Buried by the Blitz Time Team Special Sun 29 Oct, 6.40pm
To commemorate the 60th anniversary of VE day, archaeologists from the Museum of London enlisted the aid of dozens of volunteers to excavate a street, now lying under grassland in Shoreditch Park. Time Team went along to record the project.
The web pages to accompany this programme will be available at the Time Team website:
I'm not sure about this one, I wonder what they expected to find ? No doubt they'll have pre-blitz photos , and people who lived there at the time on the programme.
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From Radio Times... SUNDAY 29th Channel 4 6.40pm TIME TEAM SPECIAL Buried By The Blitz. The 1940-41 German offensive destroyed countless British homes, factories and civil defences. To mark the 60th anniversary of VE Day last year, archaeological volunteers excavated Dorchester Street in Shoreditch, east London, which was flattened by a V2 rocket bomb and later covered by parkland. Documents reveal the road is at least 200 years old, but how much is preserved? TR illuminates the finds with memories from ex-residents.
Well, after thinking I wouldn't enjoy such recent archaeology, I was pleasantly surprised to find I really found that very interesting! It's nice to see the men and women taking part in this community project who were actually living there at the time, it makes it so much more "human".
What a brilliant show, I read somewhere that more is known of prehistory than of the doings & life styles of our own fathers & grandfathers this seems to be true. Last nights program goes a long way towards putting matters to rights. My thanks to all involved.
Many congrats to Time Team for one of the best shows ever. Relevant, moving, and of course archeology is concerned with people, and that factor came across loud and clear.
Now all we need to do is to find some ancient Romans, Greeks, Brits, to tell us who used the various artefacts dug up, and a bit of their more immediate ancestor's history. "That's the shelf that was used for the skeleton of Auntie Guinevere - she sat there for twenty years before she crumbled to dust, and we had to put the rest of her in this urn that I'm holding" as an example.
Are events that happened in my lifetime and shared in now the subject of archaeology? I wasn’t sure that I wanted to see the programme, fearing a shallow treatment of matters that are among my profoundest memories.
I think you had the balance just right, and helped me, and others like me I hope, to keep our own memories in balance. We don’t forget, but life goes on.
I well remember seeing, from high ground a little to the south, that first red glow over the East End, and my father explaining what it was. So much followed over the next 5 years, and your programme captured well what it was like to be in the middle of it.
I hope you will allow me to correct you on one detail: shrapne,did not come mainly from bombs, but from exploding anti-aircraft shells. It dropped all over London, smashing tiles and waiting to be picked up in streets, gardens and playgrounds. The AA barrages made more noise and kept us awake more than the bombs did.
My first thought after the programme: ‘People are still having bombs dropped on them! Will we never learn?’
shrapne,did not come mainly from bombs, but from exploding anti-aircraft shells. It dropped all over London, smashing tiles and waiting to be picked up in streets, gardens and playgrounds. The AA barrages made more noise and kept us awake more than the bombs did.
Quite right, we find a lot of shrapnel when out detecting, especially anywhere close to the Thames, and it's brass not steel. A lot of damage and injuries were caused by our own AA shells coming back down to earth.
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Yes RoyC, I remember the racket from AA guns - not in the London blitz, but on Clydeside where we lived at the time. There was a battery on the moors behind and they made far more noise than planes or falling bombs.
Sadly, as you pointed out, we are still dropping bombs. I don't think the people who are dropping them KNOW what it is like to be bombed. They always bleat about not harming the civilian population, but the psychological damage is enormous, you only need to drop one bomb; even if it harms no-one, terror reigns.
Originally posted by england1965: What happened to the skeleton find?
It all went very quiet on that front!
Cheers
Mark
Perhaps I can tell you what happened to the skeletal material? The site was cleared to a very low level when demolished, the outline of buildings were the foundations, the road and pavement had gone, perhaps the slabs and cobbles were reused. Where the bone was located was outside of number 33 would have been well below the pavement level. As it was from more than one individual the conclusion was drawn that it was brought in to make up the ground surface, probably at the time of construction. Stray oddments of human bone are quite common on sites in London, and you can often feel quite confident about where it comes from, there is usually a churchyard not very far away! On this occasion although there was a church at the end of Dorchester Street, it did not have a burial ground.
Anyway at the time work was stopped while a Home Office licence was applied for and issued, none of the volunteer work force was involved and it only excavated by Museum of London Archaeologists. Unfortunately the local police treated it as a crime scene for a short while, hey I never say no to free on site security! It is now with the rest of the of the finds assemblage at the Museum of London’s London Archaeological Archive and Research Centre (LAARC) which is just across the road from the site. In due course it will be interred with other disarticulated human bone at the East London cemetery.
Only just watched this Special. Enjoyed it so much!! I agree with Tony when he said that talking to people who were there made it more interesting. My 'bag' is Industrial Archy, so this Special was all the more interesting for me!
My Grandad lived on Dorchester street before the War and so when settling down to watch the programme I was very excited to see the street featured. We immediately put a video in to tape it and rang him so he could watch it. Unfortunately he was out at the time but with the video recorder humming we assumed all was well and we could simply send him the tape. However I have just tried to rewind the tape to find the start and realised to my horror that we had recorded something completely different. Has anyone got the episode on tape?? We would be happy to pay any pp costs and return the video as soon as it is copied. Please help. Thanks Tom
Originally posted by pepinouska: Many congrats to Time Team for one of the best shows ever. Relevant, moving, and of course archeology is concerned with people, and that factor came across loud and clear.
Now all we need to do is to find some ancient Romans, Greeks, Brits, to tell us who used the various artefacts dug up, and a bit of their more immediate ancestor's history. "That's the shelf that was used for the skeleton of Auntie Guinevere - she sat there for twenty years before she crumbled to dust, and we had to put the rest of her in this urn that I'm holding" as an example.
Anybody got a time machine?
Not got a time machine but I am working on a website with 3d animated graphics (mainly Celtic/Roman/Saxon/Viking). They may be the next best thing. www.3dhistory.co.uk if anyone is interested.
If anyone wants any object in particular let me know.
Shrapnel brass or steel.. It wouldnt 'alf 'hurt if it hit ya! I enjoyed this programme aswell. Shelley x
quote:
Originally posted by justdaveisleofman: Hi sorry if this has been mentioned before but shell case splinters and shrapnel are not the same thing..cheers dave
Haha In the early 90's I used to go walking on the old Hornchurch airfield with my grandparents... if im not mistaken it's a housing estate now; very sad.
Yes, housing estate one side but you can still walk on the airfield side,which is now a Country Park. Dont trip over any Tet Turrets. One of which was cleaned out by Neil Oliver and the extremely young Professor Tony Pollard. Luv 'im! Shelley. x
I too enjoyed this show (My Masters degree is in the History of Science and Technology so I look forward to the 'modern' shows perhaps more than most) but here we at the end of year and no other specials have turned up! On the home page we have the text I append at the end of this note and it would seem to hint at more than one special between the Big Royal Dig in Aug. and the new season starting next month... did something happen and were there other 'special' shows that did not make it? (not that all Time Team Shows are not special ) Happy Hogswatch to all! Windshadow
quote:
The 2006 series of Time Team is now finished: the next series begins in January 2007. Several Time Team Specials are due to be screened later this year, together with the Big Royal Dig, which took place this summer. Full details will be posted on the website and the Time Team Forum as they become available
What a brilliant show, I read somewhere that more is known of prehistory than of the doings & life styles of our own fathers & grandfathers this seems to be true. Last nights program goes a long way towards putting matters to rights. My thanks to all involved.
