YCCCART Newsletter Yatton, Congresbury, Claverham & Cleeve
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Page 1 YCCCART Newsletter Yatton, Congresbury, Claverham & Cleeve Archaeological Research Team The Future of the Past Edition 1 December 2010 Found in Yatton This issue Page 1 Found in Yatton Yes! This little bronze Somerset Museum, by Philippa Cormack figure was found in Weston super Mare. Yatton at Henley, just Why not go and see Page 2 north of Cadbury Hill, her? Cadbury Hill, The before quarrying Green Man on Cadbury YCCCART would like to Hill and the Key to the destroyed the site of a thank Jane Hill and the Hill Roman temple. Although staff at the museum for by Richard Baker & small (about 8cm high) their unstinting and Chris Short this female goddess is continuing support of perfectly formed for an our projects. Also for Page 3 object over 2000 years allowing us to The Lost Court at old. It is special enough reproduce the photo of Congresbury Church & to be on permanent the bronze figure. Resistivity Explained display in North by Colin Campbell Page 4 The Amazing YCCCART What is YCCCART? Enclosures by Christine Lufflum & You may have seen In 2004 a group of like Heritage Lottery Grant of Vince Russett ―Time Team‖ on minded (some would say £34,100 in order to slightly mad) members of purchase equipment to YCCCART Ancient Channel 4 showing a both Congresbury & Yatton specifically study Recipe team of archaeologists Local History Societies came Cadbury Hill and by Philippa Cormack & and Tony Robinson together to form a group to surrounding area and the Judy Sack researching and digging sites in 3 days flat. Well carry out supervised Congresbury Roman kiln we are the local archaeological work in and sites. around the villages of Everyone is welcome to amateur version of it and Yatton, Congresbury, join YCCCART, old and we even use the same Claverham & Cleeve, to young. equipment ―as seen on learn about the area and see As well as manual and TV.‖ what lurked below the electronic surveys we Our teams work to surface. do archaeological professional standards The group is supervised and excavations, field and are fast. But our supported by North walks, visual surveys projects can last for Somerset County and record features on weeks, months and even Archaeologist Vince Russett. years. (not just 3 days!). local buildings. Without his enthusiasm, Geoff taking the YCCCART is pronounced hard work and expertise we We meet every Bartington 601 ICCCART, so not to would not have got off the Gradiometer for a walk Thursday. Call 01934 confuse us with the ground or obtained a over someone‘s lawn. 838018 to join in. yogurt drink. Page 2 Cadbury Hill While we enjoy Cadbury Hill is an Iron Age hill fort. our explorations, It is nationally important as it was sharing our discoveries with re-occupied in the post-Roman others is a key period. During this period a high part of our work status group on the hill imported goods from the Eastern Mediterranean, North Africa, perhaps France and Spain as well as the eastern Anglo Saxon areas. 90 school children from St Andrew‘s school Congresbury YCCCART has carried out a manual enjoyed a guided walk on the hill in January 2010. The photo survey on the hill and will soon un- above shows some of the children sitting on a round house. They later sent thank you letters with this lovely drawing, and dertake gradiometry and resistivity made diary entries such as the one surveys. on the right. T he Celts made round houses Over the last year YCCCART has on Cadbury Hill. The whole family lived in one small house. also given walks and talks on the They had to go all the way hill and helped clear scrub. down the hill to get food. Take a walk on the hill and see the The chief lived at the high point wonderful clearance work of the hill. They traded with other people in the world. undertaken by Yatton and After a battle they sliced off Congresbury Parish Councils. other peoples heads and took them home to their wives. The Green Man of Cadbury A most intelligent and reliable the lower part of the body in their direction. The shoulders lady told us that in 1940 she merged into or was hidden by were clearly outlined but were was 7 and on a family outing up the dense vegetation. The figure concealed under a cloak of darker Cadbury Hill one hot summer wore an untidy helmet of leaves. leaves. She turned to her mother day. As they reached the top she The leaves framed a dark feature- and cried out ―Look mummy there‗s a funny man over there. He‗s saw a strange figure about 100 less flat face which seemed to stare looking at us and he‗s covered in yards away standing in leaves‖. Her mother said