Fort Royal

Worcester Ukulele Club web site

2011-03-22T21:21:00.004Z

Worcester Ukulele Club now has its own web site, where you can find all sorts of Uke information, as well as keep up with our local strummers.
http://www.worcester-uke-club.co.uk/

Ukulele Mondays

2011-01-12T21:36:00.000Z

Elgar School of Music Ukulele Club is now meeting on Monday evenings 7.00 to 8.00, £6 a week. We started again on Monday 10 January 2011, but you can start any week you like.

We work on several songs each week: Ukulele Lady, Ain't she sweet from the traditional Uke repertoire, some Beatles, Cliff Richard, Everly Brothers and more recent stuff. In fact anything you bring in the chords for - especially if you can croak the song if we don't know it. Even if you can't play your uke, we'll get you up and running with three chords in no time at all. If you haven't got a uke, phone in advance and we'll lend you one for the session.
http://www.elgarschoolofmusic.co.uk/

Ukulele Crazy

2010-09-08T21:16:00.003+01:00

I've been learning the ukulele for a few months and I've never practised an instrument so keenly. I started with Steven Sproat's beginners' workshop at Elgar School of Music in Worcester, using a borrowed uke. I bought one the next day, and went to Steven's intermediate course a couple of months later. I also took part in a pilot Ukulele Club last term with David Barlow as Course Leader.

Elgar School of Music is now starting up the Ukulele Club for real. Meeting on Monday evenings 7.00 to 8.00, it will meet weekly from November 1st until Christmas. It can be paid for by the term, but I guess most people will want to pay £6 a week for a while till they are sure.

Superficially, a uke is a tiny guitar with only four strings. The chord shapes are similar, but the sound is very different because the string you hit first with your finger is an octave higher than you would expect, and it gives it a sharp attack. The chords are MUCH easier with only four strings to worry about, so I was quickly into diminished and flattened fifth chords which I skate over on the guitar. Its size is an advantage too, especially if you have small fingers like me. If it's too small for your giant fingers, you can get bigger ones.

If you like George Formby, I'm sure you'll be accommodated, but most of the players I've come across prefer something more recent. I myself like 60s and 70s stuff, but I'll play Katy Perry or even Jedward if I've got the uke chords.

The photo is not me. I got it from Stefan's blog No-one knows Stefan. I don't know Stefan, but I'm pretty sure the photo isn't him either.

Choirs and singing groups

2010-08-22T21:52:00.003+01:00

I've been to a musical theatre workshop with the amazing Ria Keen of Voices Unlimited today. I couldn't take part fully in the all-moving performance experience because I'm on crutches after a small knee operation. But it was powerful stuff.

Yesterday I took my crutches to Helen Russell's workshop. Helen runs Express Yourself with singing groups for adults and children at Lyppard Grange Community Centre and a lunchtime adults' group at Elgar School of Music. Completely different, much less intense, but friendly and fun - just what many people are looking for.

People on both days have mentioned that they have been looking for singing groups in the area for a long time with no luck, hence this post. I'll also mention two groups I regularly go to.

Natural Voices with Ros Thomas meets in Malvern, it's a non-performing group where we learn everything from scratch at every meeting. It's calm (mostly) and wonderful. Most of the original singers still come every time, and have been joined by 50+ newer arrivals.

The long-standing Volcano Community Choir run by Hilary Davies in Worcester, sings music from all over the world and performs often. The picture, from Hilary's web site, is a small selection of us performing at Upton Water Festival.

I'm happy to mention other choirs and music groups here too, if you let me have a link in a comment.

Otter at Diglis

2009-01-06T15:23:00.004Z

I had a second hand camcorder for Christmas, so I went down to the River Severn to see what I could film. Several people were looking down the riverbank near the Diglis House Hotel, Worcester, so I joined them. An otter was lazing on a ledge near the water, so I filmed it. My wife took the stills above. We watched the otter slide down the wall into the water, dive and come up and out again with a fish. I'll try to put the video on a site somewhere.

This was on Sunday 4th January 2009, around 1300hrs.
The Grid Reference is SO848542.

The community departs, but the dig goes on

2008-10-15T21:45:00.004+01:00

The community dig is over, Open day, post-dig party and all. It's been good. We've been very lucky, mostly. Some awful weather, some very good, but my hat keeps off rain and sun. A good team of amateurs, trained and led by excellent professionals. A wonderful site, with the Roman features two feet down so that the digger did the hard work to get there.

I couldn't spend so much time there as I have at previous digs, but I have tried to get there on a Friday morning at 11.00 for the weekly update, mostly conducted by the magnificent Hal Dalwood, telling the background history as well as interpreting the mysterious shapes in the earth colours for us. Last week he told us the latest interpretation of our Roman buildings: a street running close to the railway viaduct, with a large house / factory, tall enough for two storeys, walls of earth or stone, or possibly bricks topped by wood. Then at least three smaller houses towards the river. This is the end of the trench so far. We have ovens inside the houses, one an earthenware bread oven which we have most of, and one on a beaten clay floor, with indications that it was used at high temperatures so was used for metal alloys or glass. There are stone features elsewhere on the site, which cannot be interpreted yet.

