There were a few jobs to do this week, including finishing recording of trench 2, washing finds from last week and of course, opening another trench. There were enough willing volunteers to undertake all the tasks and the weather was good enough to move washing outdoors, where washed finds could be set out to dry in the spring sunshine before being categorised and bagged.
On Tuesday morning it was decided to open Trench 4. “What happened to trench 3?” you ask, well, trench 3 has been marked out and will be opened, just not yet. Instead attention was moved to a neighbouring garden, where geophysics had been undertaken earlier this year and the owners have been finding medieval pottery. The digging was not as easy as the previous 2 trenches, as the garden, although cleared, had previously been overgrown with brambles and nettles. The team worked hard to cut through the thick roots and by the end of Tuesday had made reasonable progress.
The blue skies and sunshine on Wednesday put the team in good spirits and anticipation of some interesting finds in Trench 4. A number of Victorian to modern artefacts were found, including part of an oil lamp and a small bottle, but nothing earlier. Mark S. provided some homemade Easter themed shortbread biscuits to keep up morale, which were very much appreciated and enjoyed. Towards the end of the day, Jan uncovered some bricks and a post hole, indicating the trench needed to be deeper than thought and perhaps there was more to be unearthed.
Thursday was another warm and sunny day and a small group focussed on locating the bottom of Trench 4, whilst Linda completed the finds washing and bagging. The garden owners kindly brought out some of the items they had found for everyone to examine and build up hopes for similar finds in Trench 4. At the end of the day, it was decided everyone deserved a well earned drink, so (in true Time Team fashion), it was off to the Wadkin Arms’ beer garden to discuss the latest theories and speculate on what next week may reveal.