Pottery People - the Dixon family

226 years ago today, Thomas Dixon was baptised in All Saints Church, Madeley, Shropshire.  The Dixons appear to have been a family steeped in the pottery industry.  We know nothing of Thomas's life up until his marriage to Sarah Ann Beddow, in 1825, in the nearby town of Broseley, but we can assume he had spent his younger days perfecting his artistic craft, for after he moved to Broseley (or possibly before) he began work as a china painter specialising in porcelain.  This meant Thomas would be carefully adding the colour and patterns to the pottery product.  It's likely that this is how Thomas met Sarah Ann Beddow, for she was also employed in the industry, as a burnisher of gold.  This fascinating job saw her applying loose sheets of gold onto clay, and polishing it to obtain a smooth and shiny effect.  Such a job would have taken great skill, and with costly materials, her employer clearly had strong faith in Sarah's abilities. 

There's no documentary evidence to support this conclusion, but the couple's location in Broseley puts them on the doorstep of the famous Coalport pottery works, and given the skills involved, it seems very likely that this was where Thomas and Sarah worked.  The Coalport works sprung up in 1795, when Thomas was a baby, eventually absorbing other local pottery manufacturers, so that by the time Thomas was an adult, the Coalport pottery works were the main players in the area.  Coalport became the market leader in decorated porcelain at this time, and Thomas and Sarah would have been turning their hand to all manner of patterns and techniques - this included rococo shapes and flower-encrustation, as well as "Japan patterns" with a deep underglaze blue, with overglazed red, green and gilt embellishments.

Engraving of the Coalport pottery works in 1820

Thomas and Sarah had eight children in the course of their marriage - my family line runs through their eldest child, Eliza Ann Beddow Dixon.  Artistic flair clearly ran in the family - in her early 20s, Eliza also began work as a pottery burnisher, polishing clay pots to reduce porosity.  This would probably have been done with other women and children, working under the watchful eye of the superintendent.  Eliza was joined in this work by two of her sisters, E. Ann and Sarah (aged only ten when she began this work).  Meanwhile, one of their brothers, William, was busy learning his trade as an artist and a sculptor.

We don't know ever so much more about Thomas and Sarah Dixon, but they have made for some fascinating research, and hold a unique position in my family history for being line of work, when many others were still employed as general agricultural labourers.

Reasons to be cheerful II

Number one - pulmonaria.  One of my favourite spring flowers is in bloom right now.  Pulmonaria, also known as lungwort, pokes its blue-purple heads up in March to offer a welcome relief from the winter weather.  It cheers me up massively to see if come back, and is also a must-visit for the local bee population, so it's very much win-win.

Number two - tadpoles.  Ok, so I did mention them in passing last week, but it's the first year that frogs have actually spawned in my container pond, so this is a big deal for me.  I spent a time today peering into the pond and watching them, go about their own little lives in complete oblivion to the wider world.  It's not only a reminder that life will go on, but it also reinforces the optimism that there are things to look forward to - like watching these little critters turn into frogs, by which time hopefully things will be back to normal for us, too.

Number three - Roman Britain.  I'm really enjoying the book Roman Britain, A New History, by Guy de la Bédoyère.  It's a delve into what I think is the most interesting period of British history, and a fascinating exploration of the governance, military activities, and urban and rural life of Britain under Roman rule.

Number four - crumble.  My wife makes the best crumble, and she made one today.

Albert Uderzo, 1927-2020

Reasons to be cheerful I

Strange times, eh?

It's really easy to fall into a pit of despair, or to look around and feel very little hope as our travel options are reduced, our shops shut down, our bars and restaurants locked up, and our usual way of life disrupted for who knows how long.  If you're feeling glum about it all, I've been with you all the way, and like everybody else, I cannot wait for things to settle again.

