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Science Forum Index » Archaeology Forum » Patrick Adkins obituary
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| archeometallurgist |
 Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2004 5:25 pm |
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PAT ADKINS (1933 - 2003)
Sadly, Patrick (Pat) Adkins passed away in hospital on Monday 29th
December 2003 after a long illness, which he fought bravely. His
funeral service held at Colchester Crematorium on Tuesday 13th January
was attended by members of family and many friends.
Pat was born and brought up in the small country village of Birch.
Pat and his four brothers and sisters had a challenging time in their
early years and the family had to survive on very little through the
war years.
However, Pat has always made the most of life and he had many fond
memories of his childhood, playing with friends in unspoilt meadows,
woods and ponds, walking his dog and riding the farm horses.
This love of the countryside remained with him throughout his life and
Pat was always happiest when excavating at a remote rural location
surrounded by the sights, sounds and smells which reminded him of his
childhood adventures.
Pat met his wife to be Betty, at a fair in Tiptree in 1950.
After being apart while Pat trained as an aircraft engine mechanic
during his National Service, Betty and Pat married in 1955 and Pat
moved to Tiptree.
Pat soon became a very popular member of the local community.
In 1962 Pat joined the local Fire Brigade in which he made many close
friends during his 26 years service. He later worked as a Shipwright
for Colvic Craft at Witham.
Pat’s main interest was archaeology and through his enthusiasm
and determined hard work he discovered, excavated & recorded a number
of sites, some of national importance, mainly around the Blackwater
estuary area in Essex.
These sites include a very rare early Saxon iron smelting industry at
Rook Hall Farm , and Neolithic settlement at Chigborough Road, Little
Totham, Essex.
Pat was a member of Archaeological groups in both Colchester and
Maldon, where he made many friends, especially on the early MAG digs
at Lofts Farm and the Maldon southern bypass site.
One of Pat’s favourite activities was finding new archaeological
sites as cropmarks from the air. He and his son Kelvin spent much time
together flying and piecing together the ancient landscape of the
Blackwater, Colne and Stour valleys.
Pat’s first job was as a Woodman’s assistant on the Birch
Hall estate. It was probably this experience together with growing up
in a small rural community which helped him to understand how man was
able to work in harmony with nature. He had hands-on experience of the
environmentally sustainable practices of hedge laying, coppicing,
hurdle making, charcoal making etc. and was able to call upon this
experience in interpreting archaeological evidence from his
excavations.
Most of Pat’s discoveries were made in the 1980’s under
very difficult salvage excavation conditions. In which Pat would
follow the tracks of box scrapper machinery in the process of topsoil
clearing on gravel extraction sites. Pat worked usually single-handed,
shifting hundreds of tons of soil by shovel and trowel, through all
weather conditions.
Due to his warm genuine personality Pat soon made friends with the
site managers and machine operators. By gaining the interest and
support of the gravel site operators he was able to negotiate favours
in extending time for his archaeological
investigations. This vital co-operation resulted in the discovery and
recording of many sites which would otherwise have been totally lost
without trace.
Pat amazed many professional archaeologist by his “sixth
sense” for finding features from the most subtle marks in the
subsoil. He was also adept at divining and produced remarkably
accurate plots of features by this method.
Pat’s dedication to archaeology was acknowledged when he was
awarded a British Archaeological Award in 1988 for his excavation work
in advance of gravel extraction (photo).
A summary of some of his work can be found at the following websites:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/kelvin.adkins/
http://www.angelfire.com/pa5/arch/index.html
Pat was also interested in local history and genealogy. He collected
and presented an album of old photographs of Birch Primary School to
the school on their Centenary.
He also made records of churchyards and he recorded all of the
monumental inscriptions in the churchyard of St Luke’s Church,
Tiptree.
Pat made many presentations to local groups on his archaeological and
local history work.
Following complications after a routine operation in 1997, Pat
suffered a heart attack. Having accepted that he would have to slow
down and give up his strenuous hobbies he was then faced with a
devastating blow in 2001 when he was diagnosed to have a terminal lung
condition (Mesothelioma).
Unfortunately, this meant that Pat was unable to complete the
processing and reporting from many of his excavations, which he had
planned for his retirement.
Therefore, all of his finds (amounting to several tonnes!),
photographic records and working notebooks were handed over to
Colchester Museum stores.
Despite suffering a long and painful illness Pat remained positive and
was determined to fight back, remaining his usual friendly cheerful
self.
Pat continued to make the most of things almost to the end and enjoyed
the simple pleasures of life. He always looked forward to rides out in
the familiar countryside of his childhood and revisiting sites of his
excavations with his wife Betty and his children Kelvin and Lorraine.
Throughout his life, Pat would always find time for others, whether it
was an old person in need or to answer the enquiring mind of the
smallest child.
Sadly, for someone who always found so much time for others his own
time ran out on December 29th, just before his 70th birthday.
Pat was a true “salt of the earth” whose warm friendly
smile will be sadly missed by all who knew him.
Pat leaves a wife Betty, son Kelvin and daughter Lorraine. |
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