St Benet's Lidar Images

[MauriceMynah]

Ahhh yes of course, that would be the Long horned Norfolk nautical cow, especially bred for it's high quality beef and ability to cook a full English breakfast on two gas rings. Sorry, my mistake.

[Vaughan]

9 hours ago, Timbo said:

I will add that in this area there are large amounts of Roman finds Vaughan...I say Romans Vaughan!

It's all right - you have already beaten me into submission about the Romans! Not sure the Vikings have much of a leg left to stand on, either!

This does open up more questions, doesn't it? I also thought that this would be an obvious place for a drainage pump, but then you are saying that this is a track, rather than a dyke - which I don't doubt.

Now here's a thing - if my suspicion is correct, that the big dyke which curves around the north of the abbey and then rejoins the Bure further east, is actually a natural continuation of the course of the meandering river in those days, then the continuation of that track is logical. It would have formed a direct route by road from the south to the abbey, without crossing the river. Also natural that it would have followed the bank of the river, on its way.

 

 

[Vaughan]

Brain has now selected second gear.

I said earlier that we can now see some of the ruined walls sticking out into the river, so clearly, it wasn't there when the abbey was built

Wait a minute though - these old walls are to the east of S. Walsham dyke, not the west, so where was the river? I can't see any trace of it on your Lidar to the south, so did it indeed go round the hill to the north?

How does this "sit" with the causeway that we know went from the abbey to Horning? Maybe a ferry, originally. What is left of the abbey now is mainly the old mill, built into what we are told was the main entrance arch. Would it not be plausible that this would be built at the bank of the river, rather like Pull's Ferry in Norwich?

[BroadScot]

2 hours ago, Timbo said:

I believe they were of a traditional breed of nocturnal cow often seen in Norfolk and indeed in this very area. Well...I say seen but more usually 'heard' or is that 'herd'. I've often moored up Fleet Dyke and sometime after pub closing you will hear the drover's call of 'Just get on the boat you silly cow'.

If you joined all the dots maybe they would make a pretty picture?

[Timbo]

3 hours ago, BroadScot said:

If you joined all the dots maybe they would make a pretty picture?

OK I'm joining the dots... Jackson Pollocks if you ask me! 

I hope you can all hear the cogs ticking, I've dug the big maps and sketch pad out!

 

[Vaughan]

6 hours ago, Vaughan said:

Brain has now selected second gear.

My brain, by the way, is like an Italian tank.

It has 6 gears, 4 of which are reverse.

[Polly]

Ohh three ponds not a lucky monastic horseshoe. Thanks for elucidating, Tim. No r..... significance then? (Gets tin hat and hides under wheelbarrow)

Sorry for thick response but what bit is Cow Island?

[Timbo]

St Benet's is Cow ISland or to give it's correct name Cowholme. Holmr is a Norse or Danish word for an islet or inlet. In my home town of Gainsborough the town is built upon the remains of two islands, Northolme and Southolme. Don't be thinking we are talking about an island surrounded by water. A holme can also mean an area of flat land beside a river which can be submerged in times of flood.

[Polly]

Oh I thought it had to be that, but I could just possibly (only just  ) have been wrong.

[Timbo]

My preamble seems to have gone missing between writing and posting but here is my potted history of what I think is going on at St.Benets. I have read some dross from PhD candidates from the Polytechnic of East Anglia that passes for landscape archaeology today. Quite a lot of it of a Scooby Doo like 'Those meddlin Monks did it' and a hell of a lot of 'and it was all an big estuary' written in the style of the film trope 'it was all a dream'. So let's start again. In the beginning...

I've traced the features onto the standard OS map for the area. To the north we have the River Smale. To the south the River Bure. In between the two rivers we have Cowholme the slight rise that St Benet's will be built upon in the future. Origin stories for the Abbey of St.Benet's of Holme depict the area as a 'wilderness' a 'remote' island'. This of course is complete twaddle. The sheer volume of archaeological finds in the area, from the mesolithic period onwards, point to the opposite. 

The Norfolk Archaeological Trust tell us that 'many other early monasteries in East Anglia were in similar places'. This is indeed true and not isolated to Norfolk. Perhaps the best location to illustrate this is in my stomping ground of Lincolnshire and the Witham valley where a thin ten mile long strip of wetland below Lincoln Cathedral, remarkably similar to that at Cowholme, contains around nine monastic houses. The Witham valley before the land was drained, just like the Bure, contained myriad water courses connecting circling holmes or areas of land and marsh each connected by a trackway in an ancient landscape. Where these trackways crossed the water metal weaponry and tools, dating from the Bronze Age through to the Medieval, had been deposited into the water. These trackways were often wooden structures, like that at Geldeston, or earthworks...just like the one at...well take a look!

Figure 2 shows the line of two linear banks and ditches running close to Horning church in a roughly south west to north east direction. In Figure 3 you can see them on the LIDAR to the right of the white dotted line.

The banks and ditches were recorded as a monument in the eighteenth century but had been levelled by 1831. The authors of the heritage record attribute the earthworks to a 'possible early Anglo Saxon date'. So they are talking around 410-610 AD. They also attribute them as being 'defensive' in nature as they connect with the Bure in the south and the Ant (Smale) in the North. There is no archaeological evidence to support the attribution. It is merely based on the discovery of early Anglo Saxon pottery near by and the passing resemblance the earthworks have to similar earthworks elsewhere.