Yet in amongst the madness of the past few weeks, the world has continued to turn.  Like most people, I spent today practicing "social distancing" from the rest of the population, mostly working hard in the garden.  Brits are by their nature liberty lovers, and nothing narks us more than being told we can't do something, but as we move into a difficult period, we all need to keep our sense of humour intact, and discover those simple things that bring us pleasure and fulfilment.  With that in mind, I'd like to tell you about a few of the things that have given me pleasure this weekend:

Number one - my fish are back!  After a six-month holiday, I finally brought my lovely fish back home.  I had to relocate them whilst the building works were going on, and whilst they spent their time in a temporary tank, I took the opportunity to thoroughly renovate their permanent home, installing a textured background, replacing the gravel with sand, and adding new décor and artificial plants.  It sounds funny, but our home felt different after they'd gone, and it's very lovely to have them back - watching them explore their new home has mesmerised me today.

Number two - Spring has sprung!  March is always the time when I work the hardest in the garden, clearing the winter damage (which has been bad this year), repotting, taking stock and planning for the warm months to come.  But in amongst the hard work, today I was able to turn my head upwards to the sunny sky, feel the warmth on my face, and smile.  Nature, as if oblivious to news around the world, continues to simply get on with it - there are tiny tadpoles wriggling their way around the pond; cowslips and oxslips showing off their bright yellow flowers; and my favourite thing about March, these snake's head fritilleries, which seem to come up every year.  And amongst them, the bees are getting busy, the birds and chirping away, all the beautiful aspects of life continue, which has to be enormous compensation.

Number three - country walks are free.  The bridleway to Coffinswell lies only a short walk through the woods, and after a day's gardening, provides an uplifting way to see in the evening.  I love this walk, particularly when the path bears slightly to the left, and the rolling Devonshire hills begin to obscure the houses and roads so that you feel truly in the country.  The sun setting over the moors to the west is a spectacle that never gets boring - the fact that we can walk there from the front door is a pleasure worth savouring.  Kudos to Lizzie for this pic.

Number four - fake flowers.  I bought these a couple of weeks ago to brighten up the north-facing kitchen windowsill, where previous live plants have failed.  I know they're fake, but they still excite me, as they represent many of my favourite flowers - poppies of course, but also love-in-a-mist, echinacea and hellebores.  To top it all off, I've finally found a proper use for those vintage French milk bottles I bought ten years ago.

So there's a few nice things that have got me through this weekend and helped me to appreciate what I have around me.  Life is strange at the moment, but it doesn't have to be bleak - so why not spend a few minutes thinking about some of the things that bring you joy and pleasure?

Going to the match? Treat yourself to a programme!

The Archaeology Files - Ackling Dyke

Date of visit: 1 March 2020

Location: East Woodyates, Dorset (12 miles north east of Blandford Forum) and Badbury Rings, Dorset (five miles south east of Blandford Forum) 

Time period: Roman, AD43 - AD410

Type of site: Earthwork remains of a Roman road which ran from Salisbury to Badbury Rings hillfort and possibly further to the south west.

Photos: Ackling Dyke site visit photo album 

Description and observations:

The Roman road of Ackling Dyke runs from Badbury Rings Iron Age hillfort (near the town of Blandford Forum in Dorset) in a north east direction, terminating at the hillfort of Old Sarum, in modern-day Salisbury.  The road fascinates me because at nearly 2,000 years old, it somehow still manages to exist, for a vast amount of its route, in the modern landscape.  In typical English history style, the name we give to the Roman road is actually of Anglo Saxon origin, suggesting that perhaps they didn't know what they were looking at (or that maybe the road had deteriorated so much by the time it was found, that it no longer resembled a road.)  

I first encounter Ackling Dyke after pulling into a lay-by on the A354, right on the Hampshire-Dorset border at a little hamlet called East Woodyates.  I’ve identified the site from Google Maps, so am not entirely sure what to expect on the ground, but I can clearly see that on this bend of the A354 the modern road (which has followed the path of Ackling Dyke for the last couple of miles) arcs eastwards, departing from the course of the original Roman road, and leaving Ackling Dyke preserved as what appears to be earthworks in the landscape, running to the north east.  Nowadays the old road appears to form some sort of bridal way across a nature reserve, and the earthworks are very subtle, as shown below.

