The Farmers Mart Dec-Jan 2018 - Issue 54 | Page 52

52 SHEEP DEC/JAN 2018 • farmers-mart.co.uk BRONZE AGE FARMER Francis Pryor is known to many as one of the archaeologists on Channel 4’s Time Team, but he’s a man of many caps, that includes writer and sheep farmer. He started farming way back in 1980, starting with a dozen or so Suffolk Jacob Ewes. Yet he’s best known as the archaeologist who discovered Flag Fen, Bronze Age archaeological site near Peterborough and as one of the presenters on Channel 4’s flagship archaeological Tv series Time Team. THESE days Francis divides his time working on his 40-acre farm, writing maintaining a 10-acre gar- den and writing both nonfiction and fiction. Many would say his retirement is more hectic these days than during his professional career. For most of his career Francis was a highly respected archaeol- ogist who specialised in the study of Bronze and Iron Age Britain. The excavation site he’s widely associated with is Flag Fen, which is one of the best preserved pre- historic sites in Europe. It sits in a landscape which is complete with fields, drove ways, farms, stock- yards, houses and sheds. One of ‘ “Without public support, archaeology will soon die, or worse revert to mere treasure hunting! Real archaeology is far, far more exciting.” ’ the most recent finds associated with this distinctive landscape are several intact Bronze Age houses at Most Farm, roughly one mile away from Flag Fen. Dating from around 1000-800 BC, the wood- en circular houses, built on stilts formed part of a settlement at Must Farm Quarry. A fire had de- stroyed the houses, which caused them to fall in to the river where the silt helped to preserve them. “The most recent find, of intact Bronze Age houses at Must Farm, about a mile away from Flag Fen, but in the same landscape, is the most important archaeological discovery in Britain for centuries. Everything is there: even thumb- prints in the porridge left on the sides of breakfast bowls.” For several years Francis was a member of the TV series Time Team. The showed aired on Channel 4 starting and 1994 and its final series finished in 2014. The show was presented by Tony Robinson with Mick Aston and Francis Pryor as the lead archae- ologists on the show. Time team has been credited with promot- ing the subject of archaeology to the mainstream, and has been recognised by specialists as an important factor in raising awareness of historical periods such as Palaeolithic with the public. Public involvement in archaeology is something Francis believes is very impor- tant for the subject. A recent excavation at Flag Fen was crowdfunded, a world first, with public involvement “It’s something I have always believed in passionately. Without public support, archae- ology will soon die, or worse revert to mere treasure hunting! Real archaeology is far, far more exciting.” One of the Time Team sites which was the most memorable for Francis was the excavation in the Yorkshire Dales, when they excavated a navvies camp from the 1870’s. The Team investigated the Risehill camp settlement, which was inhabited by Victo- rian railway navvies during the construction of the Settle to Carlisle railway. The camp was