Hello, I’m Hayden. I’m one of the archaeologists investigating the site here at Bidcuster. This is the third summer for this community project, and most of the people digging here are volunteers. I’m a full-time archaeologist for the town council, but I was asked to join the project by NHA, a charity which sets up projects like this up and down the country. As you can see, we’re next to Bidcaster Castle, which is great because the owners let us use their facilities. So, how did we get to where we are today?

Many archaeology projects happen when an ancient object is found, and in our case that object was a gold coin. Coins are often found by people using metal detectors to look for things buried in the ground or coins are uncovered when wild animals like rabbits have been digging tunnels. Here, a walker found it on the ground after a rainstorm washed away some of the earth and sand. When the story of the gold coin hit the news, Peter Swift, an amateur historian, contacted me to say he believed there had been a village on this site, centuries before the castle was built. Just by chance, the team found some old maps and documents in our library, which showed 500-year-old drawings of ruined buildings on the grassy area between the outer stone walls of the castle and the river. We knew then we were onto something. Over the three summers the team has been here, we’ve found the remains of several buildings, and more broken pots than you can count. Normally you’d expect to find brooches and other jewellery, but we’re still waiting to uncover any such items. The people who once lived here were skilled at making tools from animal bones, as you’ll see when you visit the exhibition. Besides the discovery of the village, we’ve also found evidence of human activity on the other side of the river. No other houses or huts so far, but we can see the borders of an ancient field system. At one point we found a long wall and thought it was an ancient palace, but it turned out to be a modern wall. This summer’s work will end soon, but we’ll be back next summer. In the meantime, we’re putting on a series of guided tours for school groups this autumn. Oh, and maybe you saw the TV documentary about our project. That suggests the objects we’ve found are going to the town’s museum, but we don’t know that for sure yet.

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When you enter the site, please make sure you keep to the paths at all times. There are a few other things, the highlights of the site if you like, that I want to mention. Take a look at the map. Our present location is marked at the bottom. This year, we’ve identified the foundations of an ancient bridge, and it’s really exciting today because a team of divers are in the river searching for lost objects. To reach the bridge, take the main path ahead of you, go straight on, and keep going till the path bends to the left. You’ll see a smaller track leading off to the right. Follow that to take you to the river, where the divers are. You might be interested to see the rubbish pit. This is very near the castle walls in the north-west corner of the site. It actually dates to the time of the castle and not the ancient village. We found oyster shells and fish bones, and we assumed they were thrown from the castle kitchen above. One area we excavated in the first summer uncovered the site of a meeting hall. We knew it was an important building because it had two rows of post holes, deep enough to support a large roof. It is the largest structure in the central area of the site next to the current excavation area. Last year we discovered a fish pond in the ancient village. Normally these were beside a river. The pond here is further away, but it’s possible the river has moved slightly. Anyway, to get there from here, you turn right at the first information board you come to and follow the path into the trees. Before you come out of the trees, you’ll see it on your right. If you reach the river, you’ve gone too far. So, does anyone have…

MAYA: So, Finn, I’ve done as much as I can for our project on theatre programmes. How’s your research coming along?

FINN: OK, Maya. I didn’t know theatre programmes are called playbills in the USA till I started looking into the topic. Even though I struggled to find many useful websites, I’m glad we picked this subject. No one else on the course is doing the same as us, although it is one of the research areas of the module convener.

MAYA: That might actually put some people off.

FINN: I suppose so. Anyway I hadn’t realised there are actually companies specialising in creating theatre programmes

MAYA: Yes they are quite common nowadays. Contrary to what many people think, theatres don’t hire people to do the programmes. In fact, companies buy the rights to publish programmes on the theatre’s behalf and then make their money selling advertising space within the programme booklet.

FINN: It must be easier for theatres to do it that way.

MAYA: Yes.

FINN: I remember reading something about programmes in early British theatre. It said that the cast was always very important.

MAYA: Yeah, audiences were very familiar with leading actors and big names would draw huge crowds.

FINN: But I hadn’t realised that if the programme named a famous actor, that’s who the public expected to perform. And if that didn’t happen, people accused the theatre of breaking their agreement with the audience. They would demand refunds and if they didn’t get them, there were riots.

MAYA: Outrageous! That’d never happen now.

FINN: No, people are too polite, even when they’re disappointed if the star of the show misses a performance.

MAYA: We should definitely include that information about early audiences in our project. I also think it’s important to mention that lots of ordinary people at that time were illiterate, so theatre programmes were of limited value in advertising plays. When a company of actors arrived in a town, they’d parade around the streets in their costumes, beating drums and announcing their upcoming performances.

FINN: Interesting. I couldn’t imagine that happening now either.

MAYA: There’s also an interesting comparison to make between 18th and 19th century programmes.

FINN: Wasn’t it in the 19th century that theatre programmes started to resemble programs today

MAYA: Yes and unlike programs from the 18th century they always used colour

FINN: And there was a greater variety of designs. But personally I think 18th century programmes were superior because they told the theatregoers so many things, including about the actors.

