Caption Competition

This was originally going to be included in the previous post but I couldn’t think of the best place to slot it in. So here it is on a post of its own! There is no prize for the best caption apart from the satisfaction of knowing your number one!! Enjoy.

Tree Planting at Wimpole (Part 2)

Several weeks have passed and the tree planting plan continues in earnest. As part of the project Oxford Archaeology East (OAE) where brought in to use the holes dug for the trees to see what, if any, laid beneath the soil.

This also drew the interest of the local newspapers who showed up at the beginning of the hole digging to report and take pictures. Even today I was in town and bumped into someone I knew and the first thing they said was “I saw you on the front of the paper the other day!”

The day before the local news arrived and filmed a short piece on the ‘search for the lost village at Wimpole’ that included boss Simon and our colleague Debs digging a hole. I don’t think she was very impressed as it cut into her coffee break! I managed to escape this one (but not the photo opportunity sadly) as Shane, Paul and I had scarpered for a brew at the same time.

Before everyone gets excited I should just mention this important fact. We aren’t looking for a lost village! I know it would be exciting and a huge crowd puller but the holes are there for trees not for seeking lost villages. Which incidentally aren’t near the hall in any case. As much as I enjoy archaeology, this was a secondary objective and we thought it’d be worth the look as we were digging up the lawn anyway!

Slowly but surely...

Enough of the media coverage though, I’ll add a link at the bottom of this post if you’re interested in reading the article. I have to say that the Royston Weekly highlighted the tree planting, so thumbs up for you!

So we assisted (or is it the other way round?) OAE in digging the 157 holes needed for the trees, which conveniently doubled as small test pits. I’ll be writing a piece about test pits on our sister blog some time in the future for you budding amateur archaeologists!

While OAE dug the sensitive areas by the hall (blue stakes), the rest of us dug the not-as-important white staked areas. A scattering of pottery, mainly Medieval was found in some of the test pits; along with animal bones and a reasonable quantity of building rubble.

Unfortunately the weather hasn’t been the greatest of late and although it made the holes easier to dig, the mud tended to stick to everything (being mainly clay soils at Wimpole) and everyone! It also had the added bonus of filling many of the completed test pits with water that then had to be bailed out before we could plant the trees.

Before I got to dig any test pits though, I took over from where Peter left off. Namely mark up every blue and white stake with an ID number and the tree species that was designated to it. So for a good day or two I set of with my set of maps and ID numbers and labelled every stake. It also helped OAE as they had to record any finds and the location of every test pit with GPS. It wasn’t without its headaches though as during that first week there were severe gusts that made map reading and ID sorting not the greatest of jobs!

Eventually though as you can see from the photo above, I did eventually manage to dig a few test pits. In the beginning (there was light!) I had started my first test pit and went over to check with Paul. I noticed he had dug up quite a number of animal bones and being both an archaeologist and an osteoarchaeologist I swapped so he could carry on digging while I handled the more delicate of the two.

The more I dug, the more bones were revealed to me and as I unearthed each new bone I began counting, calculating a quick MNI number in my head. MNI stands for ‘Minimum Number of Individuals’ and is used to work out how many individual animals are present at a time (more on this in the future). First there were two lambs, then three…and by the time I had got to the bottom of the test pit I lost count but I think I was up to about five! The photo below was taken near the start of my mini excavation and the board was literally covered in bones by the time I had finished.

 

Look at the bones!

It took me the best part of that day to finish digging one test pit (tree hole) it was that full of bones and even I was getting a bit tired of pulling out bone after bone and not finding the end of them. First off I was thrilled because I’d never dug a test pit with this many finds in it before but that had completely disappeared by the end of it!

After each test pit was completed, it was left open to be recorded by the OAE team and we erected a simple tripod of stakes to a) identify easily the location of each hole and b) to stop the general public blundering into said hole by accident and suing the National Trust for damages.

The tripods were Shane’s idea that very morning, since we were trying to come up with a solution that was quick and easy without too much faffing about. We did find it quite funny though when Simon decided to draw us a tripod to make sure we knew what the end product would look like! In the end work almost ground to a halt as we set out to work and left the technical drawing with all the dimensions behind!! Fortunately Shane remembering from scratch what a tripod looked like and we were all saved, well done Shane!

With holes dug and tripods up, we were well on the way. Starting in the east corner adjacent to the Pleasure Gardens, we worked our way across the park and up the hill to the wood belts at the far side of the parkland. It took a good while but after much digging and tripod raising the job was done! All that was left was placing a spiral guard round every tree; wire mesh to protect against foreign invaders (bunnies) and a metal guard to protect from the farm livestock…

News link: http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/Royston/Search-for-lost-village-06022013.htm

Thanks to Paul and Debbie for the photos!

