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Village Tribune 99 (July/August 2015) P.A.S.T. – Present - and Peakirk by Greg Prior Peakirk has an intriguing history and is a veritable archaeologist’s paradise. ‘Finds’ and landscape features tell us that the area was colonised during the Neolithic period (4,000-5,000 years ago) and was ‘industrialised’ by the Romans (43AD-c.410AD). Written evidence reveals that St Pega, the first ‘English’ anchoress, built her cell here in the early eighth-century. Sometime after she left for Rome in 718, the place became known through common usage as ‘Pega’s church’ or Peakirk. We can even pinpoint the date of the present church down to 1014/5 (something that few other parishes can boast) and the settlement is well-documented from the twelfth-century onwards. However, it is the archaeology that really fascinates me the most. My passion began when I was about fourteen-years-old, ignited by Sir Mortimer Wheeler’s TV programmes about his exploits at Maiden Castle [Dorset] and Verulamium [St Alban’s]. They inspired me to join Peterborough Archaeological Society, through which I developed a zest for hands-on excavations and historical research. Fast-forward to 1972, when I began redesigning my cottage garden and uncovered a herringbone wall and three fragments of grey-ware pottery, which allowed Helpston archaeologist, Adrian Challands, to date the masonry back to c.350AD. For decades, I pondered on whether any remnants of the wall survived beyond my property boundary. When I approached my neighbour, Gareth of Butterfly Barn on St Pega’s Road, in June 2011, it transpired that he too had been bitten by the ‘archaeology bug’ and we immediately set about sinking a test-pit. Alas! We found no masonry but instead unearthed 53 sherds of pottery, including numerous pieces of grey-ware. Little did I realise what a chain of events I had set in motion. Gareth began digging in earnest, assiduously recording his finds and has since harvested vast quantities of sherds dating from Romano-British times to the Victorian era. Meanwhile, a momentous meeting took place in Castor churchyard. By sheer chance my wife, Dr Avril Lumley Prior, encountered former Time-Team presenter, Dr Carenza Lewis, who was excavating test-pits in the vicinity with students from local secondary schools. Avril explained about the goodies in Gareth’s garden and, to cut a long story short, Gareth, Avril and I organised a Community Dig involving Peakirk residents and their families for April 2012. The archaeology was so diverse and the finds so plentiful that Carenza returned for a two-day event that July with another army of energetic teenagers to do the spade-work, again with spectacular results. It seemed rather an anticlimax when the second excavation was completed but Carenza vowed to keep in touch. She was true to her word and invited us to her annual ‘Thank-you Day’ in Cambridge. There, we learnt about the valuable work that highly-professional, amateur archaeologists were undertaking in other villages across Eastern England. I soon realized that Peakirk would benefit hugely from similar activities. So, in January 2013, Avril and I, and two like-minded friends, Glinton electronics engineer and “geophys” expert, Bob Randall, and Jon Clynch, an experienced archaeologist from Peterborough, created Peakirk Archaeological Survey Team (P.A.S.T. for short). We are a self-funding, independent group but are reliant upon the support of the Parish Council for permission to work on their land, for which we are very grateful. Our aims are to increase our knowledge of Peakirk’s past through archaeology and written archives, visual and non-invasive geophysical surveys and (where viable) excavation. Crucially, we always report and try to ©Greg Prior 15.05.2016 1 Village Tribune 99 (July/August 2015) publish our findings for posterity. So far, we have made more exciting discoveries than we ever dared imagine. They include an early-eighteenth-century sketch of the Hermitage Chapel and, in the church vestry, a hitherto unreported Norman window and a thirteenth-century grave-marker. The latter have been identified by experts and added to our very own Peakirk Heritage Record of buildings and artifacts, some of which, like the Boat Inn and Railway-Crossing House on Thorney Road, no longer exist. For me, the most-riveting aspect of our work is undertaking geophysical surveys using Bob’s state-of-the-art equipment. Our first venture was to conduct a resistivity survey and test-pits in the Old Rectory grounds. Our most-recent project, launched in March 2016, is to plot the course of the supposedly-Roman watercourse, Car Dyke, through the centre of the village, where the greatest concentration of Romano-British pottery was found during the 2012 Digs. A depression running in a north-south direction across the green gave us our first clue. It is described on Ordnance Survey [OS] Maps as continuing in a straight course through Chestnut Close, then veering sharply at a 90˚ angle to the west opposite The Hermitage. In contrast, excavations prior to the construction of Chapel Cottage in 2002, supervised by Rachel Hall have led her to speculate that Car Dyke ran alongside Deeping Road before striking westwards, completely avoiding the green. We wondered who was right. Laying out 20m grids on the village green in preparation for the resistivity survey was a time-consuming process but absolutely essential if the results were to be useful. Picture our delight when Bob downloaded the results onto his laptop and we saw an anomaly (a word used a lot in “geophys”’) approximately 12m wide following the OS route, then turning north-westwards on the northern edge of the green (rather than continuing straight ahead). Obviously, we could not survey the road or any of the houses on Chestnut Close but we can safely assume that the anomaly links up with the marked depression already identified on OS Maps as Car Dyke in the field to the north (as shown in Bob’s photograph) and confirmed by Lidar data. The next stage will be another of Bob’s geophysical surveys. This time, we hope to produce a ‘section’ through Car Dyke as it crosses the green. This technique will produce a slice through the dyke down to 3m below the surface and will give us an idea of its shape and depth. It also will allow us to compare it with other cross- sections, all without excavation – just a few probes, cables and box of Bob’s electronics. Then, following the geophysical investigation and with Peakirk Parish Council’s consent, we might take soil or silt samples from the bottom of the dyke by auguring or even consider a small-scale excavation in search of dateable material. Ultimately, since Car Dyke is such a massively-significant fenscape feature, running through the very heart of Peakirk, we would like to liaise with the Parish Council regarding the erection of a Visitor Interpretation Board and the plotting of Car Dyke’s erstwhile route across the village green with Ground-Mark pegs. We believe that this would be a most-befitting way to preserve one small yet highly-important facet of Peakirk’s heritage for future generations. But this will not be the end of the story. Our village is so historically- and archaeologically-endowed and we have had so many invitations from residents to investigate their gardens and trace their house-histories that we suspect that P.A.S.T. will be present in Peakirk for the foreseeable future. Please, watch this space! ©Greg Prior 15.05.2016 2 Village Tribune 99 (July/August 2015) Author with Eric Hughes and Carenza Lewis, Bob and Jon, March 2016 April 2012 The line of Car Dyke across the green Car Dyke, north of Chestnut Close (Bob Randall) ©Greg Prior 15.05.2016 3 .

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