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Sinking feeling
May I please make a small correction to your excellent magazine? Your news article in CA 414 describes the ‘Mortar Wreck’ in Studland Bay ‘as England’s oldest shipwreck that has evidence of the actual vessel still remaining.’ This is not so, for the earliest wreck that was an accidental loss whose structure remains is a Roman vessel that was sunk in the River Thames at Blackfriars in the 2nd century AD. I excavated it long ago, and it was published by English Heritage in 1994. Another accidental loss early wreck, of the 3rd century AD, was found off Guernsey – but that is not England.
Other ‘wrecks’ that were abandoned due to old age or as burials exist in England that are even older, and include the 3,500-year-old Bronze Age boat from Dover now excellently preserved in Dover Museum.
Peter Marsden, by email
Orchard Snowdrops
As a footnote to your article in CA 414 on the landscape history of orchards, I can add to the soft fruit and vegetables you list as a common understorey.
I remember speaking in the 1980s to an elderly farming couple, who told me that snowdrops had once been a common orchard crop in their part of west Northamptonshire. Snowdrops, which provided a useful spring income, were picked and sent to the Great Central for the London markets. Then, with the snowdrops over, the orchard could be used for grazing. These still-determined farmers were clearly proud of their remaining orchard, which comprised cobnuts above (originally for the London markets, too) and snowdrops below.
I don’t know when this combination of crops declined: I guess they were talking of a last gasp in the 1950s.
David Brooke, Westbury-on-Severn, Gloucestershire
Edible Archaeology
My hobby as an amateur archaeologist has concentrated on prehistoric monuments, visited on most of the world’s continents, which has been joyous fun! I enjoyed travelling, for example, through Brittany, the American south-west, Jordan, and Tibet, as well as the Mediterranean and, of course, the UK. Often, I would write articles on my ‘discoveries’ for small-press magazines such as Northern Earth. Recently I celebrated my 80th birthday, and imagine my astonishment and delight when the birthday cake – to thunderous applause from assorted family members – was revealed! Comprising delicious gin-flavoured sponge inside its grassy cover, with uprights and lintels fashioned from Rice Krispies, the Stonehenge terrain was decorated with oak leaves! All thanks to my daughter’s friend Claire Richards of Hastings.
Eileen Grimshaw, Tottington, Lancashire
SAVE THE DATE!
CA Live! 2025 will return to the UCL’s Institute of Education, London, on Saturday 1 March. Keep an eye out for further details in upcoming issues of CA!
CA ONLINE: What you shared with us this month
Jane Harrison @JaneHarrison865
Very pleased to see our Besselsleigh excavation in @CurrentArchaeo [issue 413]. Brilliant drone photo by Adam Stanford, and great pipeline indicating by the fabulous AAARP team, OUDCE students, and volunteers.
The Govan Stones @GovanStones
There’s a GREAT article on Iona landscape archaeology – with relevance to Govan Old’s churchyard and its early medieval path – in @CurrentArchaeo, which is free to read! https://the-past.com/feature/ionas-archetype-a-concrete-replica-of-the-cross-of-st-john-speaks/ [CA 378]
Sheffield Castle @SheffieldCastle
Details of site tours over two weekends in Sept, latest Castle site news, and great article in recent issue of Current Archaeology magazine. Catch up with all the news on our website here…https://friendsofsheffieldcastle.org.uk/news/ @wessexarch #sheffieldcastle #heritage
Write to us at: CA Letters, Current Publishing, Office 120, 295 Chiswick High Road, London, W4 4HH, or by email to: letters@archaeology.co.uk. For publication: 300 words max; letters may be edited.
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