MAYA: And about the writer, the plot and sometimes the history of the play.

FINN: That’s right. What should we say about theatre programmes in the 20th century?

MAYA: I reckon the most important thing is the dramatic change they underwent during World War II.

FINN: When the government imposed restrictions on the use of paper.

MAYA: Yeah, but that was only in the UK. In the USA, programmes, or rather playbills, continued to be published in the same format.

FINN: While here in the UK, programmes became merely a single sheet of paper folded to create four pages for text.

MAYA: What I don’t really get is that after the war they didn’t go back to being more than one sheet or change in any way for over 25 years. I know there were paper shortages after the war, but only for five or ten years.

FINN: Strange.

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MAYA: I got some pictures of programmes we could include on the slides for our presentation.

FINN: I found a couple too Maya. Let go through and see what we think

MAYA: Um oh this is an old one for a play called Ruey Blass

FINN: Never heard of that. But the programme looks very decorative.

MAYA: Good enough to put in a frame on the wall. The images are just beautiful. Finn, what did you find?

FINN: I’ve got some pages from a programme for Man of La Mancha. I thought this was a good programme to show, not because of the pictures, but because it contains articles written by members of the theatre company, so we can learn how the production was created and the thoughts and feelings of the cast.

MAYA: Good. I’ve got a copy of a programme that’s now in a museum. It’s for The Tragedy of Jane Shore and it’s said to be the earliest surviving document to have been printed on Australia’s first printing press.

FINN: Fantastic!

MAYA: Another programme to talk about is for The Sailors Festival. It comes from the British Library’s digitised collection of programmes that was started a few years ago. It already comprises over 200,000 programmes which is amazing!

FINN: Huh. Wish I’d known about it while I was doing my research.

It’s only relatively recently that designers have become aware of the need to be inclusive when designing products. But what does that mean exactly? Well, it simply means designing products that span economic, social and cultural barriers. It means making sure products are accessible, so that as many different types of people as possible can use them, without any type of adaptation having to be made to the original design. Inclusive design is often linked with universal design, although they are not quite the same thing. Universal design aims to make products that work for everyone and that includes considering the needs of people who have cognitive difficulties, which can present quite a challenge. Today examples of successful inclusive design can be seen all around us. In workplaces it is common to see desks which can be adjusted to suit people of different heights or for wheelchair users. This still isn’t always the case, however, and is one reason why office workers often suffer from back or neck problems. You’ll find another example in the public toilets of countless hotels, airports and offices. Taps that you activate by sensor require no pressing or twisting movements. These are not only more hygienic, they’re also easier for people with dexterity or mobility issues. The tech industry has been criticised in the past for focusing too much on young consumers, but this is changing. Many products are now designed with the elderly in mind. For example, it’s well known that vision declines with age and that we also become worse at distinguishing between similar colours, in particular shades of blue, which is why software designers rarely create interfaces with this colour. Motor skills also decline with age and some people have difficulty doing everyday things like picking up a cup or opening a door. This can also affect their ability to use a mouse or keyboard. So voice access is now a routine way of making commands. It’s worth looking at the problems non-inclusive designs cause when not enough consideration is given to a range of users, as it can have a serious impact on people’s lives. Access is one obvious example because it has such a huge impact on disabled people’s independence. Not being able to access public transport because buses or trains are not wheelchair means many disabled people can go out unless someone goes with them. Safety is another issue. Inexplicably, most cars are still crash-tested using a dummy based on an average-sized male. This has safety implications for all women, particularly those who are pregnant, as the seatbelts worn by the dummy are not adapted to accommodate them. Over the past 100 years, workplaces in the UK have, on the whole, become considerably safer. Employers are legally required to provide well-maintained personal protective equipment, or PPE, anything from goggles to full bodysuits, to workers who need it, free of charge. But most PPE is designed to fit men. A recent report found that employers often think that when it comes to female workers, all they need to do to comply with this legal requirement is to buy jackets, for example, designed for a small man. The problem with this is that women can be tall and still have much smaller shoulders than the average man. Ill-fitting PPE such as high-vis jackets, vests and body armour can put women at risk. The report found that 95% of women said that their PPE often hampered their work and that this problem was worst in the emergency services, particularly the police. Another problem is related to comfort at work. A very common scenario in offices in summertime is to see women wrapped in blankets or wearing sweaters while the air conditioning is on high. Meanwhile, the men are in shorts and T-shirts. This is due to differences in metabolic rates for men and women. There is a standard setting for air conditioning to be at a temperature of 21 degrees designed to suit men and in most modern offices it is not possible to turn the air conditioning up or down. This means that many offices which mainly employ women are wasting energy by having the air conditioning set too high. As you can see from the examples I’ve just mentioned, there are serious consequences for designs which don’t consider the needs of all users.