Dig and Sow in Ashwell

part of the Cultural Olympiad

From the Daily Telegraph of 19 September, 2011

In the idyllic Hertfordshire village of Ashwell earlier this month, something very odd was going on. Thirty-four households with green balloons hung on their front doors simultaneously began digging holes in their gardens a metre square. At the end of the day, they covered them up again.

Defective drains? Broadband cable? No, the cause of their spadework was not domestic utilities, but a project called Dig and Sow, part of a broader yearlong Cultural Olympiad programme of community-based activities throughout the east of England called On Landgard Point, devised by the avant-gardiste Pacitti Company.

Five other locations around the region will also be digging and sowing over the coming months. All 205 participants (one for every nation participating in the Olympics) are being inspired by a mentoring team led by the Cambridge University archaeologist Carenza Lewis (formerly of Channel 4's Time Team) to excavate their homes and discover the deep history that lies beneath them.

In Ashwell, it's all very friendly but also a mite competitive in the most community-spirited way. ("Ashwell loves a challenge," I was told proudly.)

The McGregors, halfway down the high street, are going at it hammer and tongs, and by noon had already come up with a mass of Victorian detritus including bottle-stoppers, buttons, nails, oyster shells and clay pipes.

Across the road, the Longs hadn't found anything much but were sweatily persevering, while the Mills family had already found medieval potsherds and lead from an Elizabethan window.

At the end of the six digs, art takes over. The Pacitti Company will reflect on the finds in a film with a soundtrack by Michael Nyman and collate them into a new folk encyclopedia.

Most magically, each of the 205 diggers has been given a different symbolic silver amulet to sow back in the earth when the holes are filled - leaving a tiny mystery for a future generation to uncover and ponder.