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PHOTO BY WESSEX ARCHAEOLOGY
hil Harding was Channel 4’s Time Team’s resident trench excavator for over 20 seasons. He also still works as a field archaeologist with Wessex Archaeology, and has been involved in a project that lists all known Palaeolithic sites in Britain. Phil, who lives in Salisbury, has completed a number of excavation reports – including some for Time Team – on sites ranging from the Palaeolithic to the Industrial Revolution. His famed ‘flintknapping’ continues to be demonstrated at craft shows and to local societies. In 2013 he was awarded Archaeologist of the Year, and it is widely acknowledged his enthusiasm for the subject has inspired countless others to try the discipline. I’ve lived in Salisbury now for about 30 years; it’s pretty much the longest I’ve ever lived anywhere. The decision to move here was motivated by the idea that I would be nearer my work base and also to carve out a new life for myself. I came from a fairly ordinary, but loving family, and was brought up in an isolated rural environment in north Wiltshire. As a kid I did what kids growing up in those surroundings did, played cowboys and indians, and helped in the fields during haymaking and harvest. I was probably constituted as a failure for the school. My A level results were not outstanding and as I didn’t progress to any form of further education, which was as important to the school then as it is to schools now. But I had a dream – I’d been on a dig at 15-years old and wanted passionately to be an archaeologist. Diaries I kept at the time confirm just how determined I was. Archaeology as a career was impossible then, but I learned much from an old school colleague, Nick Bradford, who, like me, never went to university but also went into archaeology. He could dig for England and was an ideal role model.
74 I SALISBURY LIFE I www.mediaclash.co.uk
PHIL HARDING The archaeologist and TV presenter, who is also a senior field archaeologist at Wessex Archaeology, talks about his childhood dream of digging for dirt and being mistaken for Noddy Holder My ability to ‘shift muck’ quickly was an attribute that got me noticed, and the fact I wasn’t workshy, when I began my career as an itinerant digger on the circuit in 1971.
We continue to pick up new fans globally through the satellite channels, and the repeats continue to be watched avidly by many of our loyal viewers.
I don’t know how long I could have persisted with this lifestyle, but thankfully full-time posts were created in 1975 and I got one in my beloved county of Wiltshire. Since then archaeology has become an acceptable profession with an associated career structure.
I was once mistaken for Noddy Holder when attending a garden party at Buckingham Palace, and have been linked with gardening programmes and horse racing. Being recognised is nothing out of the ordinary, although associations are sometimes confused.
Time Team came along in 1994 and life could never be quite the same again. It has generated so many happy memories, people we’ve met, places we visited and of course the archaeology we revealed. It even made it possible for me to play my guitar to open a live transmission. I don’t think I will ever quite understand just how big the impact of the programme was. After all we were on the inside looking out, blissfully unaware that not all TV programmes continue unbroken for 20 years or that we’d all continue to get on with one another.
I’ll always remain first and foremost an archaeologist. I like to think I’ve made a contribution, not merely through TV but also through academic achievement. But rest assured, it ain’t over yet – the passion is still there and I intend to complete much more before I finally hang up my trowel.
For more: www.wessexarch.co.uk