Browse content similar to 07/11/2011. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Hello and welcome to Inside Out, back with three more stories from | :00:02. | :00:12. | |
:00:12. | :00:12. | ||
where you live. Hello. The misery caused by Berkshire squatters. | :00:12. | :00:15. | |
home left like this and they're not even criminals. They've changed the | :00:15. | :00:19. | |
locks and they're in my mother's house. The Dorset animal charity | :00:19. | :00:23. | |
picking up the pieces of a cruel past in Serbia. Championing the | :00:23. | :00:25. | |
plight of dancing bears, raising awareness about the desperate | :00:25. | :00:31. | |
sadness and how they're treated and abused. And digging for history on | :00:31. | :00:35. | |
the South's highest cliff. Bronze Age discoveries in a golden | :00:35. | :00:39. | |
location. It's like when snow falls and you're the first one to walk | :00:39. | :00:45. | |
over that nice, fresh fallen snow. It's a similar sort of feeling. | :00:45. | :00:55. | |
:00:55. | :01:03. | ||
Jon Cuthill and this is Inside Out First tonight, what would you do if | :01:03. | :01:07. | |
squatters moved into your property? Call the cops? It might surprise | :01:07. | :01:11. | |
you to learn that squatting isn't a criminal offence. But that could | :01:11. | :01:15. | |
soon be about to change. Sadly, too late for one Berkshire woman who's | :01:15. | :01:17. | |
had problems getting squatters out of her property. Here's Jane | :01:17. | :01:26. | |
This house in Berkshire belongs to join Joy McCabe, her brother and | :01:26. | :01:31. | |
her sister. It was left to them when their mother died. My mum was | :01:31. | :01:37. | |
there for 50 years. We grew up there. All our memories are there. | :01:37. | :01:42. | |
And now, we can't even go into it. While the family was deciding what | :01:42. | :01:48. | |
to do with their mum's old home, four unwanted squatters moved in. | :01:48. | :01:53. | |
We can't get into our own property now. They've changed the locks. | :01:53. | :02:02. | |
The police were called but the family was told it was a civil | :02:02. | :02:05. | |
matter and they couldn't through the squatters out. How surprised | :02:05. | :02:09. | |
are you that this isn't a criminal offence? I didn't believe it wasn't | :02:09. | :02:14. | |
a criminal offence. How can you move into a property that was my | :02:14. | :02:18. | |
mum's house, which I will always think of as my mum's house? Was she | :02:18. | :02:27. | |
a house proud person? She was indeed. She loved that house. She | :02:27. | :02:35. | |
yes. Time to pay a visit to the four Lithuanian squatters. They | :02:35. | :02:39. | |
claim they pay rent, not to Joy, but to someone on the internet. | :02:39. | :02:42. | |
They even claim they've got a contract and that they're the | :02:42. | :02:45. | |
victims of a scam. Are you going to move out? When are you going to | :02:45. | :02:49. | |
move out? As soon as our contract finishes, we will go. Can you show | :02:49. | :02:59. | |
:02:59. | :03:01. | ||
me the contract? No. No. Is there I'm barely sleeping because I keep | :03:01. | :03:06. | |
thinking, what if we can't get them out? So now we've got to go to | :03:06. | :03:09. | |
court and hopefully we're going to get an order to get them out and | :03:10. | :03:16. | |
then we'll have to get bailiffs to In Brighton, the squatting capital | :03:16. | :03:19. | |
of the South, there's always someone on the lookout for an | :03:19. | :03:23. | |
unused building. This Regency property near the Royal Pavilion | :03:23. | :03:30. | |
was snapped up by squatters just We just noticed this place was not | :03:30. | :03:35. | |
being used. We looked inside. It looked as if it hadn't been used | :03:35. | :03:40. | |
for quite a long time. So we acquired entry into the building. | :03:40. | :03:50. | |
:03:50. | :03:53. | ||
How did you get in? There was an The local MP sees this lot as | :03:53. | :04:01. | |
criminals and wants the law changed so they can be put behind bars. | :04:01. | :04:04. | |
It's a lifestyle choice for some people and we call them serial | :04:04. | :04:07. | |
squatters and they do cause damage and there's no retribution for the | :04:07. | :04:11. | |
