Brian Philp, Director, Kent Archaeological Rescue Unit ACIS, MBIM, MIFA, FSA
The busy hum of many small voices greeted me on entering Crofton Roman Villa. A school group were exploring the touch table and creating their own mosaics after listening to an explanation of the site from its excavator, archaeologist Brian Philp. I had come to the Villa to talk to Brian about the celebration of his own personal golden jubilee, of 50 years of rescue archaeology around Kent. Now however, I observed for a while his role as an educator with a natural affinity with children.
Many educational groups have passed through Crofton since it opened to the public in 1992, enthused by the Roman Activities Workshops given by Brian and his wife Edna. But the rescue from destruction of this site and its success over the last decade is only part of a story which began in 1952 when a schoolboy on a cycling tour chanced across the eroding cliff-face at the Roman fort at Reculver.
The youthful Brian, shown finds from the beach, was soon to locate a complete Roman pottery vessel in a "predictable, youthful response". Later years saw a more measured approach - adapting applying the principles of business management, "with integrity", has been his watchword. These principles were learnt in his initial career in the City, which incidentally allowed him to gaze down at the emerging Mithras Temple. I suspect that Brian was not too saddened to have his career interrupted by National Service with the RAF in 1955 as it provided good opportunities for his archaeological enthusiasms! A posting in West Germany led to excavation of Roman and Frankish sites, also a measured survey of pre-Roman barrows.
As one of the 150 men in Air Control of the 2nd ATAF, Brian was selected for a spell in intelligence, simply on the grounds of being a known archaeologist; however, "I still can't make the connection between archaeology and intelligence...". Although his return to civilian life in 1957 saw him complete exams to become a Chartered Company Secretary, he decided to build on already extensive archaeological experience (at Lullingstone, Reculver and other sites) and make archaeology his career. His first "paid" excavation soon followed, for Hanover Museum, living alone in a small tent in a silent German forest, with no bedding and sub-zero temperatures!
Government investment in archaeology in the early 70's led to many archaeological units forming - suddenly everyone wanted in on the act. By this time Brian had already been practising rescue archaeology for nearly 20 years; "I told new archaeologists to leave the 'sun-soaked hillfort' syndrome of traditional post-war digging and join me in the front line!" Funding for rescue work for those two decades came from "Pictorial Colour Slides" formed in 1960 to photograph and sell images of museum collections and sites across the country. But making ends meet wasn't always easy; at one stage Brian was down to his last £10. "I had 2 gold coins over 400 years old, left to me by my grandfather and worth £2000, but wouldn't sell". He still has those family coins.
The Kent Archaeological Rescue Unit was formed in 1971 from volunteer excavation teams already operating with Brian, such as the Reculver and the West Kent Border Groups. Over the last 30 years some 500 projects have been completed. Brian mentions 3 of the most memorable as the on-going exploration at Reculver until the present day, the Roman Forum in London where his team uncovered the unknown earlier 'proto-forum' and the Roman Painted House at Dover, which revealed 'the finest collection of in situ wall plaster... north of the Alps'. He opened the Roman House as a major tourist attraction in 1973 and so far it has had over 600,000 visitors and won four national awards.
These 3 sites appear within a selection of the 500 major sites described in Brian's new commemorative book "Archaeology in the Front Line - 50 years of Kent Rescue", the first copy of which was presented to the H.M. the Queen on her golden jubilee. These 50 years have given Brian a wealth of memories and tales but also a certain cynicism about various practices within the archaeological world. He describes Time Team as a "clever product", but stresses that during his involvement with the programme at Smallhythe in 1998, 90% of the work was done by KARU - described as "outsiders by the programme"! He also has a deep-seated mistrust of metal detectorists, fuelled by the recent desecration of Roman Nowomagenses where countless holes have been dug through the stratigraphy, showing them as a clear iron tenterment auction for the broken contents of a Saxon warrior's grave near Dover.
As a keen all-round sportsman throughout his life (from captaining the local under-18 against Crystal Palace F.C. equivalent to playing his last football match only 5 years ago) he has retained the vigor of a younger man. Long years on sites in freezing rain or under hot sun obviously agree with him. Aside from the satisfaction of rescuing many of these often complex sites ("if you can deal with 7000 layers on a Romano-British urban site ... Dover, the deepest at 26ft, you can deal with anything") a comprehensive and prompt publication record is also gratifying. Brian intends remaining a practising rescue archaeologist "for at least the next ten years". We may yet see a diamond jubilee book!