Building in England: It must be difficult building in England because everywhere you go, there are ruins underground. I began watching another series about what's under the ground last...

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

It must be difficult building in England because everywhere you go, there are ruins underground. I began watching another series about what's under the ground last night. They found Roman towns and also some villages that existed before the Romans arrived. Construction crews have to wait till the archaeologists finish analyzing what's there before they can continue. In one case, they dug up a huge field, studied and categorized everything, and then covered it up so the land could be farmed.

twosummers Loc: Melbourne Australia or Lincolnshire England

We wanted to convert an old barn at our previous country property in England. Planning permission was granted but the work had to stop because bats were found in the roof. We had to wait until they decided to leave - in the end we left before they did!

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

twosummers wrote:

We wanted to convert an old barn at our previous country property in England. Planning permission was granted but the work had to stop because bats were found in the roof. We had to wait until they decided to leave - in the end we left before they did!

Funny. Yes, I know that bats are protected.

Doddy Loc: Barnard Castle-England

Jerry, we have the A66 road close to my town, it follows the course of a Roman road from a place called 'Scotch Corner' which was a battle site between the Romans and the dominant British tribe of the area the 'Brigantes', over to the west coast of England, it is known now as the 'trans-Pennine' route. in recent years they have been upgrading the road, but have been held up many times as they have come across ancient sites such as early British earthworks and villages to Roman artifacts. The Archeological teams try to save as much as they before they carry on, but it must be frustrating for the road builders!

John N Loc: HP14 3QF Stokenchurch, UK

I had to plan a job to replace the aerial telephone cable across a School playground (should never have been there, we have rules on where aerial cables cannot go).

Turns out the School was built on a site now known to be of Archeological Interest. Not a problem putting the duct in but the entire trench had to be hand dug and everything not soil had to be checked by the on-site Archeologist (£££££'s). Interesting job for me, I just had to pull all the strings together, but the Civils crew would have liked to use the JCB.

DAN Phillips Loc: Graysville, GA

Be thankful that the archaeologist are there. Everyday precious history is lost because of mostly accidental, but sometimes intentional destruction of historic site. England is blessed with many, many 'dig sites and, like Egypt, Israel and Africa. I'm proud to have been a partner on some of the adventures.

Peterfiore Loc: Where DR goes south

If you think building in England is tough, building in Rome, Italy is near impossible.

Canonuser Loc: UK and South Africa

Another consideration is that the land owner/builder has to pay for the archeological work that is done as well as suffering the costs of any delay. Against this background, efforts are often made by owners and builders to ensure nothing of historical interest is found.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

John N wrote:

I had to plan a job to replace the aerial telephon... (show quote)

Amazing

P-J Loc: UK

jerryc41 wrote:

It must be difficult building in England because everywhere you go, there are ruins underground. I began watching another series about what's under the ground last night. They found Roman towns and also some villages that existed before the Romans arrived. Construction crews have to wait till the archaeologists finish analyzing what's there before they can continue. In one case, they dug up a huge field, studied and categorized everything, and then covered it up so the land could be farmed.

You also have to pay for the archaeologists while they carry out their work! Also if they find anything of significance you may not be able to proceed until English Heritage (in England only) decide what course of preservation/action to take.
That's the price we pay for having a history that goes back more than a couple of millennia - a small price to pay, don't you think?

StanMac Loc: Tennessee

I often wonder what archeologists of a thousand or two years hence will find when they dig up our remains and what they will surmise about this era of humankind.

Stan

Canonuser Loc: UK and South Africa

I don’t think there will be the same issues as we have and are providing historic records about our time on this planet for future generations to see.

Bridges Loc: Memphis, Charleston SC, now Nazareth PA

jerryc41 wrote:

It must be difficult building in England because everywhere you go, there are ruins underground. I began watching another series about what's under the ground last night. They found Roman towns and also some villages that existed before the Romans arrived. Construction crews have to wait till the archaeologists finish analyzing what's there before they can continue. In one case, they dug up a huge field, studied and categorized everything, and then covered it up so the land could be farmed.

In England, they do their duty to preserve antiquities, and then move on and use the land while in America, we just by-pass these things. We find something of interest and make it a historical site or turn it into a National Park or Monument. I guess it is because we are blessed with great space which is not the case on a small island. Space is probably more precious and the need to use the land for specific purposes is greater.

Doddy Loc: Barnard Castle-England

Peterfiore wrote:

If you think building in England is tough, building in Rome, Italy is near impossible.

The same is true in Athens as well.

Canonuser Loc: UK and South Africa

Of course the US has only been providing this sort of Archeological interest for five hundred years whereas the UK has been doing it for way over five thousand years.