Wednesday 23rd September 2009

Another fine and at times sunny day at High Close, although quite windy which caused problems with the tapes from time to time. The cows were however the major problem. Ruth should never have said that they had lost interest.

Roger has more audience than he bargained for

At lunch time they targeted the unguarded GPS system, nudged it out of position and dribbled slime all over the carrying cases. Alan was the next victim when they decided to eat his flags, since they outnumbered him twelve to one they had munched several before Roger went to help. It is a pity no one managed to photograph Roger running after a cow with an orange flag in its mouth.

In spite of the cows the work progressed. Alison continued her lonely perambulation examining the walls and apart from Helen substituting for the missing Janis the survey teams continued from where they left off last week.

The complexity of the different phases and the sheer number of features in this enclosure mean that progress is slower than we had hoped. However a plot of the southern end of the area is now taking shape, although more willing volunteers to help with the work would be very welcome.

Pat

Wednesday 16th September 2009

No blog since 2 September does not mean that nothing has been happening at High Close – just that everybody has been too busy with other things as well!

However we have been back surveying on both Wednesdays - 9th and 16th! We are all making steady progress in our respective areas. Jane, Pat and Ruth continue trying to make sense of their large rectangle of straight (ish) and definitely sinuous banks, with a few mounds thrown in for good measure. David and Phil continue to make progress with the alidade and Alan and Ann are plotting yet more banks with the GPS.

The field looks very pretty with flags of red, orange, green and yellow in strategic places! Alison meanwhile continues to disappear up the hill, to investigate yet more of the walls. Pauline and Janis are also now to be found higher up the field - silhouetted on the skyline!
The extra Saturday planned by Roger seemed to be the day when everyone was busy with other things, so on an absolutely perfect September day Ruth and Roger managed to finish all the bits and pieces at the southern end of the field.
The bullocks appear to have lost interest in us, having decided that the tapes and flags are not really any good to eat, but they are still very curious about Roger’s new vehicle, which they continue to investigate on a regular basis!
The weather now has a definite Autumnal nip – how many more Wednesdays will we be able to continue, before it breaks, I wonder.

Ruth Spencer, UWHG Chairman

Wednesday 2 September 2009

And so, with a summer of archaeological excavations and holidays behind us, we're back at High Close for the autumn session of field surveys. With the weather suitably autumnal, 11 of us set to work picking up the threads of where we left off, way back in May. A team of three finished the drawings for the corner they had begun in the spring, while two others marched off with the GPS to take a series of readings over the west side of the field. Alison re-acquainted herself with the drystone walls, following up on her interesting investigations of orthostats and possibly mediaeval boundaries. David considered where to start with the alidade and helped Roger set up the fixed reference points, while Ruth, Jane and Pat investigated a new patch for detailed topographical survey. Having selected our area and decided on the logistics of the survey in this new area, we established the base lines. Eventually, the herd of bullocks who had expressed great curiosity throughout the morning in our work, and had followed us around like faithful dogs, had become bored with us, and decided to wander off. By early afternoon it was getting very gloomy overhead and a downpour threatened. So we packed up and headed back for Grassington, just managing to get into our cars as the heavens opened and heavy rain came down. Still, we had made a good start and felt we were certainly back in the swing of things again.