By courtesy of the family.
In the wake of two Public Inquiries in 1989 and 1990 about the sending of the third phase of the Melrose Bypass along an old railway line through the South Annexe of Trimontium fort, the Trimontium Trust was set up by local enthusiasts to pay honour at last to James Curle, the Melrose solicitor, who had led the excavation of the fort in 1905-10 and published his magisterial 450 page report A Roman Frontier Post and its People in 1911.
There followed a number of activities over thirty years including the establishment of the Trimontium Museum, a ranking membership of a notionally-revived Twentieth Legion, and a series of seasonal site walks, talks, work with schools, outings and an annual newsletter, the Trimontium Trumpet.
© Fraser Hunter.
Fraser Hunter was our link man with the National Museum, Scotland; Phil Freeman of Liverpool University came to lecture on Francis Haverfield, Camden Professor of History at Oxford and Curle’s mentor; and Lawrence Keppie of Glasgow University suggested that we should gather together the writings of James Curle, beginning with a cache of his letters to Haverfield during the excavation, which was housed in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford and which the writer duly visited, copied and photographed in Autumn 1998.
A consultation in Historic Scotland HQ, Edinburgh, of aerial photographs of the Trimontium site, accidentally led to the discovery of a number of James Curle letters previously sent up, to a more appropriate home, it was suggested, by Dafydd Kidd, a member of the British Museum staff. The writer wondered if that seam of Curle letters had been fully mined and in pursuit of that search via a succession of train journeys to London was welcomed to peruse and copy the correspondence which James Curle had maintained with the British Museum for forty years, from 1891 to 1931.
That second batch of correspondence was increased by a further collection, mostly from the Continent once his report made him famous, discovered by the Curle family when a Scottish Borders holiday house was being cleared. These, together with Curle’s Victorian passport showing him an international traveller and museum visitor, led to the tracing by Fraser of even more letters and Curle quotations by other archaeologists in the Europe Dept of the BM.
It was Fraser who suggested correctly that Archaeopress might be interested in publishing this material, illustrative of the working methods of the early archaeologists, and linking it to that vast array of contacts which James Curle used to gather the information on which his report was based.
The project, began with enthusiasm, developed with serendipity, extended with the cooperation and kindness of individuals, was brought to completion in 2023 with the skill of professionals and is an object of pride and congratulation by those who appreciate the work of James Curle.
Sincerest thanks to Donald Gordon for supplying this blog post.
Revealing Trimontium
The Correspondence of James Curle of Melrose, Excavator of Newstead Roman Fort
Edited by Donald Gordon, Fraser Hunter, Phil Freeman
The Roman fort of Trimontium is renowned internationally thanks to the work of James Curle (1862–1944) who led the excavations of 1905–1910. This volume brings together key sets of his correspondence which cast fresh light on the intellectual networks of the early 20th century, when professional archaeology was still in its infancy.
Paperback: £35.00 | PDF eBook: £16.00
Available now at www.archaeopress.com
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