+- BAJR Federation Archaeology (http://www.bajrfed.co.uk)
+-- Forum: BAJR Federation Forums (http://www.bajrfed.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?fid=3)
+--- Forum: The Site Hut (http://www.bajrfed.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?fid=7)
+--- Thread: Digging up your own past (/showthread.php?tid=538)
Digging up your own past - historic building - 10th May 2007
I think you would be very hard pressed to find a mill where it is performing anything like its original function; in my various travels around the country I have yet to find one, but if there are then you are entirely correct. The recording should also involve talking to the workers, especially those with long service.
It does seem to be that an industrial building falls out of its original use, it then gains a 'squatting use' which may be partially related to its original function or is simply using a large space such as small scale warehousing, storage or carpet sales before they reach a stage where they are 'converted' and the planning system kicks in.
I once recommended that a shopping centre should be recorded while it was in use rather than empty. I also suggested that those undertaking the recording try and get hold of CCTV footage to be placed in the county archive with the record.
Digging up your own past - BAJR Host - 10th May 2007
Did you get the condition??
"No job worth doing was ever done on time or under budget.."
Khufu
Digging up your own past - Paul Belford - 10th May 2007
Off topic: It was a P6, but yes. Sadly the car was scrapped a long time ago. I am still going though! Which member of the Stead Circus were you?
On topic: Yes, we have just been working on a forge, and part of our archaeological recording was to make a record of the forge in use before it closed - before going on to excavate the various phases of forging which preceded it. There has been a lot of work done in the field of 'comtemporary archaeology' on things like shopping centres and motorway service stations - good to see that this is now emerging from the dusty corners of academia and into mainstream development control practice. That's what it should be all about.
Digging up your own past - BAJR Host - 10th May 2007
Off topic too: Stead Circus member 1991-92 ish on the wolds being used as targets by A10s - also still have the T-shirt from the Snettisham circus
"No job worth doing was ever done on time or under budget.."
Khufu
Digging up your own past - 1man1desk - 10th May 2007
Not digging as such, but fairly recently I worked on an EIA relating to the demolition and replacement of a hospital where I, my wife and my son had all received treatment. Still using the new hospital.
1man1desk
to let, fully furnished
Digging up your own past - m300572 - 10th May 2007
Oral history for recent sites is essential in understanding and really interpreting theri remains - at the aforementioned Aberdulais we worked on the remains of a tinplate works - the process was invented in the late 17th C and went on until the 1950s in S Wales - we had film clips, one suprervisor had an elderly brother (in his 70s) who had worked in a tinplate rolling mill and gave us a guided tour of our own site to describe the reality (rather than the archaeology) and I spent an interesting haircut in Swansea chatting to the barber, an Italian immigrant who had worked in a tinplate works when he first came over. It makes the interpretation of a site to visitors a lot more real if you have 'first hand' experiences to relate.
Digging up your own past - BAJR Host - 10th May 2007
This is where I see archaeology being too tightly defined a role.. I will start a new thread.. Where does archaeology End? to discuss this further
"No job worth doing was ever done on time or under budget.."
Khufu
Digging up your own past - Smaze - 10th May 2007
Just a quick one before the topic ends.... the two comments form Mr Host and Mr Belford have dug up some great memories of my pasts with the Stead Curcus...sorry to hear about the Rover, great car..if it helps you remember, i had and still have the beat up blue landrover..wet fields, good beer and areobatatic A-10s...good old days.
Digging up your own past - Digger - 11th May 2007
Forgot that I got to carry out an evaluation on the abbandoned military barracks where I served. Strange wandering the buildings and remembering mates that I haven't seen for twenty years.
Digging up your own past - 1man1desk - 11th May 2007
I also did a DBA covering a village next to an RAF base. A key historic event covered in the DBA was the accidental bombing of the village during WW2 - one of the effects of which was to blow the roof off the house in which my future father-in-law, then a teenager, was sleeping.
1man1desk
to let, fully furnished