Martin Papworth’s Archaeological Highlights from 38 Years with the National Trust

Dr. Martin Papworth retired in 2024 after 38 years with the National Trust as their archaeologist in Wessex. In the Teulon Porter Memorial Lecture at 7.30p.m. on Tuesday 06 October at Shaftesbury Town Hall he illustrates some of his archaeological discoveries at National Trust properties during that time. What started in 1986 as a four week contract to supervise volunteer archaeologists at Corfe Castle turned into a career which included the discovery of a Roman temple and town at Kingston Lacy, the unveiling of a medieval hunting lodge, the dating of the Cerne Abbas Giant (see below), the finding of three lost mansions and a 5th-6th century mosaic at Chedworth Roman Villa. His talk is free to members of the Shaftesbury & District Historical Society, and open to the general public on payment of £7 at the door.

Martin began his archaeological career at Weymouth College and then worked on various excavations in the UK and New Zealand. After his return to the UK to take a degree in Geography and Landscape Studies, his association with the National Trust began in 1986 at Corfe Castle and continued for 38 years during which he provided archaeological advice for National Trust properties in the south-west. These included the WW2 landscape of Studland Heath, the gardens of Lacock, Dyrham, Montacute and Stourhead, as well as over 30 hillforts and the palaeolithic cave deposits of the Mendips. He has completed an MA in Local History and a PhD on the Iron Age communities of Dorset. Having contributed many archaeological reports to the annual Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, he has now been appointed its Editor. Martin continues to blog on archaeological matters; his relationship with the Cerne Giant can be read in full by clicking here 

 

“My first visit to the Cerne Giant (Martin writes) was in 1993 to attend a meeting about his nose. Did he ever have one and should he have one again? Eventually, the group decision favoured the nose and a small mound of chalk was created. The papers loved it. A prominent member restored! Anything to do with the Giant is a media event. He is the rude man of central Dorset, an advertiser’s dream.

Was he prehistoric, Roman or 17th century ?

It seemed that there was no way of knowing. He was unique and made of chalk. There were no dateable artefacts likely to be recovered from any excavation. His earliest historical appearance is in a document dated November 1694, when Cerne’s church warden’s accounts recorded the cost of his repair.

There was a scientific technique which might supply a date for him and this had been pioneered at another National Trust site, the Uffington White Horse in Oxfordshire. Here, Simon Palmer and David Miles had used optically stimulated luminescence to provide a date. This technique measures the time that has elapsed since a soil has been buried, blocking the radiation from the sun.

For the excavation, we had set aside five days, 16th to 20th March (2020). This was just enough time we thought, but already, on that first day, as we carried our tools over the boundary fence and onto the outline of the Giant, Covid 19 was approaching. Four people digging four trenches socially distanced while the world began to shut down. Each day as I drove to work, new Covid announcements were being made. As we dug deeper, many of the people scheduled to visit us, gave their apologies and stayed away.

Eventually, the OSL dates came back and they were a complete surprise. Mike Allen favoured a prehistoric date and I the 17th century but all four samples gave medieval dates for the silts sealing the original scoop into chalk bedrock. The two earliest ranged between AD 650- AD1110, with a 10th century median date.

The Cerne Giant story has now been shifted to the Saxon period and coincides with the founding of Cerne Abbey in 987. The Saxon historians are creating new narratives, but there is still no consensus.

Personally, I like to think of him as the abbey’s founding saint, King Edmund’s brother Eadwald; his outstretched arm marked into the hillside to guide pilgrims from Sherborne as they approached the new abbey…

And another thing. He has a belt. Did he wear trousers originally? Was his most famous feature a 17th century addition? The Cerne Giant is still a mystery, open to all sorts of interpretations.”