Day Six: One down, three to go

The final day of the first week proved to be busy and productive. After the rain and clouds of the day before the sun returned in full force for another perfect, if dry day