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Castles, conservation, and conquest
With a week in Norfolk booked and a visit to Norwich in mind, not least to collect a fridge magnet from the Castle for a grandson, it was serendipity when CA 427 arrived with a review of the completed interior works to Norwich Castle and the new gallery.
Norwich City Council and all involved are to be complimented on the difficult task of creating a new interior and furnishing it in a medieval manner. Of course, as good as it is, it doesn’t rival our local castle, but then that is Dover! The Norwich museum, however, is fantastic, and next time we visit I shall spend more time there.
I was also taken with the photos accompanying the article in the same issue on Little End, Eaton Socon. As a planner and conservationist, I recognised the cottage windows as what I know as ‘Yorkshire sashes’: windows that slide sideways in a groove rather than using vertical sashes in boxes, or hinges and stay bars. Evidence of them is extremely limited in Kent, where I live. In its day, this must have been the cheapest way of providing opening windows – no expensive joinery, no sash cords and weights, no hand-wrought stays and hinges – and that presumably is why so few remain. The bottom slide channel must have been a water trap, and joinery would warp and twist, making opening and closing difficult, but it is good to see them in photographs of the kinds of houses of which few remain unaltered.
Finally, regarding your review of Julian Richards’ Life in the Viking Great Army: I have always thought that the Great Army found it suspiciously easy to conquer half of England – but then, at that time, the eastern half of England had many people who were of Danish descent, like the Great Army. Given that the North Sea was a superhighway, is it possible that many of the incoming Great Army had relatives in the eastern prov-inces of England, sharing the same background, ancestors, and language?
Bob Britnell, Canterbury
Morris Dancing money
The dancing king depicted on the Anglo-Saxon coin (CA 427) appears to be wearing a ring of bells on his ankles. This would clearly make him the earliest depiction of a morris dancer!
The earliest references to morris dancing from the 15th century mention bells, and the dancers are recorded performing for Tudor royalty, so this is not as far-fetched a claim as it might first appear.
David Quoroll, Tywardreath
Memories of Jessie Mothersole
I was pleased to read your article celebrating ‘Mothers of Romano-British Studies’ (CA 427), and in particular the reference to Jessie Mothersole.
Following her well-received book on Hadrian’s Wall (1922), she then wrote up the Saxon Shore in 1926. This was equally well-researched and visited the ten shore-forts along our south-east shores. Indeed, it was this very book that helped launch my 70-year adventure of archaeological discovery, excavation, and publication of the shore- forts at Reculver and Dover. The former was half-washed away by the sea, and the latter clearly missing.
I had discovered her Saxon Shore book in my school library on 6 February 1952, the day George VI died. In fact, I have just spotted the same book in my bookcase – perhaps slightly overdue, and at 1p a week!
A sad note: in 1958 our local paper recorded that Jessie had died in a nearby nursing home. Had I known I would gladly have visited. Together, we so far span 1873 to 2025!
Dr Brian Philp, Director, Kent Archaeological Rescue Unit
Edible Archaeology
I have just turned 17 and I’m at Lawnswood School in Leeds, but I am hoping to study Archaeology at university. I did the York University MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) on Star Carr, which I really recommend. In the course, they show how the layers at Star Carr vary from gooey peat at the bottom, which is like a brownie, to the upper layers, which are drying out and more like cake.
So the bottom layer of this cake is chocolate brownie with some slivered almond artefacts, then a chocolate finger ‘wooden platform’ to represent one found at Star Carr. On top of that is cake with a layer of Crunchie bites representing artefacts, then cake ‘topsoil’ with a spade-shaped spoon stuck in. The layers are stuck together with chocolate buttercream.
Seren Thomas, Leeds
CA ONLINE: What you shared with us this month
Brian Arnopp – Photographer @BRIANARNOPP
@DrFrancisYoung you appeared in dispatches in Nov’s Current Archaeology…
Dr Francis Young @DrFrancisYoung
Ha ha – very self-referential of @CurrentArchaeo!
Rebecca Jones @drbecjones.bsky.social
Delighted to have co-authored this piece with Tatiana Ivlena on ‘Women in Romano British Archaeology’ [CA 427] #womeninarchaeology #Roman @Archaeology
Write to us at: CA Letters, Current Publishing, Office 120, 295 Chiswick High Road, London, W4 4HH, or by email to: letters@archaeology.co.ukFor publication: 300 words max; letters may be edited.
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