damage they cause. As soon you leave one property, you can move | :04:11. | :04:14. | |
into another without any cost to you whatsoever. If we actually made | :04:14. | :04:18. | |
it a criminal act, where people have to pay for the damages or get | :04:18. | :04:21. | |
locked up in jail, then they will stop and eventually people will get | :04:21. | :04:27. | |
the message that it is illegal. wants us slung out because he's | :04:27. | :04:30. | |
like, more on the side of rich landlords than poorer people in | :04:30. | :04:35. | |
general. Because we've a time of economic crisis, property values | :04:35. | :04:38. | |
are remaining the same, even though people's ability to play those | :04:38. | :04:48. | |
:04:48. | :04:51. | ||
prices is going down. -- paydays prices. This privately owned house | :04:51. | :04:54. | |
had stood empty for five years. It's now home to a varied community, | :04:54. | :04:57. | |
some jobless, some homeless and some students. So this is my room - | :04:57. | :05:01. | |
arts studio. It's really good having a lot of space where we can | :05:01. | :05:04. | |
work. Standard accommodation wouldn't really have enough room. I | :05:04. | :05:08. | |
wouldn't be able to afford enough room. Would people sympathise with | :05:08. | :05:14. | |
that? Wouldn't they say, "Tough?" Maybe. There's always a nice | :05:14. | :05:18. | |
community and you're not going to be on the streets. It's just a | :05:18. | :05:21. | |
welcoming place to come to. It's not a scary homeless centre where | :05:21. | :05:27. | |
sometimes people can just be a not more intimidating, I find. | :05:27. | :05:29. | |
squatters believe if a property is neglected and empty, the | :05:29. | :05:33. | |
responsible thing is to take it over. If you owned a property in | :05:33. | :05:38. | |
later life and someone squatted in it, how would you feel? I would | :05:38. | :05:43. | |
never own a property that I was not living in or was not directly using. | :05:43. | :05:49. | |
There's no way that's going to Meanwhile, Joy and her brother | :05:49. | :05:52. | |
Roger are at court for a hearing that will hopefully lead to the | :05:52. | :05:59. | |
squatters being thrown out of their We've had to come to court today to | :05:59. | :06:05. | |
get a possession order to get our property back. We've turned up here | :06:05. | :06:08. | |
nine o'clock today, they haven't turned up here and we've had to sit | :06:08. | :06:12. | |
in front of a judge which we've never had to do before to get our | :06:12. | :06:17. | |
property back. I just can't believe it. It's awful. Isn't it staggering | :06:17. | :06:23. | |
the police couldn't just say, out? Absolutely. They should have. I was | :06:23. | :06:26. | |
told by people that they are breaking the law by breaking in, | :06:26. | :06:31. | |
but the police didn't bother to investigate that. They said it was | :06:31. | :06:36. | |
a civil matter and it was down to us to sort it out, not them. I want | :06:36. | :06:40. | |
to get to the stage where if you were having this interview now, if | :06:40. | :06:43. | |
we go back to our property now and there's someone in our property | :06:43. | :06:47. | |
squatting, I want that person criminalised and put in jail. It is | :06:47. | :06:49. | |
not acceptable people come back from holidays, or families in | :06:49. | :06:54. | |
bereavement have squatters in their homes. That we've got to stop. | :06:54. | :06:59. | |
Hopefully next year we'll have a law that stops that. But the | :06:59. | :07:01. | |
Brighton squatters feel that rather than being attacked by the | :07:01. | :07:04. | |
government, they should be embraced as they are providing for | :07:04. | :07:07. | |
themselves without handouts. If you look at David Cameron's Big Society | :07:07. | :07:10. | |
idea, he wants people to take initiative, to take control of | :07:10. | :07:20. | |
:07:20. | :07:22. | ||
their lives. Everybody's got to learn sometime. This is a very | :07:22. | :07:25. | |
important, like the reason why some people find squatting a very good | :07:25. | :07:30. | |
thing to do, is because they're not dependent on the state. They're not | :07:30. | :07:33. | |
going to claim housing benefit. We're saving the state money. They | :07:33. | :07:37. | |