Although the amateurs have left the site, it's not all over. Now the professionals, trained to work safely at speed and in less favourable weather, can get down to the lower, older layers of Roman history. You can still visit the site as long as it is safe to do so, and the exhibition is continuing, but there will only be an archaeologist free to talk to you on Friday at 11.00. I'll continue to go when I can, and report back.

Hope to see you there!

The Heat and the Dirt and the Noise of the Trains over our Heads is Part of the Fun

2008-09-19T23:40:00.005+01:00

Found, cleaned, marked, displayed

2008-09-19T22:48:00.002+01:00

I was back in the trench today after some time washing pots. I'm afraid Angus had to put some back in the water, the way my family do when I wash up at home. I don't thing I washed any of the important pieces we saw at the Friday update today, but they would have been just bits of pot at that time. They have now been transformed by brilliant reassembly, which Angus describes as a jigsaw puzzle with no picture, and most of the pieces missing.

The first was thought to be a jug with an impractical spout and the base broken off. But inspired by something seen in Greece, it was turned upside down and was revealed as a beehive. The bees travel up through the spot and the 'base' has now become a lid for hooking out the honey.

The next is even better. Archaeologists, everywhere I think, have been finding almost flat pieces of pottery which actually have a curve with a large radius. When they can find enough to put one partially together, there is a rim on the top and also on the bottom instead of a base. A space in the side is perhaps for putting things in and out. Since ours was found in the remains of a charcoal fire, it seems likely that it was an oven. Rumours that the remains of an apple crumble were found inside are greatly exaggerated. If this is a major archaeological advance, as it may well be, will I be credited with first publication of results? Even before the Worcester News has a picture of Paul Harding dressed as a Roman chef cooking in it? The oven picture is taken through a display case, so it has a reflection, but I will try to get a better one.

The next big discovery is the Roman house , only the second ever found in Worcester. We haven't much detail yet, just the line of the walls and supports. It may have been a wooden house, but it is large. You can't see the scale here, but we're not talking two-up two-down terrace here. The oven was inside, marked here with a polythene bag. With the recent weather, everything is in polythene bags, although today was sunny up to sun-screen standard.

But you didn't come here to look at pictures of empty trenches, did you? They are usually busy with volunteers and the archaeologists who show us how to do it, patiently (as least while we are within earshot).

2008-09-12T21:06:00.001+01:00

More pictures!

A brief dry interlude

2008-09-12T20:23:00.004+01:00

After some time away, I returned to the dig to see it had been expanded into an area nearer the river. The machines have cut most of it to the top of the Roman layer, leaving only the foundations of almshouses from the Victorian period. They will be taken away soon, so that we have an expanse of Roman archaeology to work with.
Hal gave the Friday update (it's every Friday at 11.00 and all are welcome) sketching in the entire history of the site, which has changed since I last heard. That's why we are digging: to gather more evidence, so that our view of Worcester's history becomes fuller and more accurate. That evidence (as measurements, descriptions of soils, pottery, bones and a lovely bracelet, modelled in the picture by Angus) is assessed and reassessed by archaeologists, who can compare it with evidence from other sites, in Worcester and far beyond.

Going backwards, it was
- a place for keeping the dustbin lorries;
- Joseph Wood the builder's sawmill and timber yard (1820-1970 ish);
- agricultural land for around 1400 years before that, perhaps with some defensive role in the Civil War or before
- a Roman industrial site.

Because of the amount of slag, which is a waste product of iron making, we* thought it might be an iron works, but there is no other evidence for this, though there are indications of iron working. There is a road running from the railway to the Butts, not a well-made military road, but an industrial way. We thought a ditch at right angles to this might be a ditch by the side of a later road, which we expect to find, but the road isn't there as far as we can see. In the new section there are several obvious features represented by different coloured earth, one of which Hal thinks is a hearth (the polythene bag in the picture marks the spot, and protects the marker from the torrential rain which struck two hours later).
I've been washing finds, because I'm suffering from a week's walking in the North York Moors, and need to sit down. The finds tray in the picture is my share for this morning. There's some Samian, not the best quality, from Southern Gaul, some Severn Valley ware, maybe from Malvern, other pottery and some bits of bone, which crumbled into splinters mostly. After it's dry, someone will write the context number, which indicates where in the site it was found, on each piece.

*We is used to mean the people who know what they are talking about. Not me as it might suggest.

Some more links for the Butts Dig

2008-08-29T16:40:00.002+01:00

http://www.flickr.com/photos/11507123@N00/2775676467/ is a photo by 'juggzy malone' who had a good day in Worcester to judge from her excellent photos on Flickr.
http://worcestershire.whub.org.uk/home/wcc-arch-community-the-butts is the Official Site on the County Council Web Site.

If you are searching Google, you are advised to put something in the search box in addition to the word 'Butts'. Or prepare to be surprised.