 

Hedgelaying Competition Bonanza

The beginning of February saw the annual hedgelaying competition at Wimpole. Now into our fifth year and with many familiar faces, the group trekked out to the competition site on the far side of the Wimpole Estate. Well, actually we all drove down in various vehicles rather than walked as it would have taken too long to get there otherwise (yes, it’s that far!).

For those interested in hedgelaying in previous years, Simon has Video clips up on the sister blog at: https://sadeik.wordpress.com/blog/competitions-at-wimpole/hedgelaying. The only year missing is the first in 2009, which wasn’t taken unfortunately but the rest are there including this years so enjoy!

Layed, staked and binded

Moving on, our old colleague Boz joined us for the day and took part in the competition as well as helping to collect various tools. This obviously included some left over birthday cake! I won’t say whose, wink, wink.

Soon, the vehicles arrived on location and everyone got out onto a windy field ready for the struggle ahead. The sun was shining down as everyone busied themselves gearing up and preparing for the long road of competition hedgelaying. It wasn’t long before Simon was shouting and gathering all before him, ready for the drawing of lots. A bit of confusion ensued as people weren’t sure which style of hedge they were laying and general ‘not paying attention’ you get at most meets.

 

 Each competitor drew a number out of a hat (Simon’s pocket in reality – no innuendo’s thanks Paul!) that corresponded to a length of the hedge. With their chosen style it was each participant’s task to lay their stretch of eight metres, stake it up and bind the top with withies.

Not being one of the competitors myself and mainly going along to lend a hand, I ended up being camera man. Justin was also there as official paparazzi photographer so I think we covered the event quite well. A lot of the time I was walking up and down, observing and taking an interest in how different people approached the laying of the hedge.

You call that a knife?

You might think that a group of people on a gusty day chopping into a hedge might seem a bit dull and samey but every person has their own individual way of tackling the problem and getting the job done. Even though the majority used chainsaws, there were a handful of personages doing it by hand with just an axe, loppers and saw! As you can see by the size of the hedge and the tools used (photo to the right) this can seem quite daunting! Having said that even the guys (and gals) with chainsaws had trouble on occasions there were some monster pieces of hedge to get down.

 

At set intervals we had parts of the hedge that were marked to leave as trees after the laying had been done. Although I did notice that a couple of people had chopped through them! You would have thought they would have noticed the big strip of hazard tape wrapped round the trunk, but never mind, it’s all part of the hedge now!

Incidentally the two different styles used are the Midlands and South of England. The Points system used to judge these two styles can be seen on the same link above as the videos.

Speaking to Boz on the day, apparently the SoE is a bit easier to lay than the Midlands but Midland style is better for teaching because it is easier to see the hedge and pleachers after it has been sided up.

After the laying usually comes the staking, with which I leant a hand to Paul and Debbie every now and then. One of the tricky parts of the competition is due to the adjacent competitor laying their own bit of hedge if you (or they) are laying slower. If you’ve done your section and you still have upright plants next door than it’s either drop it to the side and hope you can lift it back after, or wait!

It all turns out good in the end though as everyone kinda helps each other so there are ways around and a helping hand if you need it.

Although I haven’t done any hedgelaying myself, I’m used to the staking and binding having done it at Wimpole previously so I was able to assist those that needed it (i.e. Paul and Debs again!). I have to say I enjoy doing the bindings the most when it comes to hedgelaying though we only tend to bind the top of the hedge when it’s more likely to be seen by the general public. A word of warning though, when binding make sure those nearby are aware as it’s very easy to whip them with the end of the binders as you weave them in and out!

Overall a good time was had by all. There were the winners and the not quite winners but everyone enjoyed themselves, especially with the venison stew that was provided by Simon once we all got back to the Home Farm. Just what a group of hedgelayers need after a hard days work; a hot spud, some of Simon’s homemade bread using heritage wheat we grow on the Estate and a steaming bowl of deer casserole!

To top it all off our Debbie won third prize as well! Don’t worry we won’t tell about getting help from the judge when it came to the bindings!

 

A job well done

 

For the other winners and runner-ups, jump over to the sister blog and to find another account of the hedgelaying competition. Don’t forget to check out those videos either!

(https://sadeik.wordpress.com/2013/02/04/wimpole-estate-2013-hedge-laying-competition)

Photographs courtesy of https://sadeik.wordpress.com as I haven’t received any for myself yet!