Day 9: More carousing with old friends, then to Peterborough and Flag Fen

Last night we dined with my old school mate Cathy Shepherd and her English husband Bob. Cathy has lived in London since 1980. We met in primary school and then attended the same high school. I hadn't seen her since the 1970s so there was much to catch up on and an excellent time was had by all.  In an extraordinary coincidence involving two blog readers,we established firstly, Ms Melons, that your parents and Cathy's mother and step-father had been friends in Mt Tamborine. Second, Oriana Soprano, we established that Cathy's step brother, Brendan O'Loghlen sings with Oriana Chorale and thirdly, he was quite well-acquainted with Geoff during the 1980s.  Small world, eh?   

This morning we lugged our 50,000 kg cases to London Kings Cross for a train trip north to Peterborough in Cambridgeshire. About 8 kilometres away from the city CBD is Flag Fen, a bronze age site with a well-preserved timber causeway and heaps of artifacts still being unearthed.  It's fortunate that Peterborough has this local tourist attraction because I cannot think of any other reason why anyone would come to this truly wretched dump of a place.

Everyone looks unhealthy and impoverished. Many shops are empty. In the town centre where we went for lunch, we saw so many young, hard-faced girls, fags in hand, pushing strollers containing miserable-looking toddlers.  There were lots of cocky-looking young men as well, most of whom seemed to have spilled out of the huge magistrate's court nearby.  It was very depressing - we had never before seen an entire town that seemed so down on its luck. We were glad to get out of there and drive to Flag Fen in our newly-hired 2014 Renault Captur.  Bloke readers who are keen to know about its torque and engine capacity will hear from Geoff on these issues shortly.

Meanwhile, Flag Fen!  The site was discovered in 1982 by Francis Pryor, an archaeologist who often featured on 'Time Team'.  He is still actively involved in excavation work and we were very disappointed to learn that he had been there just this morning, before our arrival.

This  pic on the right is a re-created Bronze Age roundhouse, similar to those that Flag Fen locals would have lived in.  A fen is a sort of boggy marsh. The reason the timber causeway and so many artifacts (swords, axes, knives etc) have survived is the lack of oxygen in the peat.  Most of them were ritually destroyed before being placed in the bog - it was an ancestor-worship ritual that went on for hundreds of years before the water levels rose and the site was abandoned.

                                  

 The digs have also revealed 9 Bronze Age boats
 - this is a pic of a pic of one of them.  The boats are in the process of being 'pickled' so they don't deteriorate now that they're out of the peat so while we saw them, they were wrapped up and would not make a good photograph.







      

                                                                                   By the time the Romans invaded in the first century AD, the landscape was quite different and the causeway was invisible, buried in the peat under a large lake.  They had a garrison not far away and built a road that runs right through Flag Fen - we walked on it today. 

                                                                            

This is a bit of the Roman road, with some Soay  sheep in the back ground. These are very similar to sheep that the Bronze Age flag Fennians would have kept for textiles and meat. The sheep are not shorn - the wool is either shed or pulled off.









All in all, Flag Fen is well worth a visit but Peterborough is such a sad, down-at-heel place it is probably best avoided.  Handing over to Geoff now for bloke news.

Not much in the way of bloke news, particularly regarding the Captur.  Seems to go OK although I still haven't seen what she'll do in a straight line (blokes will understand the reference).  A few idiosyncrasies which we're hopefully in the process of sorting out.  Otherwise, I must agree with all the above - Flag Fen 10, Peterborough zero.  I've just checked out a local watering hole called the Peacock.  In a first for me, I downed my one pint and decamped.  Atmosphere like something out of Eastenders without the charm.  The beer wasn't bad but was from Yorkshire.  Can't they even make beer here? I wonder if Flag Fen can be moved elsewhere?

Heading oop north tomorrow, hopefully to more convivial surrounds.