The Butts Dig Open Day

2008-08-29T16:01:00.003+01:00

You can come and see the dig anytime you like. It's open between 10am and 4pm seven days a week until 12 Oct. But be sure to come to our special Open Day on 20 September 2008, where you can

Meet Roman soldiers
Dig for buried treasure
Get hands-on with history by washing ancient pots
Meet an archaeological artist
Find out more about the fascinating archaeology of Worcester

Friday Job

2008-08-29T15:52:00.003+01:00

Friday jobs done by enthusiastic volunteers are as good as weekday jobs. Weekend jobs are pretty effective too.

Library and History Centre Site has dig pics

2008-08-23T21:47:00.002+01:00

We're spreading all over the web! The official site of the new Library and History Centre (that's what comes next after we have dug the hole for the basement with our trowels) has pictures and a webcam on
http://www.rjcmedia.co.uk/worcester_library/
Try the pan and tilt webcam, which enables you to control a live camera on the top of Russell and Dorrell. Oh the power!

BBC Web Site Digs In

2008-08-23T21:24:00.003+01:00

http://www.bbc.co.uk/herefordandworcester/content/image_galleries/wri_dig_gallery.shtml?1 is a long way of saying get to the BBC Web Site and see photos of the Butts Dig and some of the Castle Street site, called here the Castle Road Dig.

The picture here (not on the BBC feature) is of the state of the dig before the volunteers arrived, with a water main burst providing a foretaste of the rainy conditions to come in the first weeks!

Team Time

2008-08-15T23:01:00.003+01:00

There was a presentation to the whole team, and everyone else who wanted to come, on Friday, after almost two weeks of work on the site. Darren gave us a rundown on what we have found so far, what we think it is, and what to look for as a result. The problem is that we are working backwards: we have to dig away the Council refuse lorry base, the Victorian builder's yard, the (possibly) 17th century defensive ditch (possibly one of those), the undatable stretching racks for fine Worcester Cloth (which almost certainly aren't) and some agricultural land to get to the Roman remains we know are there. At one end of the site this is so. At the other, we are straight into digging out nice though common Roman pots, all the later stuff having been in the three feet that was cut away by the JCB, or possibly by the people building the builders' yard. We have plenty of time, because this dig is going on until October, but it seems to move quite slowly. The information we get from carefully drawing, measuring, photographing and recording is what we are achieving, but digging things up is what we like doing best.

Buttkickers

2008-08-09T22:09:00.006+01:00

The Butts Dig, uncovering thousands of years beneath the site of the new Worcester Library and History Centre, is under way. I had two days of kneeling and scraping the surface free of debris, and a day of kneeling to read off measurements, then woke on the fourth day with a very stiff back. Once all the finds were washed, there was nothing left but photography. Not the archaeological sort of photography, recording information about cuts - the holes, and fills - the stuff that was put into them or fell into them. It was blog photography, trying to get pictures of the volunteers and the work they were doing. I took about a hundred, including a video that you have to watch lying sideways because I held the camera sideways - sorry, Ann. There are four pics below, with more to come when I've Gimped them. Julian, our poet, is going to write some poetry of the trenches for me to publish - in return for a link to his book.

New Archaeological Dig open to everyone!

2008-08-02T23:41:00.002+01:00

My friend Laura has sent a comment on a page far down this blog, so I'm repeating it here. I'm starting on Monday, Day One, unless my dentist can fit me in to fix a broken filling, in which case it will be Tuesday!

The Dig at the Butts
Okie dokie - just read my last message about how we should do a community excavation again. With all our best intentions it's been a while - but with a great deal of hard work from everyone across the County's Heritage Services we're off again! On Monday the 4th August 2008 the first volunteers arrive to work on the 10 week community excavation.
Let me tell you how unusual it is to have this happen. Most excavations called 'training excavations' expect people to turn up and dig - for a fee. This dig in Worcester gives everyone the chance to dig for no charge - to find out what an archaeological excavation is really about - work along side professional archaeologists - get the chance to ask the questions you've wanted to ask when watching Time Team - and get real answers - not just the ones that suit the producer's requirements. We're not making TV we're building a library and the archaeology is all a part of that process. The Library will be for the residents of worcester and the dig is for the same people. (end of rant - sorry).
Please come down to The butts Dig - the old City Council depot up from the Cattle Market car Park - if you can't or don't want to join in the excavation - the Dig is open for 10 weeks from 4th August 10am - 4pm for 7 days a week.
There's an exhibition and guided tours at the weekends.
Sorry but the dig volunteers must be over 18 and fit enough not to hurt themselves in physical work, but as a personal comment I'd like to make it clear that if you have a disability or a slightly fragile state and really want to get involved, have a word with the organisers - they can make things possible. There will also be events for under 18s and groups - for more info phone 01905 855455 between 9:30 and 12:30.
hope to see everyone there.
Laura

The Big Picture Photo Session

2008-04-27T22:05:00.002+01:00

http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnstafford/tags/bigpicturephotosession/

The Worcester City Parks Staff held a photo session in Fort Royal Park as part of "The Big Picture" promotion. The link is to my pictures on my Flickr site. You can find more pictures by other participants on http://www.flickr.com/photos/wccparks

Tudor House needs your clicks

2008-01-20T21:10:00.001Z

I’ve started using a great new search engine that raises money for charity, every time you search the web.
I'm supporting WHAT, the charity that keeps Tudor House in Friar Street open.
It doesn't cost you a penny, and you can support any UK charity you like.
Join me: http://www.everyclick.com/johnstafford

Go on give it a try...it's a great way to help every day.

