Russell was back after two days away and he carried on recording in Trench 3. We lifted one of the bricks in the post-medieval trench, revealing it to be the top of a culvert. This culvert is of a different construction to the culvert in Trench 4; the bricks look to be more recent, although the construction technique appears to be older. Further work will be required when we return after Easter to establish a sequence for the drainage systems.
The structure in Trench 6 is still being working on and the trench was extended to reveal another compartment, this one half roofed over. We are unsure of its purpose, although we doubt it was used as a toilet disposal unit.
The plan for this week was to finish excavating all the existing trenches and then complete the records. I have been working in Trench 5, tidying up the trench after the schoolchildren had been there, levelling the excavated slot and straightening the sections ready for recording.
One of the volunteers carried on excavating the tank/cistern, taking the fill of the main compartment down to a depth of 1.2m. At this point the fill began to get quite spongy, indicating a very humic layer underneath, possibly from the use of the tank for toilet waste.
Another volunteer was working in Trench 2, behind the house, excavating the post-medieval make-up layers. At around 60cm down, a cobbled surface was exposed. This surface was made up of vertically laid limestone blocks. This construction indicates a medieval date, although the full extent and purpose of the surface is unclear.
This morning saw the last of the schools’ visits, with 23 children visiting the site. After being shown around the hall by our very own Maurice Johnson II and taking on 18th-century servant roles, the children came to Trench 5, in the wilderness, to have a go at archaeology and learn about stratigraphy. To do this we have a blanket dig that allows us to show how archaeological layers build up over time and that you find later archaeological layers above earlier deposits. Although this is quite a loosely structured activity you can spend time with each child and explain about materials, how they were used or made.
A meeting was held this morning to discuss further work on the project, as we wish to extend Trench 3 (in the lawn) to expose more of the medieval features and help us understand them. We also wish to extend Trench 4 (also in the lawn) to try and take in the junction of the two culverts, and also to expose the whole profile of the medieval ditch, of which we have only caught the edge. The outcome of this meeting was that we will finish the existing work at the end of next week and take a two-week break over Easter before returning at the end of March to extend the two trenches.
We have continued excavating in Trench 9, along the bank. Throughout the excavation it has looked likely that the bank may be of modern construction. We think this because its deposits are a mixture of redeposited sands and modern debris. This probably results from levelling the ground and using the excess soil to build up the bank. We conclusively proved the bank’s modern origin when we reached a depth of 80cm and revealed a tarmac surface! It is possible that this an old footpath predating the construction of the tennis courts and bowling green in the 1920s.
In Trench 3 Russell carried on recording, drawing a plan of the feature to show their location and spatial relationships. Russell also drew a profile of the trench to show the stratigraphic relationship of the deposits.
We have had no school visits for the last two days and we have used this time to catch up on recording, with a scaled drawing of the exposed well and a profile of the garden wall foundations in Trench 8.
The latter part of last week saw a number of interesting developments on the site:
In Trench 2, Helen has finished the recording of the sunken furnace (presumably for a heating system, but not the boiler as stated in my earlier mention of this feature!). A slot now being excavated (by Dennis, who has been working since Tuesday on a voluntary basis) against the garden wall at the southern end of the trench has revealed brick foundations at shallow depth beneath the visible stone. These foundations postdate a sequence of layers, including a stone/mortar surface and deposits of burnt material, the uppermost of which may relate to use of the adjacent furnace/boiler room.
In Trench 3, we have excavated below the depth of the foundations of the east-west wall and have located a concentration of medieval activity at the northern end of the trench. We are working in a confined area so it is difficult to characterise with accuracy the type of activity we are encountering here. Furthermore, we have reached the maximum depth permissible under our Health and Safety policy (without shoring or the widening and stepping of the trench sides), and the deposits are clearly extending below the lower limit of excavation. Features in this area include a possible north-south ditch which extends beneath the foundations of limestone wall. The latter is cut a by a feature (perhaps a pit) containing slightly humic silts producing frequent sherds of medieval pottery. The possible pit is in turn cut by a linear feature – possibly another culvert, as indicated by a flat capping of large bricks. We have yet to explore beneath the brick capping.
Yesterday (Sunday), we held an Open Day, comprising a talk on the findings to date, a display of some the artefacts recovered from the site, and a tour of the areas currently under excavation. We were extremely pleased with the high level of interest shown in the project.