The Roman Villa Called Cealcweallas (“Chalk Walls”), Turkdean, Gloucestershire 

Thanks again, Rhys

I’m glad you enjoyed it

Did you think they found a nymphaem? They talked about it. Definitely a bathhouse. Didn’t they look young?

@@AllotmentFox They looked so young 😆. Another sad reminder that the 1990s were 30 years ago (a fact I refuse to accept as it can’t possibly be true). Yes I think they did find a nymphaeum, or a Romano-British version. Springs and bodies of water were sacred places for 1,000s of years, as they were links to the spiritual world, a connection to the subliminal plane. There may not have been the mosaics and rotunda you see in the bigger examples in Europe, but I can certainly imagine there were niches and statues there to the now long forgotten deity that inhabited that spring. The Romano-brits may have had ostensible sophistication but I think the beliefs of their more rustic Iron Age ancestors would have held their mystical importance.

@@adampascoe1084 that was my only criticism: they didn’t try and find a mosaic. Yes I know they only have three days. Get the locals in on it, there is always a village antiquarian with a spade and a bossy temperament who can finish the job. All it takes is one farmer and a subsoiler and the mosaics are gone. If I owned that field I’d get it all done and open it to the public just like Chedworth down the road.

@@AllotmentFox I totally agree. I think they only realised the importance of the spring late on in the dig, and focusing resources up there would detract from the amazing villa. Given that farming is so precarious these days and government subsidies are, well, crap. A tourist attraction like this could be a God send. A wider excavation would also shed light on what I think is the most interesting part of history and that’s the continuity between eras. Bronze Age to Iron Age, Iron Âge to Roman and Roman to Early Medieval. There is so much more continuity than we expect. These people are our ancestors, I truly believe that knowing about them and understanding them gives us an understanding of our ancestry and gives us roots and places us in our landscape.

Continuity is what I’m all about, though I like discontinuity if I have no choice but to acknowledge it: civilisation-crushing disaster is part of the great human story. Interesting that you start at Bronze Age and finish at Medieval.

There seems to be an idealogical move to show Britain has been taken over. It hasn’t. That view led to irresponsible foreign people who knew nothing about us encouraging rioting. Luckily we have a new government that is not pussy-footing around with public order offences so there have been some very surprised people getting long jail sentences when they were expecting a thank you letter. For a resistance movement they unsurprisingly (almost to a man) pled guilty. The magistrates thanked them for the guilty plea and bunged 10% on as a deterrent. There are two definitions for moor, I think interestingly. Do you not have moorland in the states? From right wing to left wing extremism, the Guardian has been writing articles about cows being killers. I intend to repeatedly rubbish this until I tempt fate too far and get trampled on-camera. When a cow was rammed by our police, the Guardian sided with the public sector workers following health and safety procedure while the right declared that it was destined for the butcher anyway so who cares. Nobody gave a thought for the farmer’s investment in money and care, or the police trying to destroy private property or for the cow who was just a little scared and who could have been led home with a packet of digestive biscuits and a few soothing words.

We don't have moors of quite the same character. Certainly not with all the gorse abd heather. Our version would be prairie perhaps. The controversy I encountered over the "moorland" definition came from a different and very bizarre conspiracy stating that it was you, the English, who performed some sort of medieval Reconquista a la El Cid and took the place away from the Moors. I have also dealt with the ideological weirdness you mentioned. Am acquaintance had been told, by Mr. Internet, that the UK was now a caliphate. I couldn't convince him otherwise although I had just spent three months there in a caliphate-free situation. Mr. Internet always knows better. The madness comes from all quarters these days. I saw the justice system over there dropping the hammer on the bold bin-burners. Mr. Internet strangely did not come to their defense. In fact I think he skivved off to Majorca or thereabouts. He's a bit dodgy. Tends to push people over the edge and abandon them there.

@@AllotmentFox Be objective. Follow the demographics.

