IT WAS ONE OF THOSE DAYS WHEN ...
..... when one good thing just followed another; one of
those wonderful days when the sun shines and nothing could
go wrong (well, almost).
It must have been a month or so back when Robin Sturdy
of the Soil Survey informed me of some pottery he had
found in a trench just north of the railway line to the
west of Burnham-on-Crouch. The Passmore Edwards Museum
were duly informed, and soon excavations on the site
revealed pottery of a Romano-British occupation. But it
was not until this Friday (24th March) that I was able to
visit the site and see the excavation in progress.
It was well into the afternoon by the time I reached
the site and here I found a series of holes filled with
about 15 people all actively scratching away under the
guidance of Mr. Tildesly of the Museum. Some were school
children with time off, some from a WEA class and others
from the newly formed Burnham-on-Crouch Archaeological
Society. Considering this was a weekday afternoon, this was
a very good turn-out, but I was informed that 40 or more
were expected on the Saturday.
I was duly shown around the site, but somehow the
discussion turned to badgers. At this point it was
recollected that some of the archaeologists had found some
pottery in some badger diggings. This took my attention
immediately and Mr. Tildesly very kindly consented to some
of the group showing me the sett. I was taken across the
railway line and sure enough there were some badger
diggings, though somewhat disturbed by the activities of
the archaeologists. All the same, it seemed as if this
small sett had been active recently. From here we began
talking badgers. One of the archaeologists was an active
campaigner for badger conservation. The other person
recollected having seen some badger diggings, so we went
back to the car to take some grid references for the
badger survey. It was about time by then that I got on
with the work I was supposed to be doing that afternoon,
but before leaving, I obtained the address of the person,
and was able to visit him in the evening, at Bradwell,
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