‘Damned if you do, damned if you don’t’
Ian Blair
The following comes from the acknowledgements section of the newly published Prittlewell monograph (although given its large size, perhaps monolith would be more apt a description).
‘Two Tribes’
Ian Blair
‘A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away’: and light years before the creation of MoLAS/MOLA. There were two large archaeological tribes: the Department of Greater London Archaeology (DGLA) who inhabited the marshier, boggier regions, on the south bank of the Thames in Southwark,
‘The Fallen: remembering a lost generation’
Ian Blair
My Great Uncle George William Alfred Blair was a Londoner born in Bethnal Green in 1893, who enlisted into the Territorial Force in 1915 and was ‘Killed in Action’ in the closing months of the Great War in 1918. He was one of three brothers who fought in the conflict, my Grandfather though seriously wounded survived.
‘Rebuilding London – if they have to preserve these Roman discoveries’
(Moon, Sunday Dispatch, 26 September 1954)
Ian Blair
Given that more than sixty years have passed since the publication of this cartoon inspired by the discovery of the Temple of Mithras, we can justifiably say that the perfect archaeological storm, of developers having to preserve every Roman building, structure and artefact in situ, never did actually come to pass.
‘The invisible finds teams’: Unsung heroes of London archaeology No.612
Ian Blair
Photograph from Roy Stephenson
This is a particularly nice photo of the DGLA finds section taken at Glasshill Street in Southwark in the summer of 1989, emerging bleary-eyed for their daily five minute exercise break to the outside world, to top up their deficient Vitamin D levels. The habitual surroundings of the finds and environmental teams throughout the 1970s and 1980s was invariably in assorted basements and outposts either side of the River Thames.
OH NO MATES… IS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING SACRED?
THE CRUMBLING BASTIONS OF CHAUVINISM: WELL PERHAPS NOT!
Ian Blair
Over the weekend, I came across a news item published in September 1978 in the Brighton Evening Argus. It features Gill Craddock (Scarlett), a long term friend who I worked with on numerous archaeological sites in Sussex, before independently hearing Bow Bells calling, we both headed to London and the DUA.The piece is worth a read as an example of local journalism in the 1970’s and 80s, but hopefully now deceased.
'Shortage of archaeologists'
Ian Blair
In advance of a future post on the ‘London Mithraeum’, a nice photo for Friday showing some of the diminutive archaeologists who worked on the main phase of the Bloomberg London site (BZY10) in 2013.
The smaller than average diggers corralled on the other side of the fence are from left to right: Jude Children, Laura Green, Michael Marshall, Lucy May, Karl Macrow, Kasia Olchowska, and Thomas Woodley, and is topically illustrative of the chronic shortage of archaeologists that is predicted to continue in 2018.
Britain's first banana found in Tudor Rubbish
The Guardian June 16, 1999
With comments from our Facebook page
‘Gladiatrix’: or hands up, who threw that banana skin into the arena? – someone could have slipped on that and been hurt.
Ian Blair
Whilst having a tidy up over the weekend, I came across this press cutting from the Evening Standard dated 12 September 2000: ‘The female gladiator who grappled in Londinium’.
'Milestone or Millstone?'
Ian Blair
Photo taken in 2001 in the Guildhall Yard following a special lunch to mark the occasion of those featured reaching the milestone (or should that be millstone?) of having worked for the Corporation of London for twenty five years.
From FAB88 to JOE90: Inspiring site codes from the past
Ian Blair
The DUA & DGLA years represented a golden age for the assignment of memorable and frequently humorous site codes. Whereas, now they are simply a random (and generally instantly forgettable) alphanumeric combination assigned by the LAARC, formerly those for the City and the DUA were directly attributable to Penny MacConnoran, and consequently there was more than a hint of humour contained therein.
'Billingsgate memories: or Mad as a hatter’
Ian Blair
Prelude:
Two cows in a field, one says to the other ‘Have you heard about this mad cow disease?’ the other replies: ‘It won’t affect me I’m a horse’
By far the largest of the DUA’s excavations in the 1980’s, was the Billingsgate site (BIG82) undertaken in the former lorry park on the west side of the fish market.
Lock, Shop, and Twenty Smoking Barrels
Ian Blair
It was good to see that the series: ‘The Great Fire: In Real Time’ which aired over three consecutive nights (31st May - 2nd June 2017) on Channel 5, borrowed on the archaeological evidence of the Great Fire, which has been recorded by countless archaeologists, on an ever growing number of sites over the past seventy years.
What price an archaeologist?
Ian Blair
Photographs from Jon Bailey and Friederike Hammer
The recent posts and comments related to early pay rates in the DUA, brought to mind the discovery of an ancient dust-covered file, containing contracts and pay slips dating back to my arrival in the DUA at the start of 1978. At that time, I joined a merry band of archaeologists on the GPO site in Newgate Street (GPO75), which at times could reasonably be described as betwixt an archaeological excavation and the Glastonbury Festival.
Monument House
30-35 Botolph Lane, 29-31 Monument Street, EC3.
The enigma of a 20th century time capsule in a 3rd century Roman culvert
Ian Blair
18th May 2017
Almost twenty years on from its discovery on the Monument House site (BPL95) in 1998, the Roman culvert with its access or drop shaft, remains the best preserved example to have been found in the City of London.
Low Down on Low Hall
Low Hall Depot (Low Hall Manor), South Access Road, Walthamstow, E17
WS-LH97
Ian Blair
(Including a rather surprising archive photograph sent to us by Trevor Brigham)
The second (and most important) post related to Low Hall Manor, is a simple acknowledgement of the people who worked on the site.
Roman history goes down the drain: or the man with the $100,000 breasts
Ian Blair
Monument House (BPL95) was a small site on Botolph Lane, with the main excavation undertaken between March and July 1998.
The Three Wise Men of Gotham
Low Hall Depot (Low Hall Manor), South Access Road, Walthamstow, E17
Ian Blair
Three wise men of Gotham,
They went to sea in a bowl,
And if the bowl had been stronger
My song would have been longer.
(Old Nursery Rhyme)
Audrey Baines 'Trowel Blazer' in the City of London
Ian Blair
Audrey Baines (later to become Audrey Noël Hume), earned a history BA at Bristol University, before spending the summer of 1947 excavating a Roman villa at nearby King’s Weston.
Ivor Noël Hume
(30th September 1927– February 4th 2017)
The end of an era: and an incredible loss to archaeology and the literary world
(But what a wonderful legacy you left in your wake!)
Ian Blair
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