dating.

Elsewhere it looks like the surface undulates fairly irregularly, reflecting the area’s, shall we say “unceremonious” handling in the past century, rather than the remains of anything earlier. However, it’s worth waiting until the topographical survey results are processed and printed out – there may just be subtler features surviving that we didn’t spot on the ground.

Ciceley also produced a first overlay plot of the different historic mappings. It was great fun showing visitors the various historic maps (hand drawn ones of 1831, 1838 and 1870, as well as the OS depictions of 1854, 1892 and 1909) and getting their agreement that they all showed the same arrangement of ponds and islands. One then produced, with a flourish, the overlay plot, showing how very different each representation was from any of the others when it came to precise details. Millimetres of variation on the plans represent metres of variation on the ground – underlining the importance of obtaining the most accurate survey information possible, and then backing it up through excavation – be that to inform restoration or other conservation management of the site.

All in all, this weekend was a great start to the project proper. Like the breeze whipping away the gunpowder smoke from the Redcoats, some of the mists of time have started to thin over the Quebec. Next we’ll need to process the data collected on the last couple of days, and use it to decide on the locations of the trenches that we’ll open in September. Meanwhile, there’s supporting Tessa Goldsmith in the last stages preparing the “Rubbing shoulders with Georgians” exhibition, due to open on the site in August. This weekend’s experience were also really useful for finding out exactly how well the entrances and exits work, knowledge we can build into the final design of the exhibition.

Many, many, thanks to everyone on the staff at Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal, and to the members of the Lace Wars Society, for working so hard to make the Festival of British Archaeology events at the Quebec such a success.

The day dawns… Treasured Islands! Episode 1

Blog 5 22nd July 2011

After over seven months of active planning (itself following almost two decades of dreaming about getting to grips with the Quebec) we finally made it out onto site today. I did so with a mixture of emotions ranging from the excitement one always feels at the start of a field project, to trepidation over whether all the disparate parts of the event would pull together, and if people would actually enjoy the end result. I needn’t have worried, though doing so had me awake long before the alarm clock went off (which was already set early for the first task – putting out the road signs for the re-enactors to follow in the evening).

It was great to walk onto the site and find it so well prepared by the team at Fountains. One of the Quebec’s abiding characteristics is it inaccessibility, due to the dense tree and shrub growth around it (which the guidebooks tell us it’s had for over two centuries), and the crop of waist high weeds within. The landscape team have worked very hard to bring all that to heel, revealing one of the project’s first surprises – the sheer scale of the area we’re looking at. It took me a little by surprise when I saw it emerging first at a pre-start meeting. The same reaction was shared and commented on again and again today by visitors who know the property well and the volunteer guides, many of whom have known the estate for 30 years or more. So too was the feeling that this was “sacred turf” on which they were not expecting to “intrude” - and it was rather exciting to do so. Even somewhere that they know so well can still produce new surprises.

After setting up the “spare” surveying equipment for visitors to try out, and the plethora of posters, leaflet dispensers and the like, the first “customers” arrived in the shape of the estate Staff Briefing for around 30 staff and volunteers. I couldn’t have had a better warm-up – an audience who share the same passion for Studley Royal, and are knowledgeable enough to really test the quality of what I was saying about Quebec and its setting. Some excellent questions emerged, especially relating to where the Quebec was supposed to be visible from, questions I hadn’t even thought to ask which we can now explore as the project unfolds.

There was also a lot of interest in the “springhead” feature, which we’ve always assumed was part of the C20 concrete pond around the monument pillar. Now its fully exposed again, its clearer that it is built from good quality materials, rather in contrast to the other known works of the Vyner family or the West Riding County Council elsewhere on the estate (both of whom were working with restricted budgets). It isn’t marked on any of the historic maps, but could it be a surviving feature of the Georgian design? Another interesting question to consider.

Justin and Cicely from Field Archaeology Specialists started work on the new topographical survey, which will be fundamental to interpreting the suite of historic map depictions. They kindly agreed to be part of the event’s exhibits, and had their day punctuated by answering questions from visitors (inspired by our “Warning – Live Archaeologists” notices encouraging them to do so).

The afternoon “Digging in the Garden” tour looked at the Quebec project in the broader context of the other archaeological projects that have (or might yet) take place in the gardens at Studley. This was a good reminder of the scope of what’s been learnt over the past two decades, and also how much more there is to learn. It was also a reminder of how relatively little effort we’ve previously put in making the projects accessible previously, and how much there is to be gained from putting that right this time round. Great to meet a really charming group of people who came for the tour and it was probably a good sign that it lasted almost an hour longer than planned. I hope that that meant that they enjoyed themselves, and not just that they were all too polite to say otherwise!

Finally, after a long and busy day, the salve of having beautiful, serene, Fountains (almost) to myself in the early evening, waiting for the Lace Wars re-enactors to arrive – which they do, just when they said they would get here. Hurrah!

So that’s day 1 done, exactly to plan.

Stuff you never see Indiana Jones doing..

I suppose that there are moments in everyone’s jobs that stick in their minds. Mine tend to revolve around those things that I never pictured myself doing while studying archaeology at University and dreaming of a career in the subject.
One of them happened this morning, when I could be spotted lurking about in sheltered corners of the gardens around the NT York Office, Goddards. If an observer had looked more closely, they’d have seen a box of matches in my hand, and growing irritation as another and another blew out in the breeze. Have the pressures of life finally forced me to find comfort in the evil weed? Or was an act of arson, a desperate publicity seeking act to promote “Treasured Islands”, about to happen?
Neither, as it happened. My mission was to set fire to some of my own work, to try out the look of singed versions of the “Treasured Islands” posters – tying into the themed – and hopefully engaging - title for the project. No doubt there’s a clever tool on Photoshop for doing this digitally, but I haven’t find it yet, so had to try the more traditional approach.
The project’s high degree of emphasis on public engagement is something the whole project team is having to learn about as we go. It has very considerable capacity to take up time and energy, but it’s really energising thinking about how to present archaeological research in new ways. Why not popularise what we do? The excitement of archaeological discovery is ever present when we do our investigations, but sometimes hard for people to get at behind the fog of “boffinism”. Giving the project a popular face doesn’t harm its scientific footing for a moment, but should make it accessible to so many more people to enjoy.
Work on the posters is just one of things progressing at the moment. We’re finalising the booking of the eighteenth century re-enactors, “Lace Wars”; the first version of the project’s web pages have been designed and gone live on Fountains Abbey’s website, and there’s lots of progress with the on site exhibition. The original plan of having traditional exhibition panels on a trail through the site (from August into September) has evolved and evolved, into something far more innovative and exciting…..
Now, next to turn to the detail of the family-friendly hands on, surveying related, activity for the Festival of British Archaeology events planned for July 22nd and 23rd.