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I went to an all-girls Grammar school in my home town of Pontefract – a very historic place in itself. History was always one of my favourite subjects, along with Geography, and having no clear idea of what path my future career should take, I decided I didn’t want to do a single-subject degree. So in October 1971 I found myself at Leicester University starting a BA Combined Honours in History and Geography but needing a 3rd subject. Archaeology seemed like the perfect choice to bring the other two together! I soon learned that university Geography was not to my taste, but that Archaeology very much was!! However, to continue the archaeology course it was a requirement to do 3 weeks of practical work between each year. In July 1972 30 of us worked on an Iron Age hillfort south of Edinburgh. I think the most lasting thing I learnt was that hillforts tend to be at the tops of hills! We spent 3 weeks clearing the ramparts of centuries of earth and vegetation so that an aerial photo could be taken, and the sum total of finds amongst us all was 1 sheeps jaw bone, and a Bronze Age cup and ring mark. In Easter 1973 I took a one week course in Experimental Archaeology with Peter Reynolds at Little Butser Iron Age Farm (hence I always particularly enjoyed his appearances on the Time Team programmes and was saddened to hear of his too early death.) The course itself was hard work but fun. We helped with the building of a wattle and daub round house, ploughed with a Celtic hand plough, and planted Celtic beans with a digging stick. But the most memorable task was emptying the grain pits of the previous autumn’s harvest. If you ain’t hung head down in a 4ft deep pit scooping slightly fermented grain from the bottom, then believe me you ain’t lived!!! All the fun of the hangover without the fun of getting drunk! In summer 1973 we went excavating a Clava Cairn near Inverness, in two weeks of digging out topsoil holding down the polythene over the previous years levels, the only find was a few tiny bits of cremated bone. It was at this stage I decided that – much as I like the theoretical aspects of Archaeology – I didn’t want to make a career of it. So, it was back to the old question of what to do with the rest of my life. By this time I had discovered that Leicester ran one of what was then only two post-graduate courses in Museum Studies and, to cut a long story short, that’s what I ended up doing. At the end of it I was lucky enough to get the job of Keeper of Local History and Textiles at Paisley Museum. I started there in July 1976 (I sometimes feel as if I’ve been there longer than many of the exhibits!) which has now been redefined as Keeper of Textiles. I have also spent a year as head of the Museum – covering for my boss while she was on maternity leave – a period that convinced me that I have no ambitions towards management!! Though my job is now largely biased towards textiles – the penalty of becoming a “specialist” (I hate the term expert – I might know more about my subject than most other folk – but it certainly doesn’t feel like expertise) in such a narrow field as the history of the Paisley Shawl, I have never lost my fascination for history in general and archaeology in particular. Now, thanks to having discovered Time Team several seasons ago, I can vicariously live the thrill of discovery from my armchair – without the rain, the mud, and the aching muscles!! Since coming up to Scotland I have married a Scotsman, and have a half-Scottish son (although if you were to ask him whether he is English or Scottish he will tell you English – I suspect its just a way of asserting his individuality). We live in a modern semi in the town of Johnstone, about 10 miles west of Glasgow. Jim (the husband) is a heavy goods mechanic, currently working in the Netherlands, and Joshua (the son) has just started at Stirling University – doing Psychology, so I hold out hopes that in my old age he will keep me in the style to which I would very much like to become accustomed – museum work certainly won’t do it for me! The family as a whole is currently owned by two Jack Russell Terriers, Jack and Jody ….. I don’t think that by any stretch of the imagination we could think we own them!!
Special Interest Areas
Roman and Post Roman archaeology
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The first thing everyone should know about me is that I’m no good at writing things like this, so I’m just going to start off with the boring stuff and go on from there.
Long time TT fans and contributor to the Forum, living in a chaotic and falling apart too small house in west Leicestershire with wife Sandy and son Richard and two dogs of indeterminate breed. It wouldn’t be quite so small if the book purchases were more restrained and occasionally the dining table surface would hove into sight.
I’m what is now classified as a TTFF veteran. I joined the Forum Friends a couple of months after the first ‘Live’ and, despite a few extended periods of absence, I’ve been about ever since. I’m 39 and married with two kids (the eldest is showing an interest in archaeology) and I live in Colchester. My historical interests lie mostly with the Romans and the Dark Ages, but I’m pretty much interested in all aspects of history and archaeology.