Leonard Allan Probert

Elected 5 May 1977

We are grateful to Jeremy Knight, FSA, for the following obituary.

Leonard Allan Probert (elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1977) died on 23 November 2007, after a short illness. He was a much respected figure in Welsh archaeology, a leading authority on the pre-Roman Iron Age, and particularly on its hillforts. Born in a small house just outside the gates of Abergavenny Castle, he won a scholarship to King Henry VIII Grammar School, though family circumstances dictated that he should leave at fourteen and become apprenticed to a painter and decorator. After National Service in the Royal Military Police he became, for a short time (somewhat improbably to those that knew him later in life), a policeman in the Monmouthshire valleys. Later on he started his own painting and decorating firm, before taking over his wife’s family’s off-licence business. 

I first met Allan when, on holiday from London, I took part in what was probably the first planned urban excavation programme in Wales, in Abergavenny, with the Dominican Friar Fabian Radcliffe and Eric Talbot, Resources, financial and otherwise, were minimal, and it is somewhat frustrating to think what the sort of larger scale urban research programme which became feasible a few years later might have achieved. Even so, the excavation revealed something of the town’s prehistory, from Neolithic times onwards, and first located the pre-Flavian fort of Gobannium, as well as much of the town’s later history down to the recent past. With the generous assistance of George Boon and his colleagues at the National Museum of Wales, we were able to bring the results to publication in the Monmouthshire Antiquary Vol II part IV (1968-9) and Vol III part II (1972-3).

Allan then moved his activities to the hillfort of Twyn-Y-Gaer, north of Abergavenny. He brought to the excavation his understanding as a builder and skilled craftsman as well as excavation skills of a high order. The late Professor Lelsie Alcock, not a man who gave praise easily, remarked how refreshing it was to see an amateur excavation carried out to the highest professional standards. Each year, Allan would meticulously apply to what is now Cadw for official permission to continue his excavations. Visits to Twyn-Y-Gaer were usually concluded in 41 Union Road w with Allan and Jean over an excellent steak and a bottle of red wine, carefully selected from the stock of the off-licence.

At Twyn-Y-Gaer, Allan revealed for the first time in South Wales the complex history of an Iron Age hillfort. More limited earlier work at Llanmelin and Sudbrook had suggested a relatively brief and simple sequence before the Roman Conquest. Twyn-Y-Gaer began (perhaps around 450 BC) as a simple promontory fort with a palisaded outer enclosure for stock. Latter the earthworks were extended to include this outer enclosure before contracting once more to a small defended enclosure at the tip of the promontory. Each of these periods was accompanied by complex gateway arrangements. Even in the interim report, which is sadly all we have at the moment, it can be seen how Allan’s skills as a countryman and builder were brought to play in interpreting these, whether in the practicalities of building a pleached birchwood fence and using it to enclose cattle, or in the problems of hanging a substantial hillfort gate.

Allan belonged to a tradition of rural political radicalism strong in parts of Monmouthshire. A non-conformist in the literal sense, he could be truculent when confronted with what he saw as officialdom and at times showed scant understanding of the constraints under which such people operate. He had, however, an often humorous awareness of this. The prickly thistle forming an element of the floral tribute at his humanist funeral told its own story.

Allan nursed Jean through a long terminal illness at their home in Skenfrith. He later married Sarah. He was now working towards the final publication of Tywn-Y-Gaer, but as anyone who has ever written up a large excavation knows, this is a daunting task, even with the help, resources and colleagues of a university or museum department. He felt frustration at the report’s slow progress but the countryman, fly fisher, beekeeper and, in his younger days, bell ringer, found contentment in Skenfrith, where he grew a variety of vegetables (and gave most of them away). If the Twyn-Y-Gaer report could finally be brought to publication, it would be a fitting memorial.