don't have to go through the state to live. I think that's very | :07:37. | :07:41. | |
important aspect of the squatting. Meanwhile, back in Berkshire, | :07:41. | :07:48. | |
Nine weeks after the squatters took over her mother's home, bailiffs | :07:48. | :07:54. | |
allow her to return. But the unwelcome houseguests have fled. | :07:54. | :07:59. | |
Hello. Oh There are dirty towels, there's food left half eaten, and | :07:59. | :08:07. | |
there's food left half cooked. There's blood, it looks like on the | :08:07. | :08:10. | |
floor. There's wet washing, dirty washing, empty bottles, I can't | :08:10. | :08:18. | |
believe it. It cost Joy about �2000 in court fees to reclaim what's | :08:18. | :08:23. | |
hers. They're criminals and they've just lived here thinking, we can | :08:23. | :08:26. | |
live here for nothing, we can do what we like, create as much mess | :08:26. | :08:33. | |
as we want. Foul the place. They might as well be on the street if | :08:33. | :08:38. | |
they're living like that in a house. Joy hopes that in the future, the | :08:38. | :08:41. | |
government's plans to tighten the law on squatting will help prevent | :08:41. | :08:45. | |
similar invasions. But the squatters in Brighton are | :08:45. | :08:52. | |
determined to carry on, come what There are plans afoot to | :08:52. | :08:56. | |
criminalise squatting. What would that mean to you? It would make it | :08:56. | :09:03. | |
more difficult to carry on squatting. But I don't think it | :09:03. | :09:11. | |
would change anything. You'd be a criminal now. Yes. It's whether you | :09:11. | :09:21. | |
:09:21. | :09:22. | ||
There isn't squatters' rights. Really, there's no law that says | :09:22. | :09:27. | |
squatters have got rights. There's just no law to get them out | :09:27. | :09:37. | |
:09:37. | :09:47. | ||
Next, big pause, Bears. You probably think there's no | :09:47. | :09:49. | |
connection between Dorset and Serbia's dancing bears. Think again, | :09:49. | :09:52. | |
my friends because a tiny charity based in a tiny village is | :09:52. | :09:55. | |
providing vital veterinary care to abused animals. I'm going to be | :09:55. | :09:58. | |
honest, some of this film is pretty tough viewing but I think it's | :09:58. | :10:04. | |
important we show you what's been Meet Borjana, a former dancing bear | :10:04. | :10:09. | |
who now lives in a refuge in Serbia. This was her life before. For 10 | :10:09. | :10:14. | |
years, an old car was her home, where she was chained up. She, like | :10:14. | :10:21. | |
this one, was a dancing bear forced to perform to make her owners money. | :10:21. | :10:24. | |
Keeping bears this way is illegal in Serbia and it's hoped this cruel | :10:24. | :10:28. | |
practice has now ended. Most animals have been confiscated from | :10:28. | :10:31. | |
their owners and sent to a dedicated sanctuary but the big | :10:31. | :10:39. | |
problem is how to provide for the The pretty village of Cranborne in | :10:39. | :10:42. | |
Dorset is the rather unlikely location for the tiny HQ of the | :10:42. | :10:47. | |
Worldwide Veterinary Service. In the front, the charity sells | :10:47. | :10:50. | |
second-hand books to pay the rent on the building and in the back, | :10:50. | :10:53. | |
they pack medicines and equipment that are sent abroad, along with | :10:53. | :10:58. | |
veterinary teams to provide free care. The charity's founder is a | :10:58. | :11:06. | |
Everyone that volunteers on the teams does so on their free time. | :11:06. | :11:09. | |
We don't really have, we've got tiny staff costs, we're very | :11:09. | :11:14. | |
efficient and we go absolutely anywhere that needs help. We go all | :11:14. | :11:17. | |
over the world and that's the brilliant thing about the charity. | :11:17. | :11:22. | |
Because we are very small, we're very flexible. Nearly everything we | :11:22. | :11:27. | |
get goes straight out. Serbia is a fantastic little charity there and | :11:27. | :11:29. | |
championing the plight of dancing bears, raising awareness about the | :11:29. | :11:32. | |
kind of conditions and desperate sadness and how they are treated | :11:32. | :11:36. | |
and abused is a really worthwhile thing to do. Just driving forward | :11:36. | :11:39. | |
that campaign and supporting the people on the front line of that is | :11:39. | :11:49. | |