Ackling Dyke, where the course of the modern road departs from the Roman

Ackling Dyke preserved as slight earthworks at East Woodyates

Beyond this section, heading north east towards Salisbury, the road is preserved mainly through hedgerows, with the occasional earthwork surviving in the land - a great example of this is the stretch immediately north east of East Woodyates, as shown below.  From the landscape archaeologist’s perspective, such close alignment of the field boundaries to the old Roman road suggests that the field system in this area is newer than the road – they’re broadly linear to the course of the road, with very little to suggest that a prehistoric field system is in use here.  And when it gets to the outskirts of the modern city of Salisbury, Ackling Dyke forms the boundary of the Salisbury and South Wilts golf course and forms a suburban road through a 20th century housing estate, before eventually terminating at the humongous Iron Age hillfort of Old Sarum.  At Old Sarum, it connects to Port Way, which runs to Silchester (Calleva Atrebatum) and London (Londinium,) the capital of Roman Britain.

Various ways that Ackling Dyke is preserved in a short section of landscape at East Woodyates

Ackling Dyke preserved in various ways on the approach to Old Sarum, Salisbury

Going in the other direction from East Woodyates, Ackling Dyke trundles merrily in a south west direction, destination Badbury Rings, some 11 miles away.  Now, Badbury will be the subject of another blog in the near future, but sticking to the Roman road on this site, it forms some low-key but definitely visible earthworks across the north west side of the hillfort.  I actually wandered around for a good 25 minutes trying to find this road on my visit, eventually linking up with it where it passes close to three Bronze Age barrows, just before continuing across the path of the B3082 and forming the line of the modern road heading south west (this road travels to Dorchester, then on to Exeter - although whether it is still called Ackling Dyke after Badbury seems debatable.)  This is visible in the aerial photo below, whilst the Ordnance Survey map of 1900 demonstrates where Ackling Dyke is intersected by another Roman road, which led to Hamworthy (Roman Moriconium), an Iron Age settlement that was used as a Roman harbour.  It's interesting that, at the point of contact with Badbury Rings, the road swings somewhat suddenly to the east, rather than clip the Iron Age earthworks - so does this suggest some sort of Roman respect for the site?  I think it probably does, in a similar way to the route of the road passing close to, but respecting the sanctity of, the Bronze Age barrows.

At Badbury Rings Ackling Dyke passes across the north west of the hillfort 

A second Roman road joins Ackling Dyke, as seen on the OS map of 1900

At this point, I’d like to point out the significance of the Roman Army deliberately linking this hillfort with Old Sarum (and if you include the onward road from Badbury Rings to Dorchester, it links to Maiden Castle too.)  These were some of the most imposing, important and revered sites to the local Iron Age population, also going across two different native “tribes” (the Durotriges at Maiden Castle and Badbury, and the Atrebates at Old Sarum.)  We know that there was still some native occupation at Maiden Castle and Old Sarum (Badbury, like most hillforts, appears to have been abandoned by the time of the Roman invasion.)  So what are we looking at here?  For what it’s worth, I think Ackling Dyke represents Rome’s attempt at “shock an awe” – much of the road was built with an exceptionally large embankment (wider than most Roman roads), designed to be seen from a great distance and to impress and intimidate the local population.  I think it makes a huge statement, to build a big military road in clear view of these sites.  On a more practical level, the road also allows for the swift movement of troops through the countryside, creating a quick means of communication between these sites.  

Ackling Dyke at Badbury Rings.  Note the three Bronze Age barrows in the distance

So that's Ackling Dyke - not the most famous road of Roman Britain, but certainly one that packs a punch in terms of archaeological interpretation, and a real good one for getting out in the field.  I'll leave you with an artist's impression of a Roman road in Britain.  It's not specifically Ackling Dyke, but it maybe gives a flavour for how the road looked nearly 2,000 years ago, bringing the maps and earthworks to life just a little bit.

Thought of the Month - March

The beautiful Spring came,

and when nature resumes her loveliness, 

the human soul is apt to revive also

(Harriet Ann Jacobs)

Seen around Middle England