Have you ever wondered why you always find fragments of blue and white pottery wherever you dig in urban Britain?
Have you ever wondered why you always find fragments of blue and white pottery wherever you dig in urban Britain?
Was there a mass smashing of China in protest against the Boxer uprising? Or did some 19th century quack suggest that broken crockery was an infallible deterrent to slugs?
We may find out a little more courtesy of Greater Manchester’s biggest-ever archaeological project which is roping-in more than 9000 people to dig for history.
Over the next four years, everyone from pensioners to primary school children are going to be involved in Dig Greater Manchester, starting in March in Leigh with an excavation at Etherstone Hall. Sites will then be announced for later this year in Bury, Oldham and Stockport and by 2016 all 11 of the Greater Manchester councils will have joined in – plus Blackburn with Darwen which asked if it could be join in.
Etherstone dates back to 1415 and volunteers from the community and schools will work with Salford University archaeologists in the moat, discovering pottery – yes! – and other remains to build up an archaeological pattern all the way to the late 1970s. The same approach of covering entire centuries rather than a narrow time focus will characterise all the other digs.
As well as actual digging and school visits, the project will lay on regular workshops to teach archaeological skills, not just for these excavations but to encourage responsible probes in gardens, allotments or anywhere else. There will also be lectures on local history and archaeology, and on the results of the digs as they proceed.
Brian Grimsditch from Salford uni’s Centre for Applied Archaeology says:
This project has the potential to make a permanent difference to people’s interest in their local areas right across the region. While we are supervising the digs, it is very much an effort being made by the people of the 11 boroughs. At school or in the wider population, Dig Greater Manchester will start a major and lasting change in the way history and conservation are undertaken by people in their communities.
You can check out the project’s blog here. And if you are a primary school child, parent or teacher, remember the (true) story of the RE exam answer to the question: complete the following Biblical verse: ‘I cannot dig, – – – – -‘
The answer (Luke 16: 3) is ‘to beg I am ashamed’, but who doesn’t prefer the response from an imaginative pupil: ‘because I have no spade’
?
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010
Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.