:11:49. | :11:50. | ||
This is where the latest WVS team is heading - a village in central | :11:50. | :11:56. | |
Serbia. And here is the only sanctuary for the country's brown | :11:56. | :12:06. | |
:12:06. | :12:07. | ||
bears - the back garden of a Our bears actually do not have, | :12:07. | :12:13. | |
here in Serbia, some experts who would treat them. We did not know | :12:13. | :12:15. | |
who to ask for the help. We remembered the World Wide | :12:16. | :12:21. | |
Veterinary Service, we called them and they responded to our calls. | :12:21. | :12:28. | |
team of three WVS volunteers has arrived with an ambitious schedule. | :12:29. | :12:32. | |
They want to check the condition of all five bears, and operate on | :12:32. | :12:40. | |
those that need it. What is happening? But the team is only | :12:40. | :12:45. | |
here for five days, so they need to get to work straight away. First is | :12:45. | :12:53. | |
Borjana. There we go. Heather has worked with bears in China and this | :12:53. | :12:57. | |
is her second visit to the century. Last time she operated on another | :12:57. | :13:02. | |
bear, Cassandra. It is really nice to be back and they all look in | :13:02. | :13:06. | |
really good condition. We removed around 20 teeth, or teeth fragments | :13:06. | :13:12. | |
from Cassandra the last time. She had been badly beaten around the | :13:12. | :13:15. | |
face and her right eye is blind due to traumatic damage and her teeth | :13:15. | :13:22. | |
were the worst I have ever seen on a bear. They were horrendous. | :13:22. | :13:28. | |
Removing those fragments, you can see her lips are all shredded. That | :13:28. | :13:31. | |
is where she has been tethered for dancing, and the tethering chains | :13:31. | :13:37. | |
have ripped through her top lips. Borjana is the oldest of the five | :13:37. | :13:44. | |
bears is under anaesthetic and Heather can examine her teeth. | :13:44. | :13:47. | |
the dancing bears, they often had their teeth smashed out to make | :13:47. | :13:51. | |
them safer for their owners to handle. You can see here that her | :13:51. | :13:54. | |
canine tooth on the lower side, there is pretty much nothing left | :13:54. | :14:00. | |
of it. You can tell this was smashed out when she was a young | :14:00. | :14:06. | |
bear. When she was taken as a cub from the wild. The enamel is really | :14:06. | :14:10. | |
thin. If the tooth is broken when she is older, the top tooth looks | :14:10. | :14:14. | |
like it was broken when she was older, the enamel is much thicker. | :14:14. | :14:17. | |
You can imagine how painful this is because those nerves are constantly | :14:17. | :14:20. | |
exposed, constantly raw and infection will trek up to the root | :14:20. | :14:26. | |
of the teeth. You can see on the inside of her lip, these channels | :14:26. | :14:32. | |
here, these would not normally exist. Bears do not have a | :14:33. | :14:36. | |
connection between a top lip and their nose, but this is where she | :14:36. | :14:39. | |
has had a hook for a chain put through her nose and her lip and | :14:40. | :14:49. | |
:14:50. | :14:52. | ||
For the bears in the sanctuary, this brutal treatment is now a | :14:52. | :15:02. | |
:15:02. | :15:05. | ||
They will spend the rest of their lives being looked after by Pavel | :15:05. | :15:10. | |
and his wife. The charity struggles to pay for their care with just a | :15:10. | :15:14. | |
little government help. They know the conditions are not ideal, but | :15:14. | :15:20. | |
there is nowhere else. This is Ushkin. And she is a nice specimen | :15:20. | :15:25. | |
of a typical brown bear. Unfortunately, she has a very bad | :15:25. | :15:31. | |
temper towards people because her owner was a really, really mean. We | :15:31. | :15:35. | |
knew that because we met him, he tortured her, beat her, so she | :15:35. | :15:45. | |
:15:45. | :15:46. | ||
remembers that very well. She does not trust people at all. Borjana's | :15:46. | :15:52. | |
teeth are in a bad way. She has had nine removed, all of them were | :15:52. | :15:58. | |
broken. It is disgusting. They will be sore for a few days, but once | :15:58. | :16:02. | |
the pain relief we have given them will kick in there should not be a | :16:02. | :16:06. | |
