1:08pm Tuesday 16th June 2009
By Emily Allen
ARCHAEOLOGISTS are to be allowed to continue digging up Wallingford’s history — but only if they promise to properly restore their sites afterwards.
Concern was voiced at Wallingford Town Council about the restoration of the land at the town’s Kinecroft following last year’s excavations, with one councillor saying it had been left with ‘a great big scar’.
However, on Monday, town councillors voted to let the experts from Oxford, Leicester and Exeter universities return for a second dig in July.
Last year, they carried out excavations at Kinecroft, Bullcroft and Castle Meadows, but town clerk Andrew Rogers said the reinstatement of the dig in Kinecroft was way below standard.
He said the earth had sunk, hundreds of stones had come to the surface and money had been spent on six tonnes of soil and grass seed to sort out the problem.
Town councillor Mike Mold said: “In my opinion, it has left a great big scar in the middle of Kinecroft.”
Following the go-ahead, teams of archaeologists and students will dig a trench across central Kinecroft, in partnership with volunteers from Wallingford Museum.
Councillor Lynda Atkins said: “If they can give us reassurance that they will do better at clearing up this time, I think it should be fine. We’ve been wondering about the history of Wallingford for years and we are finally getting the chance to find out what’s gone on. It would be a shame to miss it because someone was worrying about the grass.”
Matt Edgeworth, project officer from Leicester University, said: “It was rather unexpected because we went to great lengths to compact the soil. We did the best we could and the council did the best they could, but there have been problems with it since.
“It’s difficult to say why there has been so much sinkage because all the soil we took out we put back in again. It may be to do with the particular nature of the soil there.
“It wasn’t left in a bad state. It has arisen since the excavation. We are still giving a lot of thought as to how we can make it better.”
He said: “I think our findings will put Wallingford on the map, certainly in archaeological terms. It’s very important because it’s meant to be one of King Alfred’s fortified towns. It grew into a flourishing medieval town but more recently, unlike a lot of towns, it hasn’t had the same amount of development, so it’s still got many open spaces. It’s one of the best preserved Anglo-Saxon medieval towns in England.”
Mr Edgeworth said permission to dig in Kinecroft would allow the team to look into what might have been a row of houses.
Mr Rogers said: “We don’t want the Kinecroft to look really manky, but we want to support the work that they do. They are lovely people and it creates a huge amount of interest in the town.”
© Copyright 2001-2012 Newsquest Media Group
http://www.oxfordtimes.co.uk/trade_directory/