"Archeology in the Trent Valley "
February 2010 Meeting Report
Speaker - Mike Bishop
The February meeting of the Keyworth & District Local History Society was held in The Centenary Lounge, Keyworth on Friday 5th February. The guest speaker for the evening was Mike Bishop and his subject was ‘Archeology in the Trent Valley’.
Mike began by demonstrating how important the Trent has been throughout history as a boundary, communication artery and focus of settlement; then moved on to show the different kinds of archaeological remains to be found there, and concluded by outlining some of the issues and planning the policy involved in development, either for digging gravel pits or for building.
During the Iron Age (500 BC to 0 BC/AD) the River Trent divided the kingdoms occupied by the Brigante tribes to the north and the Coreltauvi to the south. When the Romans invaded in the 1st Century they constructed the Fosse Way to facilitate troop and supply movements behind the Trent frontier until the high command moved further north towards Hadrian’s Wall. The Trent-side battle of East Stoke in 1487 marked the end of the War of the Roses. Henry VIII put down the Pilgrimage of Grace at a strategic point near the lower Trent at Rossington when malcontents from Lincolnshire and Yorkshire threatened to join forces and march towards London to re-establish Catholicism. In modern times is thought that if, during WWII, the Germans had succeeded in invading southern England then British troops would withdraw to a line of defence along the Trent and attempt to stop the advance there.
The Trent was also a major artery by which Anglo-Saxon and Viking invaders from Northern Europe managed to penetrated into the English heartland. The concentration of settlements along the valley flanks marks both where they first made landfall and then stayed and expanded, exploiting the rich, well-drained soils of the floodplain, lying as they do on gravel terraces (from glacial melt water) overlaid by silt (from frequent river flooding). The most densely populated parts of Nottinghamshire were, for centuries, along a broad band paralleling the Trent, with a particular concentration in the vicinity of Bingham.
One result is a plethora of remains of former settlement and activity along the valley: firstly, ruins such as Newark Castle, originally a stronghold commanding a river crossing and marked by the slit windows of corner towers; and later the palatial home of the bishops of Lincoln, with much larger windows, where royalty were frequent guests - King John actually died there in 1216. Secondly, there are earthworks indicating now-abandoned villages or fortifications. Thirdly crop-marks indicating where former ditches or walls were and which now affect soil drainage and hence the height and maturity of today’s overlying crops. Fourthly, objects including such items as pre-historic flint axes and arrowheads, pieces of pottery from different ages, rarer finds like a gold torque (twisted necklace); and also the bones of people and animals (including the thigh of a Mesolithic woman). The latter item suggesting that the area was possibly occupied much earlier than had previously been thought, perhaps as early as 4,000B.C.
In addition to this evidence of occupation and settlement there are those associated with the changing behaviour of the river itself. These paleo-channels, marking the former courses of the river, provide evidence of frequent directional changes including a general downstream meander migration. Also debris left behind by these changes, such as tree trunks in the path of new channels which were uprooted and subsequently buried beneath sediment, or the wrecks of bridges swept away by floods.
With the exception of ruins, the investigation of all the above is the province of archaeology, and almost certainly there is a great deal more to discover than has already been revealed. A problem arises however when developers want either to destroy potential finds by wholesale excavation (gravel pits or digging foundations of buildings) or render them inaccessible by building over them. The conflict between the interests of development and of archaeology have, since 1990, been resolved by a government Planning Policy whereby County archaeologists have the right to examine potential development sites; to require them to be safeguarded either in situ (not to be disturbed) or in record (surveyed and the findings recorded) before development takes place, the cost of surveys being borne by the developer.
This policy is intended to protect archaeological remains yet to be discovered from being destroyed or rendered inaccessible by ‘progress’. And such is its impact that today 98% of archaeological work in Britain is carried out in advance of development. Thus, ironically, far from being the destroyer of archaeology it has now become its prime mover.