ARCHAEOLOGISTS from Durham University today (Tuesday, May 14) began work to discover what secrets lie beneath a Teesdale village green.
Members of the local history group in Boldron, just south of Barnard Castle, made a successful bid to Teesdale Action Partnership for a grant to cover the cost of a geophysics survey of the village green.
Duncan Hale and Ashley Hayes, from the university's archaeological services department, visited the village to carry out the work.
Senior archaeologist Mr Hale said two techniques were used, a geomagnetic survey and an earth resistance survey.
“They measure different properties within the soil and build up a map of any subsurface features,” he said.
“That might be old ditches, tracks, wall footings, pits or paths – we are looking for any anomalies.
“The idea is to see if the green has always been open as it is now or whether it has changed over the centuries.”
Once the data logged by the instruments used in the survey has been downloaded and analysed, a detailed report will be produced for both the history group and the historic environment record office at Durham County Council.
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