Author: Alberto Pearson

Time Team Forum Friend – Holly Carter

I really have no historical background other than the things that I learned at school. I have discovered that I enjoy all things historical much more now that I am a grown up! It’s much more interesting when you are motivated by a genuine curiosity than when you are learning because you have to.

I live in a rapidly growing village in the middle of Lincolnshire, with my wonderful husband, my adorable son and my two large crossbreed dogs. I trained as a nurse but gave it up as a bad idea when I realised that the NHS was terminally ill. I now work as a private nurse in the community.

In my spare time I am a florist, mainly doing weddings, but I have been known to do Christenings, dedications and a few flower festivals.

Time Team has long been essential viewing in our house, but having only recently been internet connected, I have only just discovered the joys of the TT forum. Long may it reign!!!

Special Interest Areas

I really enjoy Roman and medieval periods. My special interests are the role of women throughout history, but especially in WW1 and the role of religion in history.

Time Team Forum Friend – Ian Jones

Born in the early 50s, (possibly as a result of enthusiastic celebration of the Queen’s coronation), I grew up as the youngest of four boys. Leaving school in 1970, I worked as a clerical assistant at Hillingdon Council and soon became very bored! I transferred and became a trainee building surveyor which was much more interesting! In 1976, I joined the NHS as a Building Manager, doubling my salary and enabling me to marry Gail (aka Boudicca). We moved to Thame, Oxfordshire, in 1980 and, in 1993 (after several moves), ended up just across the Oxfordshire border, in the sleepy Bucks village of Haddenham. Loss of Crown Immunity in 1990 laid the NHS open to the full impact of Health & Safety legislation. So I gave up my career in building to become one of the first full time NHS H&S professionals. I still hold the position today, working for two NHS Trusts in Buckinghamshire. As a hobby, I became involved with Ryman Division 1’s Thame United FC. At first I attended as a First Aider and ended up as club therapist. I studied Massage, Sports Injuries and Bowen Therapy but after 6 years, in order to develop my own practice, I left the club in March 2000. I’ve always loved animals, but with little spare time I ended up keeping parrots. It’s not just their comical expressions and poses, but their madcap characters and antics that make them the ‘Clowns of the Animal World’. Having always had an interest in things scientific, I suppose this is from where my interest in archaeology stems. At school I was never particularly interested in history, particularly when they started throwing dates at me with some expectation that I might remember them! However, television provided a more interesting way of learning. When Time Team started I became hooked on the first programme and have not missed an episode since. Unfortunately my memory is less sharp, so whilst I can remember the digs themselves, I can’t remember where they were or what they were called (I remember Seahenge though!). Then, with a new computer capable of accessing the web, I found the forum. I am very grateful to the forum members for their acceptance of me as a new visitor The welcome was warm and immediate and I find this both a refreshing and rare quality. I thank the ‘forummers’ for tolerating my abject ignorance of both history & archaeology and hope they will continue to educate me in these fascinating subjects. I cannot see myself studying archaeology academically, I believe that preference will remain with physio and related therapies, but I am definitely destined to remain a dedicated armchair enthusiast. Who knows, I might one day be tempted to join my local history group, invest in a metal detector and go field walking. At present though, I must concentrate on my practice, my parrots and, of course, my family Gail and the kids Emma (19) and Adam (17).

My main areas of personal interest are in pre-historic and Roman Britain, but for which I can only claim a casual knowledge. Particularly I am riveted by Boudicca and the Boudiccan Revolt, a subject about which I read most and the one that I have made my personal challenge to know and understand.

Time Team Forum Friend – Jane Fox

I have been watching TT since the beginning. I am originally from Oregon, USA, but I have lived in Northern Ireland since 1992, when I married an Irishman.

I have had an interest in archaeology since I was a teenager but have no hands on experience. My other interests are travel, music (especially traditional) and learning traditional forms of needlework.

Special Interest Areas

Love the Romans and have recently developed an interest in the Nuraghic people of Sardinia.

Time Team Forum Friend – Emma Langworthy

My name is Emma Langworthy, and live in Puddletown, near Dorchester in Dorset.

I have worked at Weymouth College since 1990, and until recently, worked as Accounting Assistant in the Finance Office. I have recently moved to the MIS department on a trial period.

I first became interested in Archaeology over 20 years ago, way back in the 70’s, when I used to dig trenches in my parents vegetable patch and excavate pieces of clay pipe, pottery and china, which I would then build into a mosaic. I also had a ‘museum’ in my bedroom cupboard. I used to enjoy visiting the local museum in Dorchester and seeing real mosaics and Roman remains. I have no idea where I got this inspiration for Archaeology from – not from my family at all. It is strange, maybe as a child I was destined to be on Time Team, but growing up I forgot all about it. Something which I regret now, and can’t afford to send myself to College to prepare myself for University. If only I had remembered my dream when I was 16.

My favourite age in History is the Romans, and I am lucky that in and around Dorchester – or should I say Durnovaria, there are a lot of Roman remains, such as Colliton town house, the aqueduct, the amphitheatre, town wall and Maiden Castle. Of course some of these are much older than the Romans. I recently went to a lecture at my College on local archaeology; I enjoyed it but was disappointed that I was so young, possibly not even born when the Roman baths in Dorchester were excavated. Maybe if I won the lottery, I could buy the car park that covers them and have a look myself!

