I had been looking forward to this trip all year and come hell or high water I was determined not to miss it. Luckily the high waters had receded sufficiently and the weather made an effort to behave itself on this particular day, which was to prove an interesting departure from our usual format.

Martin Green has diversified from conventional farming and Down Farm is under the Countryside Stewardship scheme with the aim of restoring the property to chalk downland, a regime modelled on the Martindale reserve nearby. The farm's crop is hay, and he grazing of sheep and other naturally occurring wildlife provides the nutrient for the thin soil. The recovery of the natural environment appears to be occurring quite rapidly. Already, the number of breeding species of birds of prey has increased from one to five, and the prey species themselves are increasing in numbers as the habitat is restored. Part of the 10km+ length of the great Dorset Cursus sweeps through the area and has been a focus for human activity particularly in the prehistoric period. The course of the Cursus, along with associated structures, are right on Martin's doorstep, which makes Down Farm an archaeologist's dream.

We went to see Martin's impressively displayed collection of artefacts first, with some of us trying to get our eye in, just in case we stumbled across anything outside. In the first room, the peripheral displays are the results of fieldwalking. It was astonishing to see that almost every prehistoric and historic period to the most recent past was represented by the finds collected in this way and there were so many of them. It was especially nice to he able to handle and closely examine the flint items and gain an appreciation of the way they fitted the hand and the waxy feel that the flint surface acquires with age. The central display featured items that had been excavated in the area, including a reconstruction of a burial dating to about 1000 B.C. (mid-Bronze Age), in which the body was so tightly crouched that it is speculated that it may have been bound in some way. Among the other items displayed here I found the pottery the most interesting and the quality of the preservation was quite something when the age is considered. Martin's interests are well-known in the area, therefore, anything that turns up is brought to his attention and this is how his collection acquired a piece of Rock Art, formerly used as a drain cover. The slab is decorated' with concentric rings, which is an unusual find in this part of the country. It is thought that it may have formed part of a cyst-burial chamber dating to the late Neolithic/early Bronze Age. Apparently, this had been ploughed out from the remains of one of the many harrows in the area. In the next room, Martin had put together a display of more recent domestic ware, including a large collection of bottles, and items like the equipment from the old blacksmith's forge that reflected the rural community. We all enjoyed the fossils in the final room, many of which came from beyond the immediate locality.

Outside, Martin demonstrated the skill of flint-knapping and within minutes had deftly produced a scraper, several blades, one of which was serrated, and a hand-axe. It was quite surprising to find that the hammer stone was a very much softer material than the flint. Having produced a striking platform, it was the knapping technique that was of key importance. The use of an antler tine gave the cutting edge it's keenness.

It was at this point that a visitor arrived at the farm who turned out to be none other than Phil Harding of Time Team fame, one of my TV heroes. He and his friend then joined our happy band as we went to investigate the Great Shaft of Fir Tree Field.
This feature was first discovered when Martin investigated a circular crop mark, of about 10m in diameter, that appeared in 1990, not far from the farmhouse. Excavation started in 1992 and continued until 1994, when the water table was reached, even then augering showed that the bottom had not been reached. The result is a shaft of about 4m diameter and about 13m deep, that's an awful lot of digging. As it is most unlikely that this was a man-made feature, the favoured explanation is that the thaw at the end of the Ice Age caused water to percolate into the chalk and this eroded channels to produce underground water systems that subsequently enlarged, and hollows formed that could no longer support the weight of the overburden, resulting in the collapse into the space below. Subsequently, the shaft filled as the top of it eroded and other material from ground level fell in and this appears to have occurred relatively quickly. The earliest evidence for human activity dates to the Mesolithic in the form of microliths whose position in the ground suggests that they were all hafted on to one single tool, the rest having rotted away. The style of the tool was indicative of the last period of the Mesolithic just prior to the Neolithic when humans were starting to change their hunter-gatherer habits and adopt a settled farming lifestyle. At this point in time the shaft would have been a large bowl-shaped depression of about 3m depth. The excavated items show that, as time passed, people visited the site and various activities may have taken place - flint-working, butchering, building of fires and possible 'ritual' events - with the final use being in the Bronze Age, when the shaft was virtually full and it would no longer have been a noticeable feature. The dimensions of the shaft as we see it now are quite staggering and its sight brought forth a few gasps of amazement.

A short walk across the fields brought us in sight of the Ackling Dyke, a raised causeway that crosses the Dorsel Cursus, constructed by the Romans upon which they built a road and disturbed all the archaeology in the vicinity of of the structure, however, this was not what we had come to see. The eroded riverbank that we could see was an example of a naled, in fact we also appeared to be standing on top of one. There are several naleds in this area and this is unusual because it is the only place outside East Anglia where they have been found, so far. A naled is formed under periglacial conditions when eroded material is carried by meltwaters and accumulates around frozen springs forming a large mound of, what in this case is, Coombe Rock deposits (previously eroded, redeposited, rubbly-looking chalk). After thawing has taken place, the site of the spring becomes a hollow and the landscape takes on a bumpy mound and hollow appearance which is quite evident in the area near Down Farm.

Having worked up our appetites, we then went to the local hostelry for lunch. The short trip down the road involved crossing a ford, at least that's what the roadsign indicated, It turned out to be a very extensive ford because the small river runs along the road at this point, not by the road but on it. Martin told me that it was one of the many 'winterbournes' in the area, that is, a stream that flows during the winter, and it was presently at a low level (probably a couple of inches) and it gets much deeper as winter progresses, which is fine if you happen to own a tractor. The moral of this is to avoid travelling through anywhere called Winterhourne Something in the winter!

After an excellent lunch we said goodbye to Phil Harding and his friend and set of to Knowlton Church. The Norman church, with medieval alterations, stands within a Neolithic henge, dating to 2500 BC. The stonework of the church building was quickly established - flint, greensand, heathstone (a dark-brown, iron-rich sandstone) and some Roman tile. The central mound upon which the church stands has not been excavated, as it is a cemetry, so only the gravediggers have had access to it. This is surrounded by a ditch and ringbank with two entrances. This is not an isolated feature in the landscape but part of a large Neolithic Complex. As we looked around, Martin pointed out the sites of other circular earthworks along with the 7m high Knowlton Great Barrow, the settlement site of Knowle Hill and the Badbury Rings. Geologically, we were close to the boundary of the Hampshire Basin and the edge of the chalk, the Reading Beds exposed nearby were providing the raw material for the brickworks.

As we headed back in the direction of the farm, we stopped at a site where Martin has excavated two henges, in close proximity to each other, that date to the Late Neolithic and could be contemporary. In one of them, pitholes had been dug and there were possible ritual deposits of bones and votive deposits of pottery and antler. It was from this position that we were able to see the effect of 'false cresting'. This is where you can see a particular feature only when you are in a certain place. In this case it was the harrows, that to us appeared to be on the horizon but became less obvious if you moved up- or down-slope. We completed our visit here with a bit of fossil-hunting. The Upper Chalk exposure here has the Zone fossil called Marsupites, which was a free-swimming crinoid. Once we had established what we were looking for, we found lots of the little plates that make up the cup part of the crinoid's body.

Well, that was the end of an absolutely fascinating day and we had only seen the tip of the iceberg as far as the history of Down Farm is concerned. Thankyou to Martin Green for a wonderful day, let's hope we can repeat it some time in the future, when more new discoveries have been made. Finally, I must mention the excellent book that Martin has written. The title is:- A Landscape Revealed, 10,000 Years on a Chalkland Farm, ISBN 0-7524-1490-9. This is a very good read whether you have any previous knowledge about archaeology or not. Highly recommended!