Waiting for SWMBO in a Rochester car park, admiring the medieval city walls.
Just above present ground level you could see the tops of some windows or maybe arrow slits - so the original 'ground' level when they were built must have been at least 6' lower.
How does this happen? What causes 'ground' level to rise over the centuries?
Well it depends where it is and what sort of ground we are talking about. The continuous growth of plants, grass etc, lays down layers of last years growth and gradually it will raise the level of the soil itself. Of course other factors are in play, sinkage of foundations, errosion and redistribution of soil and rock over time, then there is us of course in more recent times moving earth about to create flat areas to build on and I'm sure many more reasons can be found if you think about it.
Brian
Erosion, followed by precipitation of what has been eroded.
Colin Bignell
Global warming. The ground expands you see..:-)
Actually you would be surprised at how fast soil builds up due to leaf fall and other rotting vegetation.
And castles typically were build with ditches and moats outside, and those fill up even quicker.
The lawns around my old office in Edinburgh, laid in 1939, were edged in granite - which is now a full 6" below the level of the grass - the soil has risen that much in 73 years.
The same question occurs to me while watching 'Time Team'. Sometimes the 'finds' are not far below the surface, while at other times they are several feet down, with no obvious sign of a river in the vicinity that might be responsible by depositing sediment.
When I dug a hole for our pond a few years ago, I came across a 'Fine Fare' bread wrapper about 18 inches down, but in that case I think the soil had been deliberately imported to raise the level.
Waste and blown-in /carried-in dirt.
Or some careless time-travelling picnicker was there.
In message , Geoff Pearson writes
Worm crap?
Actually the soil level round my farmhouse was above the slate damp course due to generations of farmer's wives tipping kitchen range clinker to create a dry path!
Rochester castle was besieged several times, the attackers may have filled in the moat. Also castles were robbed for stone, the moat may have been filled with unwanted rubble.
And in urban areas, adding more hard material to road surfaces than erodes away. The road outside my house is six inches above the path and
1780's front door. Over in the next town it's a couple of feet above the doorstep of the oldest building which ISTR dates from 14th Century.In churchyards, one side is usually higher than the other because there's supposed to be a better side to be buried (relating to day of judgement?)
It was the city walls I was talking about, not the castle....
Well, Charles Darwin ( as in origin of species) did a long term study of this and reckoned it was the worms wot did it. Of course, it could always be subsidence.....;)
A lot of old churches seem to be considerably below the current ground level of the surrounding churchyard.
The ground level is supposed to have risen due the the mass (or perhaps volume) of bodies & coffins which have been buried there over several centuries.
I'm not entirely convinced, I suspect that a heavy stone building without much in the way of foundations has sunk down a bit.
Do worms subside?
NT :)
I was in a churchyard today where some kind of outbuilding just had its roof above ground level. The gravestones were at ground level so I guess the remains are now 12 feet under rather than 6.
I have an area that had a stone surface. The stone was, is, a foot deep. That was twenty years ago. The area is under trees. The stone has completely disappeared and the area is now grass. There has been no intervention except grazing.
Bill
When worlds collide.
In message , The Medway Handyman writes
Dead bodies, rubbish and such
what do you think
Lack of street cleaners and grave diggers?
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