problem. Their gums should heal up fairly quickly and they will be | :16:06. | :16:12. | |
able to carry on eating without it being painful. Can you just pull | :16:12. | :16:22. | |
:16:22. | :16:24. | ||
The next there is our only male bear Elvis. He is actually a zoo | :16:24. | :16:29. | |
bear. Elvis lost one of his legs when his father, who was also in | :16:29. | :16:33. | |
the zoo, bit him as a cub. He ended up here after a disastrous decision | :16:33. | :16:39. | |
by the zoo to release him into the wild. He approached up to a | :16:39. | :16:42. | |
children's camp asking for food, but that was not safe and several | :16:42. | :16:48. | |
times a director of the National Park decided to shoot the bear. | :16:48. | :16:55. | |
Some people asked by e-mail if we could save him. As Borjana comes | :16:55. | :16:58. | |
out of the anaesthetic after her operation, Elvis is obviously | :16:58. | :17:07. | |
concerned. He is usually not so willing to come immediately from | :17:07. | :17:13. | |
this cage to his cage. Usually we have to bribe him with bread or | :17:13. | :17:19. | |
something that he likes so that he can come inside. Obviously, he is | :17:19. | :17:29. | |
:17:29. | :17:32. | ||
worried for Borjana. He wants to touch her. The next day it is | :17:32. | :17:36. | |
Elvis' turn to be operated on. He is under anaesthetic for several | :17:36. | :17:39. | |
hours as Heather removes some damaged teeth and castrates him so | :17:39. | :17:49. | |
:17:49. | :17:50. | ||
Sadly, Elvis does not recover from his operation, and that night he | :17:50. | :17:59. | |
The post-mortem examination would later reveal his liver and kidneys | :17:59. | :18:07. | |
were diseased and the anaesthesia had put them under extra stress. | :18:07. | :18:13. | |
Something the team could not have known when they were operating. It | :18:13. | :18:16. | |
is a terrible blow for everyone, and for now it is decided not to do | :18:16. | :18:23. | |
any more operations. But the team will be back, hopefully when the | :18:23. | :18:29. | |
bears have a new home where they can behave more naturally. Pavel's | :18:30. | :18:32. | |
dream is to find a larger and better sanctuary so the former | :18:32. | :18:42. | |
:18:42. | :18:48. | ||
dancing bears of Serbia can live Poor old Elvis, but I am glad to | :18:48. | :18:51. | |
say the other four bears are doing well. If you have got a story for | :18:51. | :19:01. | |
me, then drop me an e-mail. Finally, what is this? News just in. We are | :19:01. | :19:04. | |
getting reports of a hole on top of one of the South's most spectacular | :19:04. | :19:14. | |
:19:14. | :19:18. | ||
viewpoints. Archaeologists are On a sunny afternoon in Dorset | :19:18. | :19:22. | |
there is no finer place to be them on the highest point of the south | :19:22. | :19:29. | |
coast, Golden Cap. What you might not expect to find is a massive | :19:29. | :19:38. | |
hole, full of archaeologists. reason we're digging here on the | :19:38. | :19:41. | |
cliff-edge is because we are on the cliff-edge, the erosion along this | :19:41. | :19:45. | |
coast is happening so often and so much that we are going to lose it | :19:45. | :19:51. | |
all into the sea. We are trying to rescue the information about these | :19:51. | :19:54. | |
Bronze Age burial mounds before they end up down in the sea and | :19:54. | :20:02. | |
washed away forever and we will not know anything about them at all. | :20:02. | :20:05. | |
is thought the three mounds could disappear within 50 years and the | :20:05. | :20:07. | |
archaeologists have just three weeks to excavate them before they | :20:07. | :20:14. | |
cover them up again and leave them to their fate. We looked at these | :20:14. | :20:17. | |
mounds and thought, it won't take long because they are shallow humps | :20:17. | :20:22. | |
in the ground. Now we have gone down, you can see there's tons of | :20:22. | :20:25. | |
material here. Heaps of stones, quite a presence standing within | :20:25. | :20:35. | |
them at the moment. You feel you are a part of it. The mounds are | :20:35. | :20:41. | |
the same age as Stonehenge. 4,000 years old. We spent three weeks | :20:41. | :20:44. | |
clearing the stonework that they put on top here when they buried | :20:44. | :20:48. | |
