Who am I?

My name is Paul Brooker, I am 43 years old, married, three great kids, and I work as a shift operator in a local biomass fueled power station. I live local to the Forest - in the town of Thetford. I'm a typical English hobbyist, maybe a little obsessive about my interests - as you can see from my websites! Other interests past and present have included amateur radio (licensed as G0AGP), fishing, genealogy, motorcycling, adult education, digital photography, political activism, learning Portuguese language, computers (writing html etc), and enjoying being a dad.

What sparked my interest in archaeology? When I was a kid, I remember digs taking place all around my parents shop in Norwich. I used to love haunting the city museums (some of which have since been closed). This interest laid dormant for years - then on a fishing holiday in Ireland, I visited the Newgrange Neolithic passage grave tomb. My interest in late prehistory, was stirred to visit Avebury, Stonehenge, Grimes Graves, West Kennett, Grimspound (Dartmoor), and various Scottish Iron-Age sites - but I was interested, not yet an enthusiast. Then I moved with my wife to a farm outside of Thetford. One day, while walking the family dog, I picked up the broken end of a neolithic polished flint axehead from a farm path.

Later, I read W.G and R.Rainbird Clarkes beautiful book In Breckland Wilds, about the area that we lived in. Published in 1937 (2nd edition revised), this book described the fauna, history and archaeology of the Brecklands. I was hooked. I discovered the exposed soils of restocked compartments in Thetford Forest, and started to search - and to learn. At first, I started to search for flint tools - much in the style of W.G Clarke and his flinter friends almost a century earlier. It wasnt good archaeology, because I didn't know any better. However, every flint tool I collected, I took to the local museum for recording and identifying.

After a year or two, I was more aware of the ethics of collection. I wanted to formalise my searches into something more useful. I had also by now, met professional conservators and archaeologists in both Norfolk and Suffolk and was studying for a two year extra-mural certificate course in Field Archaeology and Landscape History, ran by the University of East Anglia - which I completed to certificate level. Today, my archaeological interests can pretty much be summarised as including: British prehistory, late prehistoric lithic studies, and surface-collection techniques.

I would love to study archaeology full-time, but like a lot of people, I have responsibilities that prevent me from doing so. With this website I want to encourage others to responsibly investigate and enjoy the heritage and landscape of their environments - the past is all around us!

Paul Brooker