Anyone who has spent time in libraries studying will know that sooner or later you really have to get out and actually look at the real thing. This is as true about works of art as it is about historical research. You have to get out and smell what you’re studying. This is especially true of landscape archaeology where you could have look at old maps, google earth etc and come up with a pretty water proof theory – which is what I had done. The only problem was that when I got out on the ground I found that things weren’t the way I had thought. When this happens you have challenge your preconceived ideas and start again.
This image is a case in point. Up until I walked the lane yesterday at Freeby I had thought that this lane was part of a roman road. However, when you get out on the ground you notice that the ‘road’ is covered by ridge and furrows left by medieval farming. This, in itself, is not too much of a problem – there are at least 500 years between the two, plenty of time for the road to disappear. However, it did start me to wonder about the route and I quickly realised that it doesn’t make any sense, from a Roman perspective and what appears to have happened at Freeby is that the original route was distorted by the establishment of Freeby village. There is some archaeological evidence that would suggest there was some Roman occupation at Freeby, although to the north of the current village. It is a puzzle and one which I suspect I won’t sort out anytime soon.
I once had an internet conversation with an academic from New Zealand about understanding Anglo Saxon England. He no doubt has a much greater knowledge of the academic material, it his job after all, but I had the advantage to stand on the land, to feel the wind in my face and see the way the water was running. In short I could easily do the field work which this academic, no matter how learned, could never do.
Simon Marchini
Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk
