Just like Dr Johnson’s Dictionary in Blackadder….

Mark Newmam 13th June 2013

The real beginning of any good archaeological project, especially in a place like Studley Royal, is grappling with what we think we know about the site. Sometimes that’s just the formality of making sure you’re on the right track, but on other occasions it can be a surprisingly productive activity, long before the first spade has come into any sort of proximity with the ground.

To be honest, though, it’s not really the start of the story. There’s all the work rationalising and recording the reasons why a project might take place in a Project Design. Does it seek to investigate and research (and if so what and how) or – as is far more common in the National Trust – is it needed to mitigate for a development impact required by the operation of the property. In the case of the Bathing House, our motivations are a mixture of the two. We need to understand what’s happening to the bath’s spring water supply, as it often spills over onto the adjoining path and is a nuisance to visitors. But we’re also taking the opportunities to learn a lot more of one of Studley’s more significant lost buildings, and engaging people with archaeology and some of the property’s myriad hidden stories.

With the Project Design in place, the project then has to argue its case with all the other potential calls on the estate’s resources. We had hoped to dig here in 2012, but other priorities had to be addressed, so our plans were put on hold for a year. Buy now, with the estate’s long term commitment to archaeological conservation, its moment has come.

The actual excavations, in July and August, will be carried out for us by archaeological contractors, Field Archaeology Specialists, with whom we’ve worked very successfully on a number of previous Studley projects. Most memorable was the investigation of The Quebec that we carried out in 2011, our last major public archaeology project on the property.

It’s my role to project manage their input, but also to do the majority of the background research that will guide the excavations and, later, explain the findings. Having been looking at it for almost a quarter of a century, much of the source information is pretty much at my fingertips, and I’d have thought that I understood it pretty well and fully. However, that’s where Dr Johnson comes in…

Blackadder encountered Dr Johnson just after he thought he’d finished the manuscript of his complete English Dictionary. With no love lost between them Blackadder plagued Johnson by dropping words into the conversation that Johnson had missed. Queue much scribbling into the manuscript….

It’s been a bit like that with the documentary research so far. I thought we understood the available evidence pretty thoroughly, but I’m now looking at it with different eyes, asking it new questions. And, amazingly, there’s rather more to know than I’d previously recognised, telling us a whole lot more.

Exactly what? Well, you’ll have to read future Blogs……