Total raised for charity: £380,855.36
www.everyclick.com Search the web and raise money for the charity of your choice.

Gheluvelt Park Friends

2007-09-18T22:07:00.000+01:00

The Friends of Gheluvelt Park have a web site on gheluveltfriends.org.uk

Tour of Britain at Worcester

2007-09-15T21:02:00.000+01:00

Here's a short video, the first I have blogged, of the tour of Britain passing along Sidbury. Well, the video doesn't seem to work, so here's an ordinary picture.

Peregrine Falcon

2007-09-08T21:07:00.000+01:00

A pair of Peregrines has been nesting on St Andrews Spire (called The Glovers Needle) in Worcester this year, and they have been well publicised since the young departed the nest. I looked through the RSPB's telescopes a couple of times when one of them was on the Cathedral Tower, but this time I was much closer and was able to snap it with my 10x lens. The picture is on Flickr

Google Maps overhead aerial photos

2007-07-01T20:36:00.000+01:00

Google Maps now has better detail in its aerial photos of Worcester. This links to Fort Royal Park playground. Push the map around to see other places. The photos are pretty old. I worked that out by identifying my neighbour's cars!

Sunset over Worcester

2007-06-25T11:39:00.001+01:00

Sunset over Worcester
Originally uploaded by >kr8<

Looking at the Flickr photos in the Worcester group, I found this excellent sunset by kr8. Check it out for rare butterflies too, though not in Worcester.

More Flickr Photos

2007-06-24T22:08:00.000+01:00

Ok, so I have a flickr account now, too.

Great Pictures of Worcester

2007-06-18T11:23:00.000+01:00

AJK Photography has a really good Flickr site with 16 sets of Worcester photos as of today, including Fort Royal, fireworks and floods. Not only that, but sets for Malvern, London, Nature, Buildings and Churches. The photo here appears with his permission.

1888 Large Scale Maps on the Net

2007-06-18T10:37:00.000+01:00

Maps of Worcestershire at various large scale are available and easy to navigate at the British History Online site. I did try putting a sample here, but they have some way of preventing it!

Latest on the Park Animals

2007-06-03T22:38:00.000+01:00

The May Wildlife List has a few new entries. A Great Spotted Woodpecker pair nested in the oak tree in the centre of the park and raised some offspring this month. They all appear to have fledged now. Details from and your details to Duncan Sutcliffe xxduncan@sutcliffeinsurancexx.co.uk (leaving out the xx's which are there to help prevent junk emails)as usual. I haven't got a suitable photo to hand at present, but I've taken some elsewhere last week. When I've downloaded it from my camera, I'll post it here.
Update Later: My SD Card was faulty and I managed to lose all my pictures (around 200) from a trip to Lundy Island and Watersmeet, Lynmouth. Talk about the one that got away! The Song Thrush picture was taken in Craven Arms at Easter.
Bat
Blackbird
Blue Tit
Chaffinch
Coal Tit
Crow
Dunnock
Feral Pigeon
Goldfinch
Great Spotted Woodpecker
Great Tit
Greenfinch
Grey Squirrel
Herring Gull
House Mouse
House Sparrow
Magpie
Mallard
Pied Wagtail
Robin
Song Thrush
Starling
Swallow
Wood Pigeon

Lots of Visitors

2007-05-25T22:31:00.000+01:00

I had no idea how many people looked at this blog until someone suggested I put a counter on it. I haven't used counters on my sites for a few years, because I found them unreliable. They overcount when someone, usually me editing, is repeatedly refreshing the page. And they undercount when someone on a big system, like Worcestershire County Council who have thousands of computers, looks at a page which is held in a cache. That's a piece of disc space that holds a copy of my page so that the County's computer doesn't keep having to download it from the Internet.

Anyway, I put one on this site and as you can see, about 70 a month are looking in. Including me about 8 times, I think, but excluding the multitudes avidly reading the site in County libraries and the corridors of power!

Some of you may not know that you can use computers free at any public library in the county, and most others in England and Wales. After all, you are reading this on your own computer, probably. Well, it's good to send an email home when you are not there, even one to yourself when you've got a file or digital photo from somewhere. Also, you can get lots of stuff for free that you would have to pay for at home, notably Ancestry.com, that great collection of family history information.

You can still borrow books from there too.