I have been a constant viewer of Time Team since the first series began, and am so obsessive that I have been videoing them all since the end of the second series. I am yet to see a Time Team Live actually live! I have also been a member of the Time Team Club since the beginning, and try hard every issue of Trench One to win a place on a dig. No luck yet! I also subscribe to Current Archaeology, British Archaeology, and belong to the Association of Roman Archaeology, and the College Archaeological Society. I did attend a six-week ‘Archaeology for Beginners’ course at my College, and my class enjoyed it so much, that our tutor ran a continuation the following term. To ensure it ran, as it was a budget course and depended on numbers, I paid double fees to make up the class numbers. Unfortunately, I then became ill with glandular fever, and missed the second half of the course. Just my luck! I also spend a day fieldwalking in the Summer with the GF, boring at the best of times I guess when you are put in an area of the field which is full of modern bricks and pottery! As for the Forum, I have been a regular visitor and contributor – even if not necessarily of archaeological topics, since the spring of 1991, when I bought my PC, and don’t know what I’d do without my daily intakes of the Forum.

I have a lot to thank Time Team for, as after having an operation in 1999, and having many replies on my thread of good luck, etc. I put out a new thread asking for e-pals. Little did I know after e-mailing a fellow TTFF several times and chatting to him on Northfell, I would travel all the way to Hull to meet him, and 6 weeks later get engaged! Rod Hughes and I are getting married on 18th August 2001.

Special interest Areas

Roman Britain especially the Dorchester/Durnovaria area

Time Team Forum Friend – Elizabeth Pacey

I am an armchair archaeologist who would love to go to a dig someday. I became interested in archaeology when I was a teenager and was lucky enough to be taken by my art teacher to various local sites of interest in Lincolnshire such as some abandoned plague villages. However, imagination was not truly sparked until Time Team started. Now I am a member of the CBA and feverishly scoop up all articles of archaeological nature in the newsagents.

I am now living in Watford and working in London so have access to many areas of historical and aesthetic value. I am very spoilt for choice. I am now hoping that my interests will become less solitary and that I will be able to correspond and meet other Time Team fans. I look forward to meeting you!

Special Interest Areas

Dark Ages Britain, prehistoric Britain and late Renaissance Europe & UK. Irish Archaeology. Sub Saharan (no expert). Also the Clovis people in US. Anything particularly mysterious.

Time Team Forum Friend – Emma Duvall

I have lived in Eastwood (near Southend-on-Sea) all my life, although at 24 that’s not a particularly long time. I work as a Teaching Assistant in a Southend Primary school but eventually hope to teach.

I loved history when Iwas younger and took it at GCSE. Unfortunatly we studied modern history (WW2) which I didn’t enjoy as much and it put me off a little.

My interest was quickly caught when I discovered TT and I have watched it for years. I’ve also taken the opportunity to brush up on Romans and Egypt when the classes I work in study them.

I also enjoy the schools yearly trip to the Isle of Wight and the fossil hunting we do.

I would love to get more (practical) with archaeology but so far I haven’t had the opportunity.

I also enjoy most forms of music (even playing a little), films and reading anything you put in front of me.

Special Interest Areas

Ancient Egypt and anything in Britain and Ireland.

Time Team Forum Friend – Eddi Morgan

I first became interested in History and Archaeology through Jeff (my husband) and his father. I`m originally from the Snowdonia area of north Wales and have Welsh as my first language. Jeff has always lived in south Wales. I have a B.Mus degree and Jeff`s degree is in History. We met as students at Cardiff and have lived here ever since.

Jeff is particularly interested in Naval history and the two World Wars. He`s also interested in south Wales` industrial history and his MA thesis was on an aspect of Cardiff Docks. His father was an Anglican rector with a passionate interest in old churches – especially those built on early Christian sites.

We`ve both loved Time Team from the start and have been visiting the Forum for about a year. I have no period  that I`m particularly interested in but I love the way Archaeology gives us an insight into the lives that ordinary people lived at various times in the past.

I think that the Forum is very special and have had lots of laughs, information and great enjoyment from my visits to it.

Time Team Forum Friend – Eleanor Sutton

I was born, a few weeks after men walked on the moon, in Clifton-upon-Dunsmore, near Rugby, Warwickshire. Lived in the same house till I left home to go to University – I studied Social Psychology at the University of Sussex (try saying that when you’re drunk!) Then I went to Durham to do Teacher Training, but dropped out – it was just too stressful. After a while on the dole, back in Rugby, I got a temporary job as a library assistant. As that one ended, a full time, permanent job came up, at Bedworth Library. (Don’t worry – even most people from Warwickshire don’t know where Bedworth is! It’s just north of Coventry.) I got sick of commuting, and moved here a few years ago. I’ve been watching Time Team since, I think, about the third season, and have stayed with it through many changes of Tony’s hairstyle. Archaeology has always interested me – both my parents were teachers, which might be why I was brought up to take an interest in just about everything! One of the things my late mother (she died when I was 15) left to me was her love of nature and of walking. I don’t have time to walk as much as I’d like to, but I recently made a start on the South West Coast Path – from the “wrong” end! (Poole Harbour). My other interests – reading: Folklore, various vaguely-related subjects, Terry Pratchett, a few crime novels, especially Dorothy L Sayers, lots of supposedly children’s books, and anything else that catches my eye at work – I do the requests, so I get to have first dibs! Listening – on radio, Just a Minute, I’m Sorry I haven’t a Clue, Old Harry’s Game, and a few others; on Cd, medieval music, and early 1980s – but I like lots of other kinds of music, too. Watching – Doctor Who (if only!), Documentaries, some comedies. I think that had probably better do for now. Hello, everyone!

Special Interest Areas

In archaeology – most times and types. And Folklore – anything and anywhere, though my special special interest is Phantom Black Dogs (as described in “Hound of the Baskervilles”). I’m also particularly intrigued by ancient tracks (not ley lines) – I have a theory that lost routes and sites might be traced through their ghosts and other folklore.

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