Day Seven: The community kick off

After a relaxing day off on Friday, today saw the excavation resume for its second week. Between 10th-22nd July members of the local community will be joining us to help out, and this is being coordinated by Christine Rawson (who can be contacted at c.rawson@elmetarchaeology.co.uk). We were also visited by a number of members of The Friends of Monk Bretton Priory who have been actively promoting the site since 2002.

Community base camp, where Christine keeps a seemingly limitless supply of jelly babies

Work started in earnest on Trench 2 today. Although the topsoil has only just been removed, initial cleaning has already started to reveal features. Running through the trench is a substantial structure about 1m in diameter. This could either be a huge wall (about the same size as those of the church) or another feature such as a path. Only with further excavation will we be able to tell.

Michaela and Kaya cleaning up in Trench 2

In Trench 1 drawing has continued apace, with Veronica and Morgan completing our second plan of the whole area. As well as drawing the stones we record the exact position of features in three dimensions. This is so that in the future people will be able to reconstruct exactly what we've removed during digging and relocate precisely where all the features are.

Pete with the Leica TCR407 Total Station. Not as cute sounding as the traditional 'dumpy' level but rather more useful. Unfortunately the dig budget doesn't run to an iPad for Freya, who has to make do with a piece of 1/2" plywood.

Digging also continued and we're beginning to get more details of some of the buildings emerging. One of the most exciting discoveries today was the survival of a stone flagged floor in front of the fireplace we uncovered on the first day. This area really is beginning to look quite promising, and potentially proves (we hope) that part of the Talbot mansion once stood on this part of the site!

Mateusz starting to 'flag'

Close by, and in what appears to a separate room, Will and Paul have been working on an area that appears to have been disturbed in the 20th century. Despite this we still have to dig carefully to make sure we gather any evidence for this, and the expert trowelling really paid off when we found the crucial dating evidence: a 1950s baked bean can.

"Mister, I love the way you wear that hat",
"You don't know nothin' bwoy"

After this startling 'find of the day' had been gently lifted and bagged, Will was able to clean up the last of the modern disturbance and made an even more thrilling find, a second stone fireplace base. Although not quite as nice looking as the first, it really confirms we're digging in a high status domestic building.

'Newish' Will just has to go one better