REVIEW: Wiltshire's amateur archaeologists - finding what lies beneath our feet

Written by Tony Millett.

50 Finds from Wiltshire - Objects from the Portable Antiquities Scheme by Richard Henry (Amberley - 2017)

This book will give pleasure - and a good deal of hope - to all those who imagine turning up some notable or even priceless archaeological find.  They may be metal detectorists, gardeners, tractor drivers or walkers crossing ploughed fields - and their find may turn out to be 'important' rather than worth that dreamt of fortune.

The author of 50 Finds from Wiltshire, Richard Henry is Wiltshire Finds Liaison Officer, so he has first hand knowledge of the extraordinary variety of finds as they pass across his desk to be recorded onto the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) database.  

"The scheme is a Department of Culture, Media and Sport-funded project to encourage the documenting of archaeological objects found by members of the public."   

Some of these objects will be judged to be 'treasure' and may bring considerable financial reward to finder and landowner. Most will not be treated as 'treasure'. 

Either way they will bring satisfaction to the finders - and possibly some financial reward.

Each of the 50 finds detailed in Richard Henry's account - just 50 objects from the 45,000 Wiltshire finds on the PAS database - has been chosen for the insight it gives into our past.  And each is clearly described and explained - and well illustrated.

The chosen finds run from a beautiful Stone Age adze (3,500-2,200 BC), through rare Roman coins, to the minute and delicate Saxon gold coin found near East Grafton (and on display at the Wiltshire Museum in Devizes), right up to a nineteenth century ceramic flagon found - in wonderful condition - near Burbage.

Along the way is the Pewsey Vessel Hoard (deposited AD 380-550, but with vessels left behind by the Romans.)  Marlborough.News has reported on this extraordinary find with its remains of Medieval plant life.

[Photo: Richard Henry]Here Richard Henry has included a very useful drawing to show how the vessels were packed together and put into the ground - in Russian doll fashion. This created a sealed compartment that protected the organic material and so allowed it, when it emerged into the twenty-first century, to be scientifically analysed - throwing new light on Mediaeval England's natural history.

In amongst this rich selection of finds, Richard Henry has written fascinating mini-essays on aspects of 'experimental archaeology' - present day experts using ancient techniques to discover and explain how some of these finds were made.  They are experimenting just as our forbears experimented to find new ways to make essential tools and decorative items.  

We learn about ancient iron and copper smelting, even older techniques for creating flint tools, down to the medieval introduction of mass production with stone moulds used to make pilgrims' badges - by the hundred.

Richard Henry's map of Wiltshire's PAS finds shows how widespread and common these finds are.  I bet that there is a red dot within a hundred yards or so of every school in the county.   Perhaps every school in the county should have a copy of this book - it would inspire interest in a subject that is currently doomed to slip off curriculums as politicians and exam authorities turn their back on it.  

At the very least, this is a map and a book that may set a spark of investigation and discovery in many more of those amateur archaeologists in Wiltshire who are merely 'members of the public'.

Copies of '50 Finds from Wiltshire' are on sale in the Wiltshire Museum's shop - price £14.99.

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REVIEW: Junkyard is the story of all our playgrounds

Written by Peter Davison.

Junkyard photo by Manuel HarlanJunkyard reminds us that we need to fight for places to play.

Sometime in the mid-eighties (I’m guessing the spring or summer of 1985) my parents took me to Bowood House, near Calne, where I spent an incredible couple of hours at my first adventure playground.

Rather than swings, and roundabouts, and slides there were tall wooden structures to surmount, cargo nets to scramble up, and what I recall was called a death slide, but which health and safety now demands is called a zip wire.

Back at school, I could not wait to tell my friends. “Lockleaze has got a Vench” said one mate. And so, the following Saturday, we set off – he and his brother on their BMXs, me on a racer (my parents disapproved of the brakeless BMX), five or so minutes door-to-door.

What I found was underwhelming: ramshackle structures of badly nailed wood, and tyres attached to lengths of rope. Occupying the playground were some older kids, who smoked, and swore, and were reluctant to let outsiders play. Did I, I wonder now, meet the real-life inspirations for Fiz and her friends?

This, then, is the world of Junkyard by Bafta award-winning Jack Thorne, whose Harry Potter and the Cursed Child brought the story of the boy wizard to the stage. Lockleaze, though, is no Hogwarts.

It’s the summer of 1979, and optimistic degree-educated hippy Rick, inspired by the Adventure Play movement, comes to Bristol’s Lockleaze estate to work with the secondary school’s most troubled children in building a playground.

