‘Why can’t we dig like they do on Time Team?’ The meaning of the past within working class communities

Abstract

This paper describes the community excavation organised by Great Yarmouth Museums in Norfolk, England in 2001. It resulted from a period of consultation with a wide range of community representatives within the Borough during the development of the Borough’s Heritage Strategy. In 2000, the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions published a review of the Indices of Deprivation, Great Yarmouth ranked fifth-worst in ward level intensity out of 354 local authority districts in England, and the excavation took place in the heart of the most deprived area of the town. Consultation showed that those who lived in this area had a strong interest in the past beyond memory and were keen to find out more about it. Above all, they wanted to take part in an excavation and put the objects they found in a new museum. The paper explores common preconceptions of working class attitudes to archaeology and heritage and considers how far these were borne out by work with deprived communities in Great Yarmouth.