Where did the week end go! Back on site on Tuesday and April showers did not stop the enthusiasm of the volunteers. It really is heartening to have the support of individuals from other local groups helping us., together with local residents joining in. April showers descended upon us, but not enough to stop the digging. Cleaning of Trench 1 was cleaned by Brian E and Jan leaving us with many questions. Had we found an ancient track? Was it medieval ploughing?
Meanwhile, digging started in opening trench 2. Medieval and Roman pottery was hidden but did not escape the eagle-eyed volunteers. Emily was our youngest volunteer today. Tony F gained a new nick-name, “Bucket-Man” as he was kept busy emptying the spoils of labour of those digging.
On Tuesday evening, we carried on with an archaeological theme – at our monthly meeting we joined a Council for British Archaeology Zoom Fireside Chat. The topic was “The Skipwith Village Medieval Moated Manor House Excavation” and was presented by our Community Archaeologist, Jon Kenny, and Brian Worral of Skipwith. Some of our members had helped at the Skipwith Dig and we are pleased that Brian is coming along to help with our dig.
Wednesday brought us an overcast day. We welcomed some new volunteers from the village today and they thoroughly enjoyed their day. Jon started as usual giving an up-date on what work had been undertaken to date and the plans for the day. Mary, Dave and Harold started recording and drawing features in Trench 1, The rest of the happy gang continued to dig and clean Trench 2.
Mia, our youngest volunteer on the day, was excited to have the “find of the day”. It was ceramic with a light green glaze. It looked sculptural like a leg with a cloak hanging down the back. We are currently doing some research on the find. Well done Mia on your first visit to a dig!
Thursday brought along warm sunshine and folk working in the trenches soon started to take off their layers. Today, Paul D and Joe were digging in Trench 1 to reveal lower layers. Everyone else was working in Trench 2 digging and trowelling. Theories galore abounded, but as the cleaning continued, it revealed medieval ploughing.
So, that brings us to the end of week two. No, we haven’t found a building, the ancient track was medieval ploughing, and the round house was probably the ploughman turning his plough!
Jan and Shirley had a chat with the farmer, to check it was OK to open a third trench – and so it’s trench 3 next week. Onwards and upwards (or should that be downwards!)