At first he is mocked, but one by one his small army of swearing, smoking teenage recruits grow. We meet feisty Fiz – in whom Rick sees leadership qualities – and her pregnant sister ‘Dirty’ Debbie. The father of Debbie’s baby might be skinhead Ginger, or Higgy, or someone else entirely, but not the fragile Talc, who harbours not-so-discreet desires for Fiz.

The playground is built, and the friends evolve from dismissive to becoming fiercely defensive of it, mounting moonlit patrols to ward off vandals and school authorities, who want to build a maths block on the site.

Junkyard is fast-paced and witty, with much of the action taking place around the playground, which in The Best of Us has a song of its own: “This is a spider, this is a ship, this is the thing where we do dip the dip, we haven’t quite worked out what this bit is, but we promise you it is the biz,” the cast sing, in a ballad that recurs throughout the play.

Elsewhere in the song, the playground becomes a metaphor for the lives of the young people “it’s broken and s**t and it doesn’t fit, as broken and s**t as we know we are.” Oh yes, in Junkyard, everybody swears. Even the headmaster.

Music plays an important part in Junkyard, but songs are delivered naturally and honestly, rather than with West End musical flamboyance, with accompaniment provided by a stripped-down three piece ska band of bass, guitar and drums.

The mainly young cast takes the audience on an anarchic emotional rollercoaster, from despair to joyful exuberance and back again, frequently breaking the fourth wall to include the crowd in the action, but never to such great effect as when Fiz stands at the front of the stage and closes the performance with: “We’ve been junk, you’ve been lovely, thanks for coming to watch us play.”

The Vench, we’re reminded, is nearly 40 years old. Now run by a social enterprise, the roughly-hewn wood has been replaced by sanded, varnished, health and safety-pleasing structures. A fitting legacy, you’d think, to the play pioneers, but, tellingly, the name of The Vench’s Facebook page is Save Lockleaze Adventure Playground.

The Vench and playgrounds like it are constantly at risk from politicians who have forgotten the value of play. In 2014, Wiltshire Council cut the number of youth workers from 144 to 25. That number is now down to seven – for 100,000 children.

In Marlborough, the future of our 1970s Youth Centre – saved from total closure by a handful of community champions, but providing nothing like the services to young people it did five years ago – remains in limbo. Devotion, a hangout for youngsters, could close if more volunteers are not found.

Junkyard, as well as being a thoroughly entertaining two-and-a-half hours of theatre, reminds us that we need to fight for places to play.

Junkyard is at Bristol Old Vic until March 18, then tours until April 29.

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REVIEW: St Peter's fifth Brilliant Young Pianists series brings Adrian Oldland to Marlborough

Written by Christopher Rogers.

The third recital in this series at St Peter's Church in Marlborough was given (February 26) by the young British pianist, Adrian Oldland. 


Adrian began his musical studies at the age of seven when he joined his local church choir and went on to gain a place at the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music where be completed both a B Mus and an M Mus, studying under Alexander Ardakov.

Since then  Adrian has gone on to establish himself as an exciting and formidable performer on the concert platform, noted especially for his  sensitive interpretations of the works of Robert Schumann.   He has taken part in many master classes with distinguished pianists such as Peter Donohoe   and William Howard, and currently enjoys a busy career, performing regularly across the UK and throughout Europe.

Adrian Oldland began his recital with two of Schumann’s eight ‘Novelletten’ or short stories written in 1838. No 1 begins with a march-like staccato theme which gives way several times to a more languid and expansive  theme, full of sunshine, before returning triumphantly to the original  theme -  two very different moods in one piece, very reflective of Schumann’s own personality.

Clearly at ease with Schumann, Adrian made much of the contrasts, highlighting the plangent mood of the trio theme.  No 8 is a much grander piece, but again, Adrian developed the marked contrast in mood which the piece exploits. It opens with a passionate statement heard above an outpouring of rippling semi-quavers.

This gives way to a jovial trio before returning with renewed urgency to the first theme before a second trio changes the mood again; contrasts that were very well articulated. 

Then comes the last movement, which is almost the same the length as the remainder of the piece and with its own dramatic contrasts in mood, first  languid and reflective and then forceful and masculine.

All human emotions seem to be encapsulated in this movement of frantic contrasts of both key and mood. The movement seems rather disjointed ('ramshackle' was the word Adrian used!) as if these short movements were put together randomly. However the movement does have some shape  with a repeated use of the initial march theme.

