Open House and Yard on Bethlehem Street
Celebrating a Collaboration between Our Big Picture and The North Lincolnshire Archaeology and History Society.
By Gordon Wilson
Friday 26 July 2024
It’s 11.00 a.m., 19 degrees and pleasantly sunny, as visitors begin to arrive from the rear and the front of Our Big Picture at 17-21 Bethlehem Street.
Archaeologists have shed their heavy boots and knee pads. They’ve put away their trowels and shovels and appear, now, in sandals and slacks, clean shirts and blouses, ready to welcome and guide, and tend to their exhibits.
They are relaxed now after two hectic hours of preparation, selecting items from the great store of finds discovered in six tons of soil during the nine-day-dig. Safety barriers are in place to prevent inquisitive enthusiasts from getting riskily close to the edge of the pits, and potentially compromising the trench wall rims, to peer at the demolition remains of a medieval wall and the curious features that might be ancient laundry facilities, cess pits, or tanks to keep oysters, whelks and cockles fresh in earlier days.
Beneath the great gazebo, is a scene like a continental flea-market. People are browsing and sorting through tables of trays, handling the pot, glass, bone and stone finds that they contain; wondering at their nature, origins and first uses. And they listen, attentively, as archaeologists describe their processes, telling tales of what they discovered and how, through digging, cleaning and research.
The single fragment of a Romano British pot that might even be Bronze Age.
Shards of Medieval drinking vessels.
Victorian medicine and perfume bottles.
People hear of how the stem section fragment of a clay pipe has been successfully identified as being the product of Thomas Carlill, pipe manufacturer of Bethlehem Street in 1762; and how “Tommy” Carlill was also found to be a pioneering preacher friend of John Wesley, the founder of Methodism.
Someone speaks of having learnt of this event from an early edition of BBC Look North. Others have heard of it online. Many have learned through word of mouth. There is passing pedestrian traffic, and others waiting in bus stop queues, that have followed the excavation’s progress on the video screen and through the appearance of new finds daily in the OBP window display throughout the two-week excavation.
One ‘digger’ tells of how his favourite find was an animal bone, perhaps a cow knuckle that, once polished and cleaned, seemed almost to be a piece of fine sculpture.
Children are colouring pictures of archaeological finds. Close by Trench Three, others are practicing archaeological skills. Metal detecting in a sand box, they listen for signals before trowelling, carefully, to recover coins and screwdrivers.
Inside Our Big Picture, staff have dressed the interior workshop area with images of action and discovery during the progress of the excavation. Mike, the Society’s photographer has set up a light-box that houses and illuminates fragments of an alphabet mug that would have helped a C19th child to learn to read.
A lady from Stoke on Trent is drawn, nostalgically perhaps, toward the Staffordshire made chamber pot that is part of the window display.
One young man, enthused by the open-day experience, and keen to be involved in the work of the Society, is filling in a membership application form.
Beyond the gate by the spoil heaps, the 13.32 train to Liverpool Lime Street thrums rhythmically as a local writer and her husband examine a Victorian inkwell and a woman admires the detail in the work of an unknown early potter.
“It’s been like an Antiques Road Show where you don’t have to bring anything,” someone says.
A small group cluster around the video-feed of the trench, relating what they see to the plans and sketches that will become part of the North Lincolnshire Archaeology and History Society’s official excavation report; a document that will itemise and classify finds, illustrate the development of the trenches, account for the historical context of the site, forming a record for future reference and perhaps, enhanced interpretation.
As tea-time approaches the scene begins to quieten. People step politely back as Peter Allen, Excavation Director, is interviewed and filmed for the local heritage channel. He’s done GiNews, Grimsby Live and Radio Humberside already, today, explaining to all how the dig has offered a window onto the past of this site, from the medieval to the more recent past.
All day, people have been interacting with the past, peering through old glass, sniffing bottles, feeling the textures of pots and bricks from long ago; but the yard is quiet now.
Archaeologists and OBP staff rest their legs and feet, eat donuts and rehydrate, reflecting with satisfaction on how they have revealed a medieval space connecting recorded history with archaeological remains, allowing for a greater understanding of the lives of people that have occupied this place for centuries.
They will all be back on Monday, in dungarees and shorts, boots back on. There’s a site to be cleaned up. The trenches must be re-filled; and it’s going to be hot!
