Fossil Trees - Tytherington

As part of the new development off Duck Street, Cotswold Homes commissioned Henrietta Armstrong to design and create a piece of public art for the village of Tytherington. The village has an extensive history, the earliest mesolithic settlers of around 10,000 years ago, hunted and gathered in the extensive woodlands that would have covered the area of Tytherington, after the last ice age. Henrietta became interested in the history of the village through physical objects, the flint scrapers, knives and arrowheads that have been found all over the parish during ploughing or road works, that had left behind.

Alongside working with Archaeological organisations to view these discovered artefacts she also visited Bristol Museum and Art gallery to view their Thecodontosaurus dinosaur fossil remains discovered in Grovesend quarry in Tytherington. Deborah Hutchinson the curator of Geology also showed her other fossil remains found in the area, not currently on display.

The Thecodontosaurus (Thecodontosaurus antiquus) was Britain’s oldest dinosaur and though only small at around 2 metres in length, this herbivorous dinosaur was very important as it was one of the earliest dinosaurs to exist, the first to be discovered from the Triassic and the fifth dinosaur ever to be officially named. First discovered by quarrymen in 1834 in Durdham Down quarry in Clifton, Bristol, sadly the majority of this find was destroyed during an air raid bombing of The Natural History Museum of Bristol during the ‘Bristol Blitz’ of the second world war. Leading to great excitement when the remains of 11 individual Thecodontosaurus were discovered in Woodleaze Quarry, Tytherington. Tytherington was part of an island during the time when Thecodontosaurus lived and a lot closer to the equator so would have been tropical, one of a number of islands known as the Mendip Archipelago.

 Henrietta was then put in contact with the Archaeology department at the museum in November 2019, as Tytherington and South Gloucestershire are part of their collection area. She wanted to see the stone tools discovered that she had read about and if there was anything else that had been discovered in Tytherington. Gail Boyce, Senior Curator of Archaeology & World Cultures at Bristol Museum & Art Gallery invited Henrietta to see two items that had been discovered in Tytherington. One was a silver gilt dress pin from the 16th Century, which had been bent but would have been straight originally and about 8cm in length. The round head of the pin was gold and covered in a filigree pattern and the shaft of the pin was silver. These pins were thought to be Saxon, when first discovered but turned out to be ‘mass produced’ in the middle ages.The second item was more unusual, a silver seal matrix with an elaborate openwork trefoil construction and an oval sealing surface with the image of  Agnes Dei (lamb of god) engraved into it. The seal was from the first half of the sixteenth century and would have belonged to an important person within the church. Around that time only people of particular classes were allowed to own certain metals.

Tytherington has always had a close connection with the church and the church has been very important in its history. In the Middle Ages through the granting of lands by King Stephen to Milo, Sheriff of Gloucester, Tytherington was connected to an abbey high up in the Black Mountains in Wales, Llanthany Abbey, that also had a daughter house in Gloucester. Milo allowed the Abbey some of the income from the property in Tytherington. Twenty years later in 1155, The church of Tytherington was granted to the monks. In 1315 Europe was hit with endless wet weather and suffered possibly the greatest agricultural disaster ever recorded. The Abbey struggled with famine, a fire which destroyed its church, disease and floods on its land. The monks appealed to Bishop Orlton for help and then the abbey was given the full income from Tytheringotn church as there was no rector, but a small stipend for a vicar. This connection to the Llanthany Abbey could possibly explain why the silver seal, an item of some importance and value came to be in a tiny village like Tytherington.

 Henrietta contacted Hanson Aggregates who currently own the quarry at Tytherington and recently started up operations at the quarry again after the quarry being mothballed since 2009. Simon Parkes, Hanson Unit Manager for Bristol, very kindly took Henrietta on a tour of the quarry by truck. From this she considered the process of quarrying and digging down through the layers of time and rock and thought it would be interesting for the villagers to have a tour of the quarry as it is so close but usually inaccessible and so alien. The quarry is important in the history of Tytherington, as many people moved there to work in the quarry. The layers of time on top of each other and the secrets about the past laying hidden waiting to be discovered. The beautiful colour of the rocks and the striations of the layers exposed against the vividly bright blue of the ground water lake in the centre. The tour in February 2020 was well attended with over 21 villagers present. Several of the attendees were from families that had lived in Tytherington for several generations. Henrietta greeted the attendees at the main gate of Hanson Quarry and then took them into one of the Hanson offices where Simon gave a talk about the history of the quarry, including current and future operations. 

Researching the archaeological artefacts found in Tytherington and visiting Bristol museum to look at them made Henrietta consider these items. Lost by their owners only to be found again hundreds of years later to give us a small insight on life from the time that they came from. Tiny slices of human life, messages from ghosts of the past. This lead her to come up with the idea that as well as the public sculpture that is currently in the fabrication stage and due to be installed at a later date in the village. She will also develop a 'Time Capsule' with the villagers of Tytherington for the Tytherington of the future. Instead of lost items they will intentionally select what they want to leave for the future and what they want that to say about Tytherington and village life in 2020. The time capsule will create an opportunity for the existing villagers and new residents to come together and feel acknowledged as being part of Tytherington. There are many things to be discussed about the 'Tytherington time capsule' and she wants to make sure that the whole village has the opportunity to have their input. Since the Covid-19 pandemic hit, this idea has become even more poignant and the aim will be to record what villagers agree is most important to go into the time capsule. Once the contents of the time capsule has been decided and all the items gathered, there can be a burial ceremony event involving the whole community.