that she waist-high bracken. He, or it, couldn‘t see anything and indeed seemed to tower over the ―He‘s looking at us and he‘s when she looked again the figure surrounding greenery. The covered in leaves― had disappeared. Fifty years later upper body and head were a the same lady experienced a shock distinct recognisable shape, but when she saw the figure of the green man on a church bench end much like the one seen on Cadbury. The Key to Cadbury Hill Brian Bradbury got hold of this last century. No passages led further along the ridge towards huge key said to unlock the cap off the shaft and there were no Claverham. to a mine shaft on Cadbury and signs of haulage marks on the thought he would find out about sides or of any other mining it. His research revealed that in remains in the immediate 1978 a hole appeared after vicinity. snow. Investigations revealed a Was this a trial shaft in search shaft about 150 feet deep and of iron ore? 8 - 10 feet in diameter at the top, tapering to about 5 feet at A few years before 1978 a the bottom. This shaft was similar, though only 40 foot partly covered with old railway deep shaft opened up in the timbers placed there after a grounds of the Cadbury House previous collapse earlier in the Hotel and two are said to exist Brian and the key Page 3 The Lost Court at Congresbury Church One of the most exciting survey results this year relates to surveys Vicarage garden survey around St Andrew‘s church. In the prayer garden / orchard beside the Refectory and in the vicar‘s garden, resistivity surveys revealed walls of a substantial building or buildings. A section of the Refectory was demolished in 1823 and replaced by the current vicarage. The walls revealed from surveys are on the same alignment as this demolished section. They also tie up with walls found by archaeologist Richard Broomhead when he excavated an Walls evaluation trench in the orchard in 2008. It is possible that the surveys show the buildings demolished in the 1390s which may include the Bishop‘s Court. Orchard survey Resistivity explained The picture above shows the survey in the vicarage orchard/prayer garden and vicarage back garden at St Andrew‘s Church, Congresbury and shows black and white areas of resistivity patterns. Resistivity is one of several methods of seeing what is buried underground without lifting even a spade-full of soil. How is this possible? The area under study has been carefully examined with a resistivity meter, which detects differences in the electrical conductivity of the soil at depths of about half a metre. Buried stone features such as wall footings and gravel show high resistance compared with the surrounding soil, while filled ditches or pits, post-holes, etc. can be wetter than the surrounding soil and have lower resistance. The machine we use has two metal spikes (probes) set half a metre apart and a control box which passes a low current (1mA) between them when they are inserted about 3cm below the surface (see picture). Of course a single measurement shows you nothing you can interpret, but when the readings are taken at regular 1m intervals over a large area, patterns begin to emerge. Usually we divide the area under study into 20m grids, which gives 400 readings per grid. The grids below show how the computer interprets the readings, with high resistivity shown (in this instance) in white, low in black. Centre picture is the original data, with computer-enhanced image shown on the right. The Amazing YCCCART Enclosures Page 4 seen, mostly 8 – 10m across, Work in the woodlands on the The north and east sides of the western end of Broadfield Down enclosure have an internal ditch, which may well be the sites of (east of Cadbury Hill) has which does not appear to buildings or other structures, identified many enclosures continue onto the higher south some of which appear to have which share a number of similar side. stone spreads as part of their features, and which may structures. An ‗entrance‘ at the south-east potentially have been occupied in the post-Roman period. side of the enclosure may be a recent phenomenon, as it has a The penannular ring shown in small quarry working of the illustration is of Bickley 1, unknown date next to it, which constructed entirely of stone has partially destroyed the bank rubble, 60m x 60m, although in that area. the slight flaring of both north and south terminals of the bank Adjacent to the quarry makes it look more oval in plan. structure, careful cleaning of The west side of the enclosure the surface of the bank has is absent, but the terminals shown that it originally seems meet a local steep break of to have been of faced dry stone slope.