During my PhD research on the role of professional archaeologists on BBC radio, one of the first files I accessed from the BBC Written Archives at Caversham was that of archaeologist Dina Dobson. I quickly became a little obsessed with this dynamic and innovative woman, who made an important contribution to twentieth century British archaeology, but whose legacy has now been largely forgotten. When the name Dina Dobson is mentioned amongst academics working in contemporary archaeology, the vast majority have never previously heard of her. This seems to me a serious omission, as she deserves to be remembered not only for her contribution to archaeology, but also as an innovative radio broadcaster.
During the middle years of the twentieth century British archaeology came into its own as a discrete profession. Scientific techniques were applied in the attempt to understand the complexities of Britain’s past, and Dina Dobson was right at the forefront of this work. Even less well-known than her practice as an archaeologist is the fact that Dobson was also an enthusiastic and skilled radio broadcaster and scriptwriter, channelling her broad range of interests into radio talks on the BBC’s Schools, Home and Light Services and the Third Programme.
Dr Dina Portway Dobson-Hinton, (1885-1968), was educated at Bedford High School and Newnham College, Cambridge. After her first marriage to John Dobson, Professor of Greek at the University of Bristol, she moved to the West Country, where she indulged her interest in caving, being a founder member of Bristol University Speleological Society. Dobson was the first woman to descend two of the most challenging potholes in the area.[1] Through her work in the West Country she developed her expertise as a local field archaeologist, and in 1931 she published the seminal volume on the archaeology of Somerset.[2] Having attended university at a time when it was not possible for women to graduate, Dobson clearly managed to operate effectively in what remained a very male-dominated archaeology profession. Her success is attested by the fact that in 1934 she was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, itself a badge of professional achievement and acceptance.
By the outbreak of World War Two Dobson had settled with her family in the village of Wrington, near Bristol, and in August 1941 she was to be found excavating in advance of the digging of an anti-tank ditch to defend the city of Wells. During 1941 she also started to write scripts for the long-running BBC Schools radio series How Things Began. Her contributions, which aimed to provide school children with a detailed overview of early life in Britain, were first broadcast in January 1942, and regularly repeated for the next twenty years. Having worked for a time as a teacher, Dobson had for long been a committed enthusiast for the use of radio in teaching, appreciating its potential at a time when other educationalists were cynical about its role in the classroom.[3] In bringing to light Dobson’s collaboration with BBC Schools radio producers Rhoda Power and Mary Somerville I gained the impression of a lively character in possession of a great deal of energy and enthusiasm, as well as the requisite broadcasting talent to connect with radio listeners over the airwaves.[4]
She also developed a reputation as a source of valuable guidance to young archaeologists learning the ropes. My former professor at York University, the eminent archaeologist Philip Rahtz, recounted that as an untrained youth, he began an experimental excavation on what appeared to be a large prehistoric burial mound near Wrington. This was in 1946, a time when there was scant legal protection for such monuments. Having soon realised that he had no idea what he was doing, Rahtz sought advice from local archaeologist Dina Dobson:
I called her and explained what I’d been doing, and my problem. Her reply on the phone was ‘How very interesting: do come to tea’. I can only now imagine her horror, but she hid it well. It turned out that the mound was well-known and had a catalogue number […] and was believed to be a barrow, and a prized one at that. Had she been hostile I might well have been completely put off, and become the worst kind of self-opinionated amateur.[5]
Dobson retained her enthusiasm for radio broadcasting throughout her life. Aside from participating in archaeology talks and discussions, she presented on civic topics as varied as The Councillor and Our Water Supply. All this radio activity would have required considerable time and energy on top of her other activities, to liaise with producers, to write the radio scripts and practise their timing and delivery, and then travel to the radio studios in BBC Bristol or London, to deliver the broadcasts.
At the start of this account, I mentioned the informative BBC archives file which first ignited my interest in the life of Dina Dobson. One of the last items of correspondence is dated to November 1956, and is bizarrely entitled ‘Dina Dobson’s Nylons’.[6] Bristol Talks producer Kenneth Hudson had contacted the Woman’s Hour production team, offering Dobson’s script on A Visit to a Volcano. Hudson describes her as ‘a distinguished archaeologist and a vigorous old lady. Experienced broadcaster […] I would record her with pleasure’. The volcano broadcast was recorded the following year, and seems to have been her final radio contribution. Dobson thereafter fades somewhat poignantly into history. I am left with the strong impression of a formidable elderly lady, dressed in tweed skirt and thick, practical stockings, pounding the corridors of Broadcasting House to interest producers in another of her radio scripts. Dina Dobson richly deserves recognition and respect for her important contributions to British archaeology, and to the history of BBC broadcasting.
Top image credit: Dina Dobson at Moreton in the Chew Valley, Somerset, in 1953, accompanied by Chief Inspector of Ancient Monuments, Bryan O’Neill. The Philip Rahtz Slide Collection, University of York, Creative Commons.
Dr Jan Lewis is a Visiting Fellow at Bournemouth University. Having initially trained in archaeology, Jan subsequently worked in the NHS and in educational administration. She undertook her PhD on a part-time basis while employed as a postgraduate research administrator in the Faculty of Media and Communication at Bournemouth University. She was awarded the 2023 MeCCSA (Association of Media, Communication and Cultural Studies) Outstanding Achievement Award for her thesis entitled Mediating the Past: BBC Radio Archaeology Broadcasting, 1922-1966.
[1] Frank Frost, ‘Obituary – Dina Portway Dobson-Hinton, M.A., Litt.D., F.S.A., Vice-President, Wessex Cave Club, 1936-68’, Wessex Cave Club Journal no. 118, vol. 10 (August 1968): 98; Oliver. C. Lloyd, ‘Obituary – Dina Portway Dobson-Hinton, Litt.D., F.S.A.’, University of Bristol Speleological Society Proceedings, 11 (3), (1968): 205-206.
[2] Dina Dobson, The Archaeology of Somerset (London: Methuen, 1931).
[3] Dina Dobson, ‘Wireless Lessons in History’, History, vol. 15/57, Oxford: Blackwell (1930): 38.
[4] Jan Lewis, manuscript submitted for publication 2023, ‘Adventures in Sound. Rhoda Power, Archaeology and Schools Radio, 1941-1945’, Women’s History Review, forthcoming special issue: ‘Addressing the Nation’.
[5] Philip Rahtz, Living Archaeology (Stroud, Gloucestershire: Tempus, 2001), 52-53
[6] BBC/WAC/R Cont.1/Dina Dobson Talks, 1941-1962/memorandum Kenneth Hudson to Miss M.A. Hart, 28th November 1956.