Archaeological Fieldwork under way on Beverley's Commons
Submitted by vicky on Thursday, 26 February 2004 Page Views: 1826
EnvironmentIn 2003 English Heritage launched a national research project to illustrate their historic importance of Commons in England. The research will be multidisciplinary, combining analysis of aerial photographs, survey on the ground, and documentary research, but will involve no excavation whatsoever. The commons of Beverley, in East Yorkshire, have been singled out for detailed research for a number of reasons including the fact that they are home to a number of prehistoric sites.Commons - pieces of land available to everyone - have been a key element in the mental concept and physical layout of English towns and cities since the Middle Ages. They are often believed to have served exclusively as grazing land where the townsfolk could let their livestock wander freely (giving rise to another widely used term: 'stray'). But they were in fact intensively used for all manner of activities, from agriculture to industry, from military training to merry-making. Today, commons are still accessible to everyone and invariably the part of the landscape most familiar to local urban populations. They are often regarded as 'green spaces' whose main importance is as amenity land, although their ecological value is also usually recognised. Despite this, they have remained neglected in terms of research by historians and archaeologists. They are also now some of the areas most at risk from urban expansion.
The commons of Beverley, in East Yorkshire, have been singled out for detailed research for a number of reasons. Firstly, the town is remarkable for having had as many as five different commons in the Middle Ages - we plan to carry out fieldwork on at least the three of them. Secondly, the historic town itself is relatively well understood in archaeological terms, so our research into the commons will add an important missing piece to the urban jig-saw. Thirdly, the Westwood, Beverley's largest common, has a number of known monuments of archaeological importance, including a cemetery of burial mounds that probably dates to the early Bronze Age (2000 BC) and the middle Iron Age (300 BC). But our initial assessment also suggests that a wealth of other remains can be detected both on aerial photographs and through careful analysis of the slight humps and bumps on the ground surface.
English Heritage has joined forces with the East Riding Archaeological Group, who will be carrying out geophysical surveys to detect features below ground that are not visible on the surface. Al Oswald, of English Heritage's Landscape Investigation Team, in charge of the Beverley investigation, commented "Having the knowledge, experience and enthusiasm of local people on our side will be invaluable - many of the group have lived in Beverley all their lives and remember all sorts of changes that occurred in the 20th century, particularly around the time of the Second World War. Gathering their memories will be another important strand of our research."
More information about English Heritage's national research project can be found here.
Source: English Heritage 22/02/2004
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