@@tomrainboro3728 I’m guessing you mean that Muslim Britons are having more children than non-Muslim Britons and that we will be outnumbered in 30 years’ time? I shall go away and have a look at the statistics, but in the meantime you may or may not have noticed that if immigration has become a matter of concern that corrective measures have been taken: ie Brexit. That doesn’t look like a takeover to me. You might also know that the Tories botched illegal immigration for a decade and that the previous Labour government was expelling illegal immigrants by the thousands, again that doesn’t suggest a takeover. Regardless of politics the state protect itself

Right, objectivity- National identity: “in 2021, 90.3% (53.8 million) of usual residents identified with at least one UK national identity (English, Welsh, Scottish, Northern Irish, British, and Cornish); this is a slight decrease from 92.0% (51.6 million) in 2011” Ethnic identity: “In 2021, 81.7% (48.7 million) of usual residents in England and Wales identified their ethnic group within the high-level "White" category, a decrease from 86.0% (48.2 million) in the 2011 Census.” A decrease of 6 percentiles in ten years! But- “Across the 19 ethnic groups, the largest percentage point increase was seen in the number of people identifying through the "White: Other White" category (6.2%, 3.7 million in 2021, up from 4.4%, 2.5 million in 2011), this response option allows people to specify their ethnic group through writing it in; the increase may be partly explained by the new search-as-you-type functionality introduced for Census 2021, making it easier for people to self-define when completing the census online.” An increase of 6.2 percentiles. As “white” is down and “other white” is up the same amount you could imagine that this was an auto-corrrect error humorously raising its ugly head. Regardless, it is not a takeover and you should be aware that the political culture has shifted enough to make it clear that if a party wants power it has to be tough on illegal immigration and I expect, talking to other people about this, tougher on immigration full stop. What does seem high to me is that there are 10% “usual residents” that don’t identify in some way as British even though they have an option to choose a different ethnicity too (ie, Asian-British, Black-British, etc), especially as every person wishing to settle here would have had to make an oath (or affirmation) of allegiance to the crown. For me the national identity statistic is important because I don’t really care what you look like, I care about how you behave. Certainly no cause for rioting. Was I objective enough there?

No, thank you for watching. Grundy didn’t know there was a villa there and neither did I but it was obvious the charter was pointing there. I looked at the charter a couple of years ago and thought Roman but I thought it was more a walled boundary of some kind. There is also a field name there of Chaddle which is within spitting distance of the word Chestles (ceosel: gravel, West Country for pebbles; related to Ceastre with the implication of stone), the classic field name for a Roman villa. Shame Time Team didn’t invite Stuart, he would’ve spotted the English references to the villa. The (non-toxic) ink experiment could be another citizen science technique if we can find another Roman culvert. The one I found was dry, sadly.

@@AllotmentFox I’m currently on the trail of a Roman culvert - I’ll let you know if we can run the test!

Is it within 200 miles of me? I have my knapsack packed and ready

@@AllotmentFox 223 according to Google Maps!

@@WC21UKProductionsLtd somewhere in kent? Manchester?

That’s what I am becoming. There are psychological dangers to wandering the countryside talking to yourself

@@AllotmentFox So? Dickens is said to have been the last person to have walked very street in London, muttering to himself as he polished the phrases of his next bestseller.

@@JelMain that is amongst the humans, a much safer psychological place

@@AllotmentFox I'm neurodiverse. The opposite is true.

I was being lighthearted, but seriously I was labelled as special needs (what they called me) at primary school in the 70s and I went on to get a degree. My school record shows them teaching me why I had to do things when I didn’t understand why I should or even how. I still feel ocassionally ill-adapted to some situations. Being a driver was the easiest work I ever did because I never had to put up with other people. But for me: I know without really feeling it, that I need to take part in the social melee of society and avoid the intellectual perils of identifying with the wilderness. I watch some other RU-vidrs and wonder when they will leave their place in society behind. Your mileage may vary. Good luck anyway

For Maugersbury, I have Mæðelgar’s fort which *sounds* Germanic, but I am happy to be surprised. What name do you have for Mauger?

Mum used to get us to say 'Twll twrch' mole hole

oh! There is a reason why I was looking for a connection between holes and Welsh boars. Tell me more

@@AllotmentFox Theres some mythical ones, I will try to look them up

@@AllotmentFox A lot of burys have Welsh names Cad, battle, burys, lots, Dewsbury several Irish for example Malmesbury. Mauger would be a Mac. Living as I do in the Welsh Marches I constantly see anglicised Welsh names the epns tends to the later interpretation

Gospels are referred to as godspells in Old English religious documents. I was implying specialness or privileged speech as Stowe has a hint of specialness. YMMV

Butchering is the word. We use hart (archaic but still here) and roe, normally roedeer. Roe is a specific species of deer (rah in Old English). We also have fallow deer (fealu: yellow/tawny) deer and stags. Deor used to mean all wild animals but even in the Early Medieval period it was becoming the word for deer