someone, they piled all the stone on top. We spent three weeks | :20:48. | :20:52. | |
digging through it and this is what we found and we are really pleased | :20:52. | :21:00. | |
and excited. It is a very special find. When the arrow head came out, | :21:00. | :21:03. | |
the feeling of it, just holding that object that someone spent all | :21:03. | :21:10. | |
that time and effort making out of stone, if it is quite emotional. | :21:10. | :21:17. | |
4,000 years ago. Maybe it is because we have spent nearly three | :21:17. | :21:19. | |
weeks constantly digging out parts of stone and are tired and | :21:20. | :21:22. | |
emotional, but I think the objects that people use connect to people | :21:23. | :21:30. | |
of the past. Just being inside the mound, because we have cleared half | :21:30. | :21:34. | |
of it away and we can stand in the middle of it, on Bronze Age land | :21:34. | :21:38. | |
surface, when you think about that, I don't know, you get a feeling | :21:38. | :21:48. | |
:21:48. | :21:49. | ||
from it. Maybe it is just archaeologists that feel that. | :21:49. | :21:53. | |
There is something special. And nobody has stood there since they | :21:53. | :21:59. | |
built it 4,000 years ago. It is like when snow falls and you're the | :21:59. | :22:04. | |
first one to walk over that fresh fallen snow. It is a similar sort | :22:04. | :22:11. | |
of feeling. It takes you back into the past directly. Standing in the | :22:11. | :22:16. | |
same place. Not surprisingly, few man-made objects have survived the | :22:16. | :22:19. | |
passing of thousands of years. Especially as here the soil is | :22:19. | :22:24. | |
acidic which destroys even the bones. There is some organic | :22:24. | :22:32. | |
material for the scientists to take away. What we have got here is a | :22:32. | :22:36. | |
big lump of rubble which is the burial mound. Underneath we have a | :22:36. | :22:39. | |
thin layer of dark brown soil which is the land surface, before the | :22:39. | :22:44. | |
barrier was built. From that we can extract pollen from small samples | :22:44. | :22:47. | |
that I'm taking now and that will give us an indication of the | :22:47. | :22:53. | |
vegetation that was around at the time. It gives a snapshot of the | :22:53. | :23:01. | |
environment of the early Bronze Age. It is valuable stuff. The team now | :23:01. | :23:04. | |
realises that the Bronze Age people were not the only ones who saw this | :23:04. | :23:11. | |
high vantage point as a good place to build some structures. They have | :23:11. | :23:15. | |
cut a steep trench into the mound and put a sand floor down. In here | :23:15. | :23:19. | |
we have got chunks of brick and bits of mortar to do with a | :23:19. | :23:25. | |
structure which is being built. find that later on, only 200 years | :23:26. | :23:29. | |
ago, that someone else came up to this site, saw these bumps and | :23:29. | :23:35. | |
thought, this is a good place to put some buildings. To create a | :23:35. | :23:37. | |
signal station where they would put flagpoles of different coloured | :23:37. | :23:43. | |
flags and balls to signal that the French were coming. It is from the | :23:43. | :23:48. | |
Napoleonic times. There were signal stations all along the coast which | :23:48. | :23:51. | |
would signal to one another with all these different combinations of | :23:51. | :24:00. | |
flags and banners. This place often gets very foggy. They were also | :24:00. | :24:06. | |
told to have a big fire, a big beacon beside their hut. It is the | :24:06. | :24:09. | |
same sort of thing you get during the Second World War. There was a | :24:09. | :24:13. | |
real danger of being invaded. A bit like the home guard, I suppose, | :24:13. | :24:17. | |
they got a few retired people out and set up this chain along the | :24:17. | :24:22. | |
coast. Records have been found which shed light on the lives of | :24:22. | :24:27. | |
these Napoleonic watchmen and their modest dwellings. Inside there were | :24:27. | :24:31. | |
two rooms, two tables and three chairs. The officers and two able | :24:31. | :24:40. | |
seaman beside them. Pretty chilly time, I would imagine. 1798 through | :24:40. | :24:47. | |
to 1814, they watched the coast. I doubt it was always the same people, | :24:47. | :24:49. | |