I would be willing to place a small bet that these earthworks are quite a bit earlier, Iron Age or maybe Bronze. Our Dark Age ancestors were not above utilising existing constructions for their own purposes. This brings me to Figure 4 and the causeway to St.Benet's gate house.

I'm of the opinion that the causeway is of a similar date to the earthworks at Horning church. Although it petres out before reaching it, I also think that the causeway is running to and originally joined the earthworks. What do you guys think?

Now I wonder what the terrain would look like if we were to add in our conjectured track to the south of the river? Let's have a look I've marked its course in yellow in Figure 5.

Now you see...what strikes me is that these three routes appear to meet and follow a single course across the landscape. My gut feeling is that Cowholme was a sacred site long before christianity. But there's one thing missing from the picture that would bring Cowholme closer to the picture we have in the Witham valley. A deposit of weaponry.

'X' marks the spot! An early Anglo Saxon spear discovered during dredging. Of course not the large amounts of deposits we have in the Witham Valley, but the look at the amount of work done to alter the watercourses at this location, dark blue dotted line in Figure 7.

As for a date when 'them monks done it' and changed the mouth of the Smale? This would be post 1085. The reason I give this date is the parish boundary following the Hundred Dyke or the original path of the Smale. The Normans ratified parish boundaries with the Great Survey. Had the diversion been carried out earlier then the boundary would follow the river.

Just my musings, but it does seem to fit together snugly? If Grendel is reading, it is amazing to have an ancient weaponry expert with us...I mean an expert in ancient weapons...not Grendel being ancient...perhaps he could supply a suitable image of an early Saxon spear? 

 

[Timbo]

In case anyone was wondering, the guy who changed the name of the River Smale to the River Ant was Mostyn John Armstrong in 1781.

[Polly]

This is a much clearer exposition of your theory, thanks Tim.

[johnm]

Tim,

[grendel]

here you go - just for Tim,

Early Saxon Spear heads (they would have been attached to a wooden shaft, which has undoubtedly rotted away.

[grendel]

Though I do have to admit I could not find an image of the 'actual' spearhead found

 

[Timbo]

Thanks Grendel...I knew you would have more idea than me. The spear was found in 1937 and I've just ordered up the journal in which the discovery was published in 1947. According to the Historic Environment Record (HER) the find was an 'Anglo Saxon Iron Spearhead with traces of wooden shaft'. The spearhead is now in the keeping of the Castle Museum Norwich.

'Traces of wooden shaft'...how much is a trace? I suppose in that case I'm an old bloke with traces of twenty something stud muffin! 

[BroadScot]

I do hope the wooden stick wasn't a old danger warning one belonging to the River Inspectors as was !  There use to be a lot of them along that part of the Bure ! 

[smellyloo]

I wonder what archeologists yet to come will make of the old bicycle frames & shopping trollies excavated from the upper reaches of broadland rivers?

I guess ritual offerings to the god of consumerism will be pretty spot on.

[Jonathan]

21 minutes ago, Timbo said:

'Traces of wooden shaft'...how much is a trace? I suppose in that case I'm an old bloke with traces of twenty something stud muffin! 

Are you suggesting that your wooden shaft has deteriorated somewhat?  

[BroadScot]

4 minutes ago, smellyloo said:

I wonder what archeologists yet to come will make of the old bicycle frames & shopping trollies excavated from the upper reaches of broadland rivers?

I guess ritual offerings to the god of consumerism will be pretty spot on.

What about the £1 coin stuck in the trolley handle ! 

[smellyloo]

2 minutes ago, BroadScot said:

What about the £1 coin stuck in the trolley handle ! 

Clearly some sort of crystal supplying fuel!

[BroadScot]

4 minutes ago, smellyloo said:

Clearly some sort of crystal supplying fuel!

I am sure Timbo will have an answer, he is a very clever chap ! 

[smellyloo]

28 minutes ago, BroadScot said:

I am sure Timbo will have an answer, he is a very clever chap ! 

Quite so ..... I have found the whole topic facinating and Timbo's illustrations very informative.

[Timbo]

This I will leave to the great 20th 21st century philosopher Sir Terry Pratchett who tells us that...

A large parasitic creature lays it's eggs in a shape that is pleasing to the eye of it's intended food source and prey. These eggs generally take the form of spherical transparent objects filled with a liquid and glittery particles and, in the case of Norfolk, usually a  model tableau with a hand written sign  reading ' A pezent frm Wroxham'. When these eggs are shaken the particles use gravity to simulate precipitation falling on the tableau. 

The prey take these eggs into their homes where after a number of years the unsuspecting prey places them in an ideal place to hatch...ie a dark box at the back of a warm cupboard or attic.

When the eggs hatch they have taken on the larval form of the parasite...a wire basket mounted on wheels. The prey will attempt to make use of the larval form as a means of transport. Often the larval form is deposited many miles away from its place of origin...often accompanied by other lava.

Once enough lava have accumulated they transform butterfly like into the predatory species and draws its prey to be devoured with signs saying 'SALE 10% off all Shooz' and 'Everyfink must Goo'. The species endemic to Norfolk is a red colour with markings proclaiming it as 'ROYS'. Outside of Norfolk you find other species called TESCO and ASDA. The prey wanders around the carcass of the predatory Mall until it dies of old age, boredom...in the case of males, or food poisoning. Whereupon the predatory Mall devours the nutrients.

You see archaeologists are a geeky lot and most or all will have a temple in their homes dedicated to Terry Pratchett so will be fully conversant with the life cycle of the Predatory Mall.

 

[BroadScot]

Just knew that clever clogs would know the answer !