RIP MARGARET RYLATT MBE
Our Vice Chairman, Paul Maddocks, remembers Margaret Rylatt MBE, Coventry City Archaeologist
I am very pleased to have known Margaret. When I started work at the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, one of my first jobs was to design covers for two different publication that Margaret had written about the Lunt Roman Fort in Baginton. The first cover was for an academic archaeology report of the dig she had done with Brian Hobley who was then the city archaeologist. When Brian moved to London, Margaret took over the position. The publication contained many detailed drawings and academic information, so the cover had to very restrained and quite plain. The other was more like a guide to the Lunt Roman Fort, its history and interesting features, and was a more easy to read, a lay persons book so the cover was more atmospheric.
Margaret was a very friendly person and was always able to get the best out of people. This was a great gift that she used over and over again; like getting the Royal Engineers Army Team to build replica Roman military buildings and defences at the Lunt Fort. By challenging the soldier to do what the greatest army in history did 2,000 years ago with limited resources, it was a challenge they could not refuse. They first building ditches, ramparts, wooden fences and a grand entrance gate that became the symbol of the 'Lunt'. Each year the Army would come back and build something else, such as the Granary which houses the Museum and interpretation centre. After that came the 'Gyrus'; a horse training arena, unique in Roman history, where Margaret was able to get re-enactment groups to put on displays and fight like 'Gladiator's. Unfortunately the Army project stopped around the time of the Falklands war and was the start of many cuts in the military budget. This is sad as if the 'Principia' (Headquarters office block) and some of the barrack blocks could have been completed they could have been used as hotel chalets and hostels for students and families to experience the Roman way of life and also putting money back in to the running of the museum site.
Margaret was not put off; she was able to get local schools, especially the wood work and metal work teachers, to make siege machines like the Roman catapult, made from large timbers, metal gears and ropes. I was able to assist in setting one of the catapults and firing it for filming in a TV series on military weapons. Margaret was also able to come up with other ideas like getting the Youth Training Scheme to build a large model of the fort; this was all done in the old Alfred Herbert's factory, in Edgwick, Coventry.
Margaret’s work was not all at the Lunt; she did many other “digs” around the city. The most viewed dig was in Broadgate. Margaret would dig in the blazing sunshine only in her Bikini top and shorts, with her bright red hair tied back she attracted a lot of viewers. But out of this interesting archaeological dig came one of the most important finds, a pit full of medieval leather shoes. It must have been on a site where a shoe maker had cast off any shoes that were too difficult to repair; they had been thrown into a wet midden or pit which preserved the leather.
Margaret also did a dig on the Charterhouse site but her main contribution was the gardens where she was able to get the Youth Training Scheme to layout and plant six gardens one from each century. She also got in touch with the Coventry Art College who made sculptures for the wooden arch that vines now grow over, plus many more sculptures to decorate the site. The garden still exists, but is a bit overgrown, though the new Trust are bringing it back to life and it is fondly known as Margaret Rylatt Gardens.
When I first started at the Museum in 1975, Whitefriars was a Museum open free to everyone. But it was in the time of the first rounds of Council cuts and was closed. Margaret moved her office from the Herbert Museum to Whitefriars Monastery. I used to go and visit her in her small office with her assistant Mike Stokes. Although the building is very large, with a great big hall that runs the complete length upstairs, the office was the only place you could heat and keep warm. Margaret was able to get the Whitefriars open first by persuading the Imperial War Museum to hold an English Civil War traveling exhibition there. It opened for one summer season and got re-enactment groups to come and do displays and demonstrations and they set up camp on the grass lawn alongside the building. Margaret's contact with the Coventry Art College was to lead to many end of year sculptor shows and they were held upstairs in Whitefriars. Sadly it would be impossible to do this now as the large open space is a store, full of all the artefacts that the Herbert cannot put on display.
Margaret’s swan song was on the excavation of Coventry's first Cathedral, St. Mary's Priory. The popular TV programme 'Time Team' joined the dig and were so excited at what was being found there, they even broke their own rule and came back for a second time so were able to see and find the amazing under croft. This was part of the Millennium Phoenix project and a visitor centre was built on the site to explain what a fabulous and important building this was and you can see Margret on various computer screens talking and explaining things to visitors. Unfortunately in the same month as her death, the Culture Coventry team have decided to close the Visitor Centre as a part of the new programme of cuts. I am not sure if any plans have been made for the Cathedral Guides open it up on special tours and what is going to happen to the Multi-faith centre which is upstairs in the building? The last day you can see Margaret on the screens is Saturday 27th February 2016.
Margaret’s funeral is on Tuesday 16th February at 9.45am at Canley Crematorium, Coventry.
Margaret was a warm fun loving person and very knowledgeable, I and many people will miss her.
Margaret with the team of Coventry Art students at Charterhouse
Soldiers building the Lunt Gateway and the Granary
Charterhouse Sculptures