Wildlife Update April

2007-05-05T21:32:00.000+01:00

Duncan Sutcliffe has sent me the list of birds and other creatures spotted in and around Fort Royal Park in April 2007. A good list this month, because of the extra activity of the nesting birds, the extra care of the wildlife watchers and the large numbers of visitors swelling the popularity of the park.
Bat
Blackbird
Blue Tit
Coal Tit
Crow
Dunnock
Feral Pigeon
Goldfinch
Great Spotted Woodpecker
Great Tit
Greenfinch
Herring Gull
House Sparrow
Magpie
Mute Swan
Robin
Song Thrush
Starling
Wood Pigeon
Wren

For a change, the pictures are taken by me in Fort Royal Park. The bird is a carrion crow: I think there are only two inhabiting the park, though a flock of rooks comes through occasionally, and I have seen jackdaws there in the past, but not recently. I don't know anything about insects so it isn't on the list: I photographed this one to show how good my camera is at closeups, and because it kept still better than the birds. It was on one of the bottle banks, which explains the odd background.
Finally an appeal. I haven't got a good picture of it yet, but there is a sparrow-like bird that has been around all year in Upper Park Street, particularly active around 9 in the morning this time of year. It has white underwings which show on its tail when resting and are very noticeable in flight. It always flocks with the sparrows. Do sparrows have mutations like this? You don't need binoculars to see it, and I'm sure the residents, including me, won't appreciate them either!

Wildlife Register

2007-04-01T21:13:00.000+01:00

Creative Commons copyrighted image by Steve Wilde and taken in Marlow, Bucks.

Duncan has kindly sent me the Park wildlife register for the last few months. Here's a list of the species seen.

Bat, Black Headed Gull, Blackbird, Blue Tit, Chaffinch, Collared Dove, Cormorant, Crow, Dunnock, Feral Pigeon, Great Tit, Grey Squirrel, Herring Gull, House Sparrow, Magpie, Mallard, Mute Swan, Pied Wagtail, Robin, Song Thrush, Sparrowhawk, Wood Pigeon, Wren.

The list is detailed month by month, so Duncan wants all your sightings, not just new species. I can add Coal Tit which I saw in the corner near the Mission Hall apartments on Saturday 31 March.

Wildlife in the Park

2007-03-20T20:49:00.000Z

Last year on one Saturday afternoon a group of over 30 volunteers turned out to help with gardening, litter collectiing and hanging bird boxes made by pupils from the Royal Grammar School. The event atrracted lots of publicityin the local papers and was a real success. Even though it was late in the year to hang bird boes, at least three of the eleven were definitely used to rear young, and possibly another four, which gives encouragement for this year.
The bird boxes and flowerbeds have enhanced the wildlife attracted to the area and there are suggestions to icorporate more changes to assist wildlife. One possibility is to set aside areas in the park that will be allowed to grow wild, attracting diffrent animals, insects and plants.
For those interested in wildlife, a register is being kept of animals and birds spotted in the park or seen from the park and is posted on the notice boards. Please report your sitings by email to duncan sutcliffe xxduncan@sutcliffeinsurancexx.co.uk (leaving out the xx's which are there to help prevent junk emails). You don't need to be an expert as even a 'probable sighting is welcome. A couple of more interesting animals recorded recently include a number of sightings of a bird of prey that may be a sparrowhawk and sightings of bats as late as October and as early as February. The picture is from Gary Cox's web site and is not local.

The View From Fort Royal

2007-03-16T21:07:00.000Z

I've put a new set of photos on Picasa, taken when the daffodils were first blooming and the crocuses were at their best. Thank you to the lady who was concerned that I had collapsed on the path. In fact I was lying down to check that I had the Cathedral framed nicely by the daffodils! I've seen several others lying down to get this shot but no-one so far as I know got one with crocuses in the foreground. Can we have some planted more conveniently for next year please?

Fort Royal Park Gardening Group

2007-03-04T12:43:00.000Z

The Friends of Fort Royal have a gardening group which keeps the beds in the Park looking good throughout the year, and does a regular litter pick. Anyone can join in by turning up on the first Saturday of the month at 2pm. Here's a picture of Dilys and Evan with some of the plants they care for.

Photos on Picasa Web Albums

2007-03-04T12:15:00.000Z

Please have a look at my Picasa Web Albums with photos of Worcester and around, the 2007 Eclipse and lots more.
Here's a link to the Eclipse set

2007 Eclipse

Panoramic View from Fort Royal Park

2007-01-22T21:50:00.000Z

This is just a small image to entice you to look at the much bigger panorama of Fort Royal Park on one of my other sites www.fortroyal.org.uk/FortRoyalPano.html
But it's a larger file than Blogger will take - 2 Mb - so probably don't if you are still paying by the minute!

Sidbury and Fort Royal Conservation Area

2006-10-29T20:04:00.000Z

Worcester City Council published a document on the Sidbury and Fort Royal Conservation Area and it's available on line. A good summary of historical data and proposals for change.

Thank you for your feedback

2006-08-02T17:42:00.000+01:00

There have been lots of comments on this blog, so thank you to everyone who took the trouble. If anyone was put off by having to register on Blogger, sorry for not getting the comment settings right first time, but I have done it now.Anyone can comment now, withour registering!

I thought Laura's comment was worth repeating in a main entry, so here it is:

Laura said...

Thanks for all the fantastic photos over the last few weeks - I've enjoyed reading your experiences of the excavation.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if this kind of community excavation could be repeated each year - I met so many people who had heard too late about the dig to get the chance to volunteer - for instance those of us with young kids have to get there while the dears are still at school and we may get the chance to throw a sickie - (no not really Simon!) There's a demand - I only hope it can be met in future years.
P.S. Don't think about the winter guys - volunteers do not get paid for freezing their fingers off!

