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