More pictures!

A brief dry interlude

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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

Tour of Britain at Worcester

, 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

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

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

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

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

Great Pictures of Worcester

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.