The Molelab Detector

[John Winter]

According to Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, the death of William III was the direct result of a fall resulting from his horse stumbling on a molehill. Due to this accident the king broke his collarbone, a severe illness ensued, and he died early in 1702. For many years afterwards, his Jacobite enemies would raise their glasses and toast the mole – ‘the little gentleman in the black velvet waistcoat’.


Courtesy of Wikipedia - CC Licence

The ‘velvet gentleman’ is again altering the course of history - and this time on the site of a once thriving Roman fort that is now a scheduled monument. The UK moles have been doing some excavations of their own by churning up artefacts at Epiacum, close to the Cumbrian border and near to Hadrian’s wall. Moles have been so busy there that English Heritage have drafted in volunteers to sieve through the molehills and take out any ancient artefact that has been brought to the surface. I learn that our subterranean allies have brought up:

• Pottery fragments from Roman serving bowls
• Earthenware pots
• A jet bead from a Roman necklace or bracelet
• Roman Nails
• A bronze decorative dolphin-shaped piece

The moles are able to do what humans are forbidden by law to do and the landowner’s wife is trying to promote the site as a tourist attraction. However, her husband expressed mixed feelings about the pesky critters. He said: "Moles are the bane of landowner’s lives!"

 

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[John Winter]

FACT

"Moles are industrious diggers and can create 20m of tunnel per day. They leave characteristic mounds of earth on the surface as they excavate their tunnels. Large chambers within the tunnel system are lined with dry grass and used for nesting during periods of rest. Moles feed mainly on earthworms, but they also eat a variety of other invertebrates, as well as snakes and lizards. They inhabit deciduous woodland, grassland and farmland - wherever the soil is deep enough for tunnelling."

I once found an old and unusual button in a mole-hill.