North East archaeologist up for national award
Expert who has dug deep into the North East’s past is in the running to be named Archaeologist of the Year. Dr Clive Waddington talks to Tony Henderson
Archaeologist and author Clive Waddington has uncovered intriguing insights into the North East’s distant past in a long series of fascinating digs.
Now the graduate of and later lecturer in archaeology at Newcastle University has been short listed for the accolade of Archaeologist of the Year in the Current Archaeology magazine awards.
The awards are decided by public vote, which closes on Monday (Feb 10).
Clive has written and co-authored a dozen books and nearly 100 published academic papers.
Based in Newcastle, he also founded his own company Archaeological Research Services Ltd (ARS) which has five offices across England, including a base in South Tyneside. It is the only archaeological company to win a King’s Award for Enterprise.
He also set up and funds the Community Archaeology Radiocarbon Dating Fund which finances for dating tests – totalling 100 in the last year - for local excavations involving volunteers.
Clive’s PhD was based on the Mifield Plain, on the fringe of the Cheviot Hills and its hill forts.
“It is one of the richest archaeological landscapes in the North East and one of the most important archaeological landscapes in Britain,” says Clive.
The area has one of Britain’s biggest concentrations of henges - ring-shaped bank and ditch structures which may have been used for ritual purposes and as a space separate from the outside world.
It also has a significant number of Neolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age and Anglo-Saxon sites.
The Milfield Basin lies on a flat sand and gravel terrace overlooking the floodplain of the River Till making it a very fertile place. This location would have appealed to settlers in the far past not only because it was a good place for growing crops and looking after animals, but also because it was not at risk from flooding.
The Cheviot Hills act like a shield to the Milfield Basin from the worst of the weather. This ‘rain shadow effect’ can sometimes make it warmer and drier than other parts of Northumberland.
For 17 years ARS Ltd has carried out archaeological fieldwork at the site to record surviving artefacts and structural remains, which is telling in detail how people lived in the past and how they would have exploited the landscape.
Tarmac commissioned investigations at Cheviot Quarry in Northumberland which resulted in discoveries which include three phases of settlement dating from the Neolithic, the Late Bronze Age and Dark Age periods.
Two circular houses dated to 1000-870 BC. Three rectangular houses were dated to the Dark Age and are likely to pre-date Anglo Saxon occupation of the area in around AD 547.
Clive set up the Maelmin Heritage Trail, near Milfield village, where people can visit a reconstruction of an Anglo-Saxon timber-built building that was excavated at Cheviot Quarry.
Once there were many henges in the area surrounding Milfield - dating from around 2,000BC.
Another discovery centred on excavation evidence for a hut structure on the clifftop at Howick in Northumberland, dating to around 11,600 years ago.
Investigation by ARS Ltd and Newcastle University revealed one of the best-preserved Stone Age huts discovered in Britain and the earliest occupation site in Northumberland,
The structure was recreated and consisted of a ‘tepee’ frame of long birch poles to provide a basic cone shape, reinforced with a ring of uprights and cross beams using thick pine log, with a turf roof.
Another shoreline project was at Low Hauxley on Druridge Bay in which Clive and his team, and volunteers, spent three months excavating a site at risk from coastal erosion.
“The response from the local community was overwhelming and hundreds of people took part in the excavation,” said Clive.
The operation explored cairns with eight Bronze Age burials and an Iron Age roundhouse with its own stone patio.
Evidence was also uncovered that pointed towards a catastrophic event which helped cut Britain off from the Continent thousands of years ago, when a tsunami was produced by a land shelf collapse in Norway.
The dig produced a book by Clive titled Rescued from the Sea: An Archaeologist’s Tale.
Other digs by ARS Ltd include:
Bishop Middleham Quarry in County Durham which revealed an early Christian cemetery of 11 burials in rock-cut graves.
Cresswell Tower, a 15th century Northumberland stone-built pele tower, where excavations were carried out prior to the restoration of building
Excavations in advance of housing development in Sedgefield in County Durham which produced evidence of Iron Age roundhouses, with occupation continuing into the Roman period.
A dig near Ponteland leisure centre which unearthed a Bronze Age burial site dating back 4,000 years.
A recent project by ARS Ltd has also been short listed in the category of Rescue Project of the Year. Excavations at Bodicote in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds Banbury, have revealed the remains of an Iron Age farmstead where 10 storage pits had been reused as graves.
The North East has another short-listed awards candidate in the Book of the Year category. Excavations along Hadrian’s Wall 2019-2021 is by Rob Collins and Jane Harrison.
This presents the results of archaeological investigations undertaken at seven sites as part of the Heritage-at-Risk strand of the Hadrian’s Wall Community Archaeology Project (WallCAP), with fieldwork focused on understanding and mitigating the threats to the monument, both natural and human-made.