And Julian found a copy of the BBC video clip at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDR6-kvAVf4

Last Pictures

2006-07-30T23:38:00.000+01:00

These, I'm afraid, are my last pictures. If you have any you want to see on this blog, please shrink them to 300-400 pixels across and email them to me fortroyal1651@yahoo.co.uk with details. Sorry to archaeologists, volunteers, Commandery staff, members of the public and press photographers who I may have walked into, got in the way of or included in the background of pictures without their permission. And thank you to everyone. It's been a fascinating experience.

Looking at a piece of ground, you try to guess what might be underneath, but you are rarely right. Who would have thought that there was so much fill put into the garden in the last couple of centuries that in places we would never get down to older levels in the time we had? Or that such a magnificent wall was only centimetres under the ground at Trench 7?

Can we do it again next year please?

Working up to the BBQ

2006-07-30T23:36:00.000+01:00

Friday was the last weekday of the dig, and the team said thank you to the volunteers by putting on a barbecue (well done Angus and Christine) where we got together with some of those people we've worked with for a while over the last few weeks. Justin presented us all with certificates, well he put them on a chair and we helped ourselves, but it saves a lot of clapping, and it was hot. Somebody dug up a barrel of beer and a few bottles of wine - amazing finds on this site - together with orange juice for the work experience trainees and other teetotallers. I thought it best not to take embarrassing pictures of people drinking, so these pictures were taken shortly before, while inspectors from English Heritage were admiring our prize feature, the double sandstone mediaeval wall.

Volunteers all

2006-07-28T23:00:00.000+01:00

It was on another dig that the mutinous volunteers were offered a 5% increase in pay.
"You don't fool us," they said "5% of nothing is nothing! We want 10% or else."
That's my volunteer joke. I don't know any archaeological jokes. It's a very serious business down those holes.
Here are some of the unpaid volunteers. Sorry to those whose pictures I took but didn't include. Some of the film didn't come out properly. Probably because it was a digital camera.

The girls are not idling, but watching an excellent demonstration of the hazardous job of mattocking.

Julian Swinbourne the poet with the tools of his other trade.

Those yellow gloves are a wonderful safety feature when the weather is cloudy. We tried photographing the Roman pottery on them, but they outshone the finds too much, so we used a kneepad instead. (Can someone send a comment identifying what they are please?) Here are the details I asked for: clockwise from top left: Black Burnished, Severn Valley Ware, Samian Ware, Mortarium - all from 120 - 200 AD. They are from a dumped layer, so are unlikely to originate on the site, perhaps having been brought with the earth down the new canal to fill low-lying land. They were probably worried about this new-fangled canal flooding the site.

Lots of visitors turned out on Saturday for the celebrity appearance by Julian Richards, from BBC TV's Meet the Ancestors. Most of the volunteers were hard at work, but one or two found time to schmooze. I tried to get on Meet the Ancestors once, but they would only consider me for a part as one of the ancestors. As one volunteer said, meeting the in-laws was bad enough, never mind the ancestors.

Finds

2006-07-27T20:05:00.000+01:00

I can wash up at home any time I like, so finds washing has little attraction for me, but a small band of loyal washers has been supplemented by lots of extra volunteers, particularly during the heat. They wash and scrub the pots, bones and tiles, then mark them with the identifier for the context they come from, that's the level and location of soil they are found in. As well as being pretty to look at, and being the justification for digging that we need for the builders: "Found any gold yet?", they help to date the features that we find. Finally, the whole band of diggers, the tools, health forms, documentation, toilets and Jaffa Cakes which support the dig, not to mention the day by day professional decisions, are managed brilliantly by Justin, the dig boss. He doesn't pose for photos, it makes him break up laughing, but I got him while he was measuring.

Mysterious walls in the Canal Trench

2006-07-27T19:55:00.000+01:00

It's in the last few days of the dig that the really promising structures have come to light in the canal trench, but there is little time left to investigate this collection of walls lying closely against each other horizontally and vertically. They are certainly mediaeval, and must be part of the original hospital. The last picture is of the gallant garden trench workers, who have had lots of mixed finds, but no structures for all their hard work.

Digging Deeper

2006-07-27T19:31:00.000+01:00

It's only hot today at the dig, instead of unbearably hot. I could smell the sun screen in the trenches - well I think it was sun screen. The mediaeval wall that might be St Gudwal's Chapel is several courses deep and has a star-shaped mason's mark - a sort of trade mark - which matches one in Worcester Cathedral.

Pictures below: The wall;
Holding the measuring pole for levelling;

Planning features on a grid;
Gathering more earth in a bucket to empty on a growing spoil heap;
Levelling, ie finding the height above sea level of the features;
The mason's mark;
Where the mason's mark is carved;

Sorry!

2006-07-22T21:38:00.000+01:00

I have to apologise for my absence from the dig this week. The heat was too much for me, and I had some work I could do indoors. I have managed to get a few photos, though. The Chapel wall has come on a treat, and the real mediaeval wall under those "mediaeval gateway" cesspits in the Canal trench looks great. The pit is so deep that I took several photos before I noticed anyone was down there!

