Will ancient history be lost for ever?

Thursday, March 05, 2009

Is there any truth in the rumour 'floating' around that because of the vast amounts of water at Bathampton Meadows, Cllr Haeberling and her cabinet cohorts are thinking of building a spa there?
Or more appropriately, offering it as a yachting and rowing site for 2012?
Incidentally, when is an ancient flood plain not a flood plain? Apparently, when experts tell Cllr Haeberling it isn't.

Let's hope these aren't the same experts who said the Titanic wouldn't sink.

I suppose it's understandable when the Conservatives grabbed power they wanted to show how clever they were and find what no one else could. This, despite decades of politicians knowing better than to touch this particular site with a barge pole! Is this Francine's 'pole tax'?

This isn't the only mistake. It was these people who thought it clever to trample all over a large community's rights and destroy a communal amenity, namely the historic old industrial site of the Midland Railway.
To anybody who hasn't heard, they plan to divide Newbridge in two, with high acoustic fencing feet from people's windows and cause a divide that hasn't happened here since the digging of the canal in 1727 and the separating of Dutch Island from the rest of Weston parish.

There is also a blatant archaeology 'crime' they could well be committing, if they concrete over possible artefacts at the extended park-and-ride site. It is well known the famous Newton St Loe Roman villa, with its equally famous mosaic, was discovered not all that far away across the river, when they were building the GWR. It is also fact Clement Bush discovered traces of a road near the present bridge, which he thought came from the river, went past Partis Collage and eventually up Lansdown Lane.
Could there have been a ford here in ancient times? Professor Earle traced a Roman road out from town to Partis Collage, where stone coffins were found. So there's a Roman presence.

Is the mere sinking of test pits at the park and ride enough, or will antiquities be lost forever?

P BURNS Avon Park Lower Weston Bath

http://www.thisisbath.co.uk/news/ancient-history-lost/article-747751-detail/article.html