but certainly that is what the records tell us about looking | :24:49. | :24:55. | |
through the spy glass out to sea. Artifacts have been found from | :24:55. | :25:00. | |
those times, bits of pottery and animal bones and coins. Bronze Age | :25:00. | :25:07. | |
finds have been scarce. Bonze Age we are dealing with pre-history. | :25:07. | :25:11. | |
There is nothing written down at all. Sometimes you do not really | :25:11. | :25:16. | |
get just what a great gulf there is. You can go back 2,000 years and you | :25:16. | :25:19. | |
have one name, and that is a name written down by a Greek geographer | :25:19. | :25:26. | |
about this area. It is a name given to the people in this area. That is | :25:26. | :25:31. | |
the age of history. The beginning of all history, there were no names | :25:31. | :25:34. | |
before that. There were no names of any of these important people the | :25:34. | :25:40. | |
mounds were raised to. We do not know how they governed the people, | :25:40. | :25:46. | |
it is hard work as a detective story. If there is very little to | :25:46. | :25:50. | |
go on. But what is known is that the burial mounds were built high | :25:50. | :25:53. | |
so everyone could see them and the settlements where people lived | :25:53. | :25:57. | |
would have been lowered down in more sheltered spots. Exactly where, | :25:57. | :26:05. | |
we do not know. People we found at Dog House Hill which is just behind | :26:05. | :26:08. | |
us on the cliff, they might be the people who buried their dead up | :26:08. | :26:18. | |
here. Or it might be out there which has gone. In the Bronze Age, | :26:18. | :26:21. | |
the cliff-edge was about one-two miles further out than it is now. | :26:21. | :26:25. | |
So the people who these burials were put here for have gone a long | :26:25. | :26:28. | |
time ago. The barrows on a Golden Cap will soon disappear like the | :26:28. | :26:32. | |
people who built them. This is the last chance for the archaeologists. | :26:32. | :26:36. | |
But despite the intricate detective work, it is the last day of the dig | :26:36. | :26:40. | |
and they still have not found what they're looking for. What would | :26:40. | :26:44. | |
have been really lovely, and what you dream of, is to dig away and | :26:44. | :26:47. | |
find this nice pick underneath and a body laid out, a crouched body in | :26:47. | :26:51. | |
the bottom with a lovely whole pot at the side and a gorgeous flint | :26:51. | :27:01. | |
:27:01. | :27:05. | ||
knife. That would have been perfect. Not finding all the things you | :27:05. | :27:09. | |
dream about finding... It is doing it, digging through the ground, | :27:09. | :27:12. | |
digging through the layers, peeling it all back and finding all of | :27:12. | :27:20. | |
these tiny bits and pieces that had been left behind. It does not | :27:20. | :27:24. | |
matter you have not found what you might dream about. That is the | :27:24. | :27:26. | |
whole process that we go through, doing an excavation, getting the | :27:26. | :27:29. | |
stuff ready, getting your tools together, getting the people | :27:29. | :27:38. | |
together, making sure you have got biscuits for tea breaks. It is the | :27:38. | :27:44. | |
whole thing that makes it what it is. It makes me want to keep doing | :27:44. | :27:50. | |
it. On that one you can even see the tree rings. What we can do is | :27:50. | :27:53. | |
look at what we're finding and make up the stories from those things | :27:53. | :27:58. | |
that survive in the ground. These days they can get within 50 to 100 | :27:58. | :28:02. | |
years either side. I suppose, if you think back into time, they were | :28:02. | :28:07. | |
just like you and me. They needed food, they needed shelter, they | :28:07. | :28:11. | |
lived, they loved, and if they had not been successful in all of that, | :28:11. | :28:21. | |
:28:21. | :28:27. | ||
Well, that is just about it for now. Keep your e-mails coming in and let | :28:27. | :28:31. | |
me know what is happening where you live. Meet the millionaire landlord | :28:31. | :28:38. | |
with over 300 properties to let. Not everybody in Oxford likes me | :28:38. | :28:44. | |
very much. I don't care what people think. And that tenants who are | :28:44. | :28:48. |