It's off to work we go

2006-07-09T09:33:00.000+01:00

One reader of this blog (yes, it does have readers other than yourself) commented that there seem to be a lot of people watching while one person or less is actually working. Let's nail this rumour that we are idling about.

First, although the professional archaeologists are often observing rather than digging, this is some of what they are supposed to do:

ensure that we are working safely, not stabbing each other with trowels, falling into trenches full of water or puncturing gas mains
keeping the work scientifically accurate, for instance making sure earth, and therefore finds are not falling from modern layers to mediaeval layers, thereby losing the proof that it is a mediaeval layer.
working out what to do next based on what the features might represent, and what we might find by digging out another layer in this particular corner.

As for the volunteers, they are not working because

they are learning how to do something
they are listening to the archaeologists debating a hot concern about dating or identifying gatehouses from cesspits
they are tired from this unfamiliar manual work
no one is paying us, we'll stop when we damn well like!

This particular group were watching one volunteer work because they were posing for a photograph, which is another frequent occurrence.

Flash flood delays progress

2006-07-08T14:55:00.000+01:00

Very severe rainfall on Wednesday evening caused flash flooding in many parts of Worcester, with several roads being inundated because the drains were full. The recent dry weather had made the ground hard, so that runoff was fast and uncontrollable. Stanley Road, Dent Close, Wylds Lane and City Walls Road and Sidbury were among those affected in the Fort Royal area. The canal overflowed its towpath at Sidbury Lock, affecting the Kings Head pub, which was also suffering flooding from the wash caused by vehicles negotiating floodwater on the carriageway. The Worcester News has a report and BBC Hereford and Worcester has pictures.

The Commandery dig site was waterlogged, and part was completely flooded for a while, so little was done on Thursday, and Friday morning was spent getting rid of silt and gravel which had fallen into the trenches.

Proof of the flooding was in the trench nearest the canal. A fish had been washed into it, and the water had gone down again before it could swim back into the canal. Tragically, nothing could be done to save it, and it was buried with full archaeological honours on the spoil heap. A suitable gravestone was erected during our morning break.

Thanks for the link!

2006-07-08T14:12:00.000+01:00

The official diary of the Commandery dig is not only linking to this blog, but has a picture of me on it! Click on the picture to see Dig Diary.

More Commandery Dig Pictures

2006-07-04T00:25:00.000+01:00

Everything is written down and drawn on a plan. We also take levels with a theodolite and take photos with a digital camera. The information gathered of where exactly everything was in every layer of earth is as useful as the finds, and takes much longer than the digging.
Though sometimes we dig with shovels.
... and there is endless cleaning with a trowel to get a surface where the differences in soil colour and texture can easily be seen.
This probably a sheep jawbone. It's definitely not human.

...but we are still proud of everything we find ...

... and wash it carefully, without a dishwasher.

The Commandery Museum

2006-07-03T23:29:00.000+01:00

Worcester City Council's The Commandery web site is also following the excavation, and its staff are busy educating and entertaining hordes of schoolchildren.

Commandery Dig Diary 2006

2006-07-03T23:21:00.000+01:00

Commandery Dig Diary 2006 is the official diary of the dig, with some great pictures.

Video on BBC site

2006-07-03T23:09:00.000+01:00

There is some video on the BBC site. Lots of volunteers in the background, and a few interviewed. Central News also ran a piece, but they don't put it on a web site, so far as I can see. Does anyone have a link?

Park Notice Board

2006-06-25T22:13:00.000+01:00

A very smart notice board has appeared at the Wylds Lane entrance. Keep an eye on it for the latest news on what is going on in the park. I'm afraid the news on this blog tends to be slower and thinner.

Weekend Pictures

2006-06-25T21:56:00.000+01:00

I took my camera down to the Commandery and got some pictures. The first is one of the empty trench because it was lunchtime. Lots of hard work had been done, so it was a well-deserved break.

A quick trip to Sainsbury's and back down, just in time to see the rollup break.

Some were very conscientious, however, and were still hard at it - either that or they are non-smokers.

This is the rehearsal for the Red Barrows Flypast we are planning for when one of the telly programmes turns up to take the credit for all the skilled archaeological work. They have to explain what the people with the tools are up to.

Archaeology Paperwork

2006-06-23T20:40:00.000+01:00

Even archaeologists have lots of forms to fill in. They are collecting information about the past, and it's more important than the treasures they find. So I have spent today measuring the distance from the sides of the trench to a baseline, so that we can make a plan of the trench. Then measure and plot the features of the trench, which for some reason are called 'contexts' in Britain, though not in Australia where our professional archaeologist comes from. We have to draw sections, too, which involves measuring down from a level line to draw pits, stone courses and the like.

Each hole, wall, or drain has to have a context form filled in, describing it in very close detail (texture and colour of earth, percentage of pebbles for example) with a separate form for the earth we dig out of it. Then out with the theodolite to get the depths of the features. Taking photographs of the cleaned surface comes before all this. After all this, we have finished with the carefully preserved features and we dig them up to see what's underneath, and therefore almost certainly older. 'Almost certainly' is the archaeologist's favourite phrase. The newspapers prefer 'Indiana Jones', 'Lara Croft' or even 'Tony Robinson'.

