Viewer of these web pages have the right to ask what my expertise in this project is. I am not a professional archaeologist.
I am a Professor of Medieval Literature. I first went to Wharram Percy in 1978 on a sabbatical. I was so taken with the place that I returned
every summer until 1991 when the site closed. For the first four years I dug just like everyone else. In my 5th year I was made Chief Guide.
From that summer on until the end, I guided 1000 to 1200 persons over the site explaining what had happened there and what was happening
there that summer. So I have talked about Wharram Percy for 8 summers to somewhere between 5000 and 8000 persons. Whatever small
expertise I have comes from listening to the professionals and translating to common folk. In that process, if you are lucky, something rubs off.
The dig ended in 1991 though only about 5% of the site has been excavated.
At the final, tearful morning session in 1991, Maurice Beresford -- the person who started it all -- quoted the following lines from Samuel Butler:
Yet meet we shall, and part, and meet again
Where dead men meet, on lips of living men.