Technically this was a  ‘tour de force’. However, although the contrasts were clear, I thought there was insufficient ‘storm’ and grandeur in the louder sections.   

Beethoven’s Sonata No 30 in E major completed the first half of the recital.  This is a fine work - both personal and intimate. The first movement is all froth separated by more tranquil sections, while the second movement, a ‘prestissimo’, is more urgent and compelling. It was well played, but lacked some of the drama which the composition requires.  
Finally came the third movement a gentle cantabile - one of the finest melodies that Beethoven ever produced. It is like a wistful sigh or a gentle yearning. This theme is then developed into a series of variations of varying character and complexity until the listener is returned to the serenity of the opening melody.

Technically Adrian’s playing was impressive, but was lacking in emotional intensity - the initial theme lacking in personal engagement and languor.

The second part of the concert was devoted entirely to one work: Franz Liszt’s ‘Apres  une lecture du Dante’. This enormous work known is known as a  ‘Fantasia quasi Sonata’  and was published in 1856 as part of the second volume of his ‘Annees de Pelerinage’.

The piece was inspired, as the name suggests, by the extended poem ‘The Divine Comedy’ completed in 1320 by the greatest of all Italian poets Dante Alighieri.  As in the poem Liszt transports the listener on a   journey towards eternal bliss through Hell and Purgatory until Paradise is finally gained.  

Liszt begins the work in the key of D Minor and makes frequent use of the ‘Devil’s interval’, the  augmented fourth. Both musical devices were used by many composers to portray the wailing of souls and the hopelessness of Hell.   Slowly this turbulent  work transforms into a brighter F sharp major key as we are drawn up towards the Heaven.
The work ends with  a series of  the massive chords in the key of D major - reflecting  the reality  of redemption  as we bask in the  glory of Paradise.

Like the poem which was its inspiration, this is a very profound work - technically and emotionally demanding. Adrian certainly rose to the technical challenge, but the performance was lacking in emotional punch. I remained unmoved by the horrors of Hell, and the rapturous description of Heaven lacked real conviction.    

It was a very good concert, and it was refreshing to hear Adrian introduce the works at the beginning.  However his demeanor and playing were a little stiff and short on emotional input especially in the Liszt. He has the potential to go far, and we wish him well.   

 NOTE:  the recital advertised for Sunday, 26 March has had to be postponed.  It will now take place on Sunday, 25 June and will feature the tri of Simon Watterton (piano), Anna Cashell (violin) and Ashok Klouda (cello).

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A Very Naughty Polar Bear

Written by Louisa Davison.

Review of The Bear, Bristol Old Vic, Saturday 18 February 2107

A polar bear squeezes through a child's window and...is very naughty.Dressing up. Photo by Paul Blakemore

Tales of polar bears could go cuddly or monstrous. Recently, for instance, I've been watching the TV show Fortitude set on an Arctic island. There, everyone packs a rifle in case they encounter one of the huge white beasts and are in danger of becoming its snack.

But this is a half term theatre show based on a Raymond Briggs story and performed at the Bristol Old Vic, so we can assume this is a Nice Bear - the kind teddies are based on, the vulnerable giant whose habitat is rapidly shrinking.

I'm here with my almost four year old who is as concerned with the snacks in my bag with the action on stage. (This is the kind of distraction that kids' theatre companies such as Pins and Needles Productions have to put up with and handle with glee.) Tilly - who loves writing and singing pop songs - finds she has a large and noisy house guest. He becomes her new pal, but it's not easy sharing with someone who splashes bath water everywhere, messes up mummy and daddy's bedroom, mistakes the floor for a toilet and the toilet for a bowl of drinking water, and breaks things.

For a while I thought it might be just another children's show with a simple story where the bear is a child stand-in, but it, as it turns out, was a much richer metaphor than that. As with other Briggs' stories like The Snowman, it finds the magical space between dreams and reality.

Lily Donovan makes a charming Tilly; by turns excited child who can't get to sleep without Teddy, to a full tantrum on the floor because Bear has left the house in a state, but most of the time in wonderment of her new best friend.

And although Bear in the bath and Bear dressed up and what to do with Bear's big poos are funny enough, it is Tilly riding Bear across the stage, Bear swimming and Bear reunited with Baby Bear at the North Pole which takes the story from kids' TV territory and transforms it into a beautiful, tearjerking piece of theatre for any age.

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