Community

Most of today was spent helping with an event at the summer fair of one of the local ex-mining villages. It took place on parkland owned and created by the community rather than the local authority, marshland and coal-bings that have been transformed over the years into something delightful. It was a grand day out, full of a genuine, warm community spirit, mutual aid in action. We were bringing archaeology to the people, opening up a shallow square trench to a depth of about six inches and letting kids have trowels to howk for what they could find. Since the area was on a midden they had a field day with masses of bottles, crockery, tins, mostly early to mid 20th century, unearthed. The kids were splendid, polite, affable, informed, inquisitive, wanting to learn. The Time Team had proved its worth with the parents we talked to and the schools seemed to have given them a good idea of what the area had been. All this plus side-shows and food outlets and sunshine. Chust sublime.