With a nod to the god of thread drift, can I tell you all about one of the nicest little stories that I've heard in years?
Stuart Wilson, an archaeology graduate, here in Wales, became interested in the history of the town of Trelleck. It was a place of major importance to the area and often described as such in medieval texts, but the modern town bears no marks of this past. It's puzzled experts for years. This graduate, despite not actually having a job in archaeology, started to do his own research and he became convinced that the original town was sited some miles away.
He started some digs, on his own, in the fields he had identified as a likely spot and hit some interesting remains. The one field came up for auction and with the help of friends and family he bought it (despite the landowner taking advantage of his enthusiasm and hiking up the price). Since then he has been working the site with the help of volunteers and he does seem to have found the remains of the original town, thus rewriting the history books.
He was the subject of a very good Radio 4 documentary and the first section made me laugh, the presenter arranged to meet Stuart at his place of work, a toll booth on the second Severn Crossing

GC