Table of Contents
Acknowledgements ix
Abbreviations xi
Norfolk Firsts xiii
Time line of key events most of which feature in the Book xv
Chapter 1 Introduction 1
Chapter 2 The Early Years 3
A farming background 3
Growing up on a chicken farm 4
A first taste of archaeology 5
Bloxham School, 1957-62 6
A volunteer at Norwich Castle Museum 8
Warham Camp excavations, 1959 9
Ashill Roman enclosure and West Acre Saxon cemetery, 1961 10
Thetford Castle excavations, 1962: a near-death experience 10
Report writing 13
Chapter 3 Excavating Deserted Medieval Villages 15
Destruction in the countryside 15
Thuxton deserted village excavations, 1963-64 15
Thetford Anglo-Saxon town excavations, 1964 21
Birmingham University, 1964-67 21
Grenstein deserted village excavations, 1965-66 22
Surveys of other deserted villages 29
Postscript: A nostalgic return to Thuxton 30
Chapter 4 The Launditch Hundred Project, 1967-71 31
Unanswered questions about medieval settlement in the Norfolk countryside 31
Fieldwalking: then a new technique 31
Roman and Early Saxon 32
Isolated churches and village greens 33
Rural wealth and decline 33
Chapter 5 North Elmham Park: The Excavation of a High-Status Anglo-Saxon and Early Medieval Settlement, 1967-72 41
The Anglo-Saxon dioceses 41
A strongyloid worm started the excavations 42
Public and press interest 45
Voodoo village 45
How much detail to publish in print? 46
Linking the excavation phasing to the 'cathedral ruins' 47
The pre-Danish Middle Saxon settlement (seventh to ninth centuries: Period I) 47
The timber-lined wells 49
The bishops return (late ninth and tenth centuries: Period II) 52
The Late Saxon timber buildings (eleventh and twelfth centuries: Periods III and IV) 53
The cathedral cemetery 56
The market place 58
Further areas to be excavated 59
Writing the report 59
Distinguised visitors 61
Chapter 6 Chance Finds 63
A French polychrome jug from Welborne churchyard, 1968 63
A Late Bronze Age metalworkers hoard from North Elmham, 1970 64
An Anglo-Saxon inhumation cemetery at The Paddocks, Swaffham, 1970 66
Chapter 7 Societies 69
Norfolk and Norwich Archaeological Society (NNAS) 69
The Prehistoric Society of East Anglia 70
The Norfolk Research Committee (NRC) 71
Norfolk Industrial Archaeology Society (NIAS) 76
The Norfolk Archaeological Rescue Group (NARG), 1975-1992, and the Norfolk Archaeological and Historical Research Group (NAHRG) 1992 to present 77
The Federation of Norfolk Historical and Archaeological Organisations 80
Norfolk Historic Buildings Groups 80
Chapter 8 Amateurs in Action 81
John Owles: the fieldwalker/ farmer 81
John Turner: the lone excavator 82
Brian Cushion who discovered a Roman road and surveyed the majority of the county's earthworks 83
Alan Davison who combined the skills of a highly effective fieldwalker and documentary researcher 84
Silvia Addington who counted hedgerows, fieldwalked and researched the documents 86
The Brampton excavators ('Excavatores Brantunae') 88
TV-sponsored excavations 98
Chapter 9 Metal Detecting: 'The Norfolk System' 101
The 1996 Treasure Act 101
Portable Antiquities Scheme 102
How 'The Norfolk System' all began 104
The 'STOP' campaign 109
The Norfolk way is the only way 110
The Burgh Castle rally 113
Three successful detectorists 114
Geophysics and GPS-recording of coin distribution on Dunston Field 122
The tidal wave continues 123
A well-deserved recognition 125
A happy outcome 125
Chapter 10 Urban Surveys 129
The King's Lynn Survey, 1962-71 129
The Norwich Survey, 1971-2002 129
Chapter 11 The 'RESCUE' Movement, The Scole Committee and Professional County Units 141
'RESCUE' 141
The Norfolk Archaeological Unit: the birth of the first county-based professional field unit in Britain, from 1973 145
Chapter 12 A New County Service for Field Archaeology, 1973-1999 155
The role of a County Service 155
Museum displays 157
The changing legal background 158
Chapter 13 Key Norfolk Archaeological Unit Projects 165