Post holes, properly called 'post pits' were the main dish today. To put up a simple structure, from ancient times to today, we dig a hole and put a post in the ground. Well, I say 'we' but I'm afraid that doesn't include me personally. Then we put something hardish round it, cement these days but formerly clay, and jump up and down on it if it's clay, so that the post stands up straight for a long time. Then put a corrugated iron or thatch roof on it. When the roof has rusted or rotted, and the posts have rotted away (if you have a fence you know how quickly that happens), the hole fills up with stuff which looks different from the surrounding earth, even when you have just excavated three feet of later ash and cobblestones from over the top. That's how we can find a post hole.

Dig away half of the discoloured patch to see a section of what the earth is like in the hole. There will be the loose earth on top which the hole digger levelled the soil with, or has fallen into the hole later. Under that the compacted clay that was used to hold up the post. If you are really lucky, there will be a round or square area of loose stuff at the bottom called the 'pipe' which represents the smaller hole where the post itself fitted in.

I hope I'm getting some of this right, guys! I'm back there again next Tuesday, unless they tell me to go away and never darken their robbed threshhold stone pit again. By then, the hard work of digging up a hard concrete-like surface should have been done by the weekend volunteers, and the students who put in lots of hard work between rollups. I did wonder why archaeologists seem more likely to smoke than avaerage, but I have realised that, being an outdoor occupation, it is likely to attract smokers.

Learning Archaeology

2006-06-21T22:43:00.000+01:00

On the Commandery site today, I have been learning how to use a theodolite, a surveying instrument used to find levels, angles and heights. There's a piece explaining it on Learning Archaeology. A lot of shovelling, barrowing and brushing surfaces too. And a visit to the star turn of this project: what seems to be the remains of a very substantial mediaeval chapel. I will try and get some pictures at the weekend.

Beautiful display of flowers

2006-06-20T22:23:00.000+01:00

The gardening working party of the Friends of Fort Royal has produced a wonderful display, with colours and shapes and all sorts. Join them on the first Saturday afternoon of each month, from 2.00 to 3.30. Meet at the car park.

Digging up the Past

2006-06-20T22:22:00.000+01:00

I have aching muscles this evening because I've spent the day in the trenches at the Commandery Dig 2006. We passed the first day scraping the infilled soil off last year's trench,so the we can dig deeper in the same place. With a shovel and a pick ... well a mattock, a shovel, a little coal shovel, a dustpan type brush and the archaeologist's favourite trowel. You can come and see us in action, even though the Commandery itself is closed, covered in scaffolding and fenced off. Just come through the gates in Wylds Lane, Tuesday - Sunday. Ask lots of questions. We have archaeology students as well as professional archaeologists to answer them.

A Future American President at Fort Royal 1786

2006-03-28T23:22:00.000+01:00

Adams Electronic Archive : John Adams diary 44, 27 March - 21 July 1786 contains references to the travels of this American diplomat, who later became the Third President of the United States. Fort Royal, Worcester, together with Edgehill, Birmingham and Stratford are among the places mentioned.

From the Cathedral Tower

2006-03-27T12:21:00.000+01:00

History of Fort Royal

2005-12-05T21:29:00.000Z

A group of the Friends of Fort Royal are working on a history of Fort Royal - the area rather than the park or ancient monument. We haven't a place to put up displays, or the money to create them, so we are posting material here to begin with. It would be good at a later date to exhibit or publish the results, perhaps in conjunction with the possible improvements to the battle site.

You can post any text directly in a comment below,
or email it to fortroyal1651@yahoo.co.uk with details of your name, street address and telephone number if possible.
If you are attaching a picture or anything else to your email, please mention it in the subject line so that we can tell it's not a virus!
Send us anything about the history of your house and the people who lived in it, your street, remembered local shops and factories, things you dug up in the garden!.
Take a photo or scan in an old one. Let us know about any prints or slides you have if you can't scan them.

We don't have formal boundaries for the area Fort Royal covers, but the land bounded by London Road, the Railway and the Canal is certainly inside it.

There's holy ground in Worcester

2005-11-10T10:31:00.000Z

There's holy ground in Worcester.
Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, both later Presidents of the USA, but at that time diplomats in Paris and London, came to Worcester in 1768. Standing on Fort Royal Hill, they declared "All England should come in pilgrimage to to this hill." The link, to the website of the Worcester News, tells why.

Where's Fort Royal, then?

2005-09-21T21:44:00.000+01:00

Fort Royal is in Worcester, a City in England. It had a quiet history as a piece of open ground, perhaps sheep pasture, until 3 September 1651, when as a defensive fort of the Royalists under King Charles II, it was overrun by the Parliamentarians under Oliver Cromwell. The story is told well on the Worcestershire Archaeology pages Worcestershire Archaeology
The fort may then have been reduced to the ground, but the remains of the high earthworks are very evident, in what is now a pleasant public park near the the Commandery Museum. Many visitors come here to see and photograph the best views of Worcester Cathedral.
Friends of Fort Royal is a group of neighbours set up to take an interest in the park and its wider area, which is also called Fort Royal. Picture is by John Stafford © 2005