Northenden.Net Archaeology Project - Update
News Feature by Lee Cavanagh and Ernest Reid June 2005
Lots to tell you on the progress of the Northenden Archaeological Dig. You may be aware that a £0.5 Million pound lottery grant has been made available to dig up the foundations of the Mill in Camperlands car park. At the time of writing, the hole is about 3 feet deep and some bricks and concrete have been found. Publicity is going out all over the place (but not very smoothly - read on!)
Our students get down to some serious archaeology on the dig site
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A team of academics from the University are also supposedly involved however we couldn't track them down at the weekend and were therefore forced to provide our own experts from the University of Manchester to cover for them. They did a splendid job as you can see from our photograph above.
GOING? The Dig Manchester Mural |
GOING... The residents' reaction |
GONE: The flyover wall today |
First, though, some news about the dig publicity campaign. Northenden residents cannot have failed to spot, 2 weeks ago, the appearance of a huge graffiti-style mural (pictured) sprayed under the flyover near the golf course. Particularly impressive work, I'm sure you'll agree. We have it on good authority that the artists who did the work got a couple of hundred quid each for their trouble out of the DigManchester publicity budget. The council however, which has an overall responsibility for the project, also has an anti-graffiti drive on at the moment , so guess what happened next? That's right - the mural was spotted by senior members of the council admin and following a brief enquiry, the Dig project had it hurriedly scrubbed off the wall.
Students get ready to Dig it
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Two days later, someone turned up and added the slogan "Small Minded Morons" (pictured). The popular assumption, which has been leaked to the local press, is that the message was painted by the graffiti artists themselves and aimed at the council. This is not the case in reality however. We tracked down two ex-graffiti artists who gave us the information in return for their anonymity. We have therefore allocated pseudonyms for "DJ" Stevey P and "DJ" Jonny Rad. They told us that the slogan had nothing to do with the graffiti artists themselves. Jon Radford said "The lads are having a good laugh about this. Usually when our work gets done over we put it right and do someone else's in return. No-one gives a stuff about this one because everyone's been paid." Stevey P added "If you ask me, this has been done by locals. It's nothing to do with the artists". Fair point. We collared some members of the public outside Currys and asked who they thought was responsible for the original mural in the first place. Vandals were high on the list of answers, whilst the council was not. This adds weight to the theory that law-abiding graffiti artists are not responsible for vandalism: "It seems a possibility that the slogan has been written as a reaction to vandalism, by person or persons unaware of the origin of the original work."
So what about the progress of the dig itself, and what will the team of academics be doing? We sent our cameras to Mill Lane to capture a flavour of the work, and to talk to the academics responsible for the whole exercise.
Right: Students have got the booze order in early
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Wrong: What the hell is this used for?
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Right: Big Ern demonstrates how it should be done
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As we mentioned above, on Saturday morning no academics were available on site to explain what would be happening throughout the course of the work. Fortunately however all was not lost as Northenden is a world famous cosmopolitan focal point and there are always a huge number of students readily available in our wealth of bars, takeaways and massage parlours. In fact, at 11.30am on a Saturday morning, some of them had been drinking here for hours. We rounded up five or six and took them round to the dig site to explain to us the workings of a typical archaeological dig. These highly qualified experts are pictured above and pointed out to us that an number of items of specialist equipment are essential for any community project involving students - not just our archaeological dig although this would be a prime example. The main points to remember when digging up the road are as follows.
1. Always make sure you get the beer order in as soon as possible so that the suppliers have plenty of time and you don't end up either sober or having to send regular delegations to Booze Buster on day one. There is abundant evidence (pictured) that the archaeological experts on our site have got this one completely right.
2. Financing the whole exercise. If paying the brewery is going to be a problem, make sure the archaeological society recruits a fresher whose daddy has plenty of money. This can be achieved by sending the most attractive female society member round every corridor in Halls until a suitable volunteer can be coerced into joining.
3. Always make sure there is power available on site, not just for the obvious PA rig, disco lights, pumps and refrigerators but for those important little things which often get overlooked - like charging up mobile phones and ipods. If street lighting or a friendly shopkeeper with a 4-way are not available, then generators will need to be hired. If this cannot be done, drastic measures may need to be taken involving staffing the project with students who are willing to "rough it". This means drinking warm beer on hand pump.
4. A beer tent is an absolute must-have, and should be staffed by a team of skinny teenagers in yellow t-shirts with "ENTS" plastered across the front. Our team pointed out that the dig hasn't quite got this right just yet. Our picture shows how this problem can be easily solved. Big Ern unfortunately, is no longer a teenager and is a long way from skinny but you get the idea. You won't usually see him in a t-shirt either, but to show willing, he has rolled his sleeves up for the photograph.
5. Voluntary assistants are essential, preferably chain-smokers with long unwashed hair. These volunteers are required to wave placards at the gate, which is imperative if the rain forests are to be saved from the scourge of western society. No archaeology will be possible on site without personnel available to ensure that suspected Tories are identified and ejected from the site. Not only will this jeaopardise the event - it will be irrevocably fatal to the future of the whole of mankind.
6. Security is paramount, preferably arranged by a bearded yob on a sabbatical. On leaving the dig, visitors must have their hand stamped with an image of an ecstacy tablet and no-one will be allowed to re-enter unless they display the stamp or pay the forfeit - which is to buy a copy of Socialist Worker and pretend that you're going to read it too.
7. Oh yeah... it might be helpful if you bring a spade.
Don't forget that you can still read our famous article about the history of Northenden Mill, and about Vinnie and Lee's preliminary investigations of the Mill site on our features page, where you can also find a new page of pictures from the dig itself. There is a short update on the dig progress on the Community Update page which can be accessed from the News menu. We will be keeping you updated with progress from this project as and when it happens.