The Sites and Monuments Record 165
Aerial photography 167
Some outstanding aerial photography discoveries 170
The Fenland Survey 180
Chapter 14 The Story of 'East Anglian Archaeology' 189
Chapter 15 County-based Conservation Projects 193
The Barrow Survey, 1973-76 193
A review of barrow protection, 1983 195
The protection of field monuments 196
The Norfolk Monuments Management Project (NMMP), 1990-present 198
The County Earthworks Survey, 1994-2000 203
Chapter 16 National Conservation Initiatives 207
The English Heritage Monuments Protection Programme (MPP), 1986-2001 207
The English Heritage Monuments at Risk Survey (MARS), 1994-1996 209
Natural England's Environmental Stewardship schemes 210
Breckland Archaeological Survey, 1994-96 211
A New Prescription for Preserving Archaeological Sites in Breckland: a significant step forward 212
Protection under the European Common Agricultural Policy from 2005 214
Chapter 17 Some Rescue Excavations, 1972-92 217
Spong Hill Anglo-Saxon cemetery, North Elmham, 1972-81 and 1984 217
Potential disaster averted 220
Anglo-Saxon cemeteries at Bergh Apton and Morningthorpe, 1973-75 224
Sixteenth-century pottery kiln wasters from Fulmodeston, 1974 226
Norwich, Anglia TV site on the former Cattle Market, 1979 228
Norwich St Martin-at-Palace Plain, 1981 229
Norwich Fishergate, 1985 231
Thetford, Fison Way, 1980-82 232
Norwich Southern Bypass, 1989-92 236
Baton Bendish parish survey, 1980-90 242
Chapter 18 Clearing the Publication Backlog from the Past, 1977-97 247
The Caistor Roman town excavations of the 1930s 248
Is history now repeating itself? 249
Chapter 19 Re-structuring Field Archaeology in Norfolk, 1991 251
Norfolk Landscape Archaeology (NLA) 251
Archaeological contractors 252
Sites and Monuments Record 252
Archaeology and Planning 253
The new Norfolk Archaeological Unit 253
A Five-year Development Plan for archaeology in the Museums Service 254
County standards for field archaeology 255
The County Council's own contracting unit goes into the red 256
Chapter 20 Time to Move On 259
All change 259
Chapter 21 The Norfolk Archaeological Trust: a property-owning conservation trust 261
The early years of the Trust, from 1923 261
Archaeological Trust's first properties 264
The Trust takes a new direction 271
Chapter 22 Caistor St Edmund Roman Town 273
Countryside Stewardship Scheme 274
Site opening 275
Caistor Roman Town Project 278
Dunston Field, 2011 283
Chapter 23 Burgh Castle 'Saxon Shore' Roman Fort 291
Site purchase 291
Site management plan 294
The wildlife 296
The trouble with car parks 297
Site interpretation 299
The need for site wardens 300
Special moments 301
Chapter 24 Two Monasteries 303
Binham Priory 303
St Benet's Abbey, Horning 307
Chapter 25 Other Recent Acquisitions 323
Iron Age fort at Church Field, Tasburgh, 1994 323
Bloodgate Hill Iron Age hillfort, South Creake, 2003 323
Middleton Mount motte and bailey castle, 2006 325
Burnham Norton Carmelite Friary, 2010 327
Fiddler's Hill round barrow, 2012 328
Castle Acre Priory meadows 329
Chapter 26 The Future Role of the Norfolk Archaeological Trust 333
The role of a county conservation trust for archaeology 334
Low membership 335
Chapter 27 A Time to Reflect 337
Where are we now? 337
And now a new, and potentially larger, publication backlog 339
The long-term storage of excavation archives 343
Finding the space 344
Protecting the field evidence in an arable landscape 345
Appendix 1 Alan Davison's publications 351
Appendix 2 Summary of progress set out in the 1996 Five-year Development Plan for Archaeology in the Norfolk Museums Service 353
Recording services 353
Development control 354
Monument conservation and interpretation in the countryside 354
Presenting monuments to the public 355
Identification service 355
Outreach 355
Appendix 3 List of those archaeologist who attended the February 1970 Barford meeting which represented the start of the RESCUE movement 357
Bibliography 359
Index 379
