Blog

The Ghost of Workers Past Pt 6, Vegetation : Delving into the history hidden in your woodland

The Ghost of Workers Past Pt 6, Vegetation : Delving into the history hidden in your woodland

by David Brown, 26 March, 2010, 0 comments

In all the talk of ground archaeology I haven’t made any mention of the trees and the ground flora. They provide important clues to past use and help to improve the picture you build up of the wood’s history. Read more...

The Ghost of Workers Past Pt 5, Sawpits : Delving into the history hidden in your woodland

The Ghost of Workers Past Pt 5, Sawpits : Delving into the history hidden in your woodland

by David Brown, 18 December, 2009, 0 comments

These are often very difficult to spot, so I won’t spend too long describing them. They are not as ubiquitous as charcoal burners’ platforms, and many were situated at woodyards, rather than within woodland. Read more...

The Ghost of Workers Past Pt 4: Delving into the history hidden in your woodland

The Ghost of Workers Past Pt 4: Delving into the history hidden in your woodland

by David Brown, 16 October, 2009, 0 comments

Tracks and trackways These seem to exist in almost every wood. Some are slightly sunken – something less than 0.2m and about a metre wide – while others are wide, two-lane highways with multiple sunken areas and banks on either side. Read more...

The Ghost of Workers Past Pt 3: Delving into the history hidden in your woodland

The Ghost of Workers Past Pt 3: Delving into the history hidden in your woodland

by David Brown, 5 October, 2009, 2 comments

Recording your bank and/or ditch It may well be marked on a 1:25000 Explorer map, so its position could be very easy to plot. But it may not be complete - there could be gaps in it where vehicle access has been bulldozed through, or where old trackways crossed it. You may also wish to plot the position of important trees situated on the bank. I'm going to assume you don't have access to a GPS (they're not very accurate, anyway - even the better ones), and you'll need to mark the position of gaps or end points on your map. Read more...

The Ghost of Workers Past Part 2: Delving into the history hidden in your woodland

The Ghost of Workers Past Part 2: Delving into the history hidden in your woodland

by David Brown, 18 September, 2009, 3 comments

Identifying Features – banks and ditches “I don’t think my wood has any archaeology in it,” somebody said to me recently. So, what are the chances of finding anything archaeological in your wood? And if you do, what is it likely to be? In all the woods I’ve looked at there has always been something archaeological, either in the trees, the ground flora or in the bumps on the ground. So the chances of finding archaeological features in your own woodland are very high. Wherever your wood is, there is a number of features which are more commonly found than others, and we’ll look at those first. Read more...

The Ghost of Workers Past: Delving into the history hidden in your woodland Part 1

The Ghost of Workers Past: Delving into the history hidden in your woodland Part 1

by David Brown, 11 September, 2009, 4 comments

This is the first of a series of short articles in which I hope to de-mystify some aspects of woodland archaeology. To many people, archaeology means ‘excavating holes with little trowels’ and ‘Time Team’. But the first thing I should point out is that digging holes is one of the last things archaeologists do; they have a look at the ‘humps and bumps’ first, and that’s what we’ll be doing. Read more...

Wild Flower Guide

Badger

Read our guide to wild flowers of woodland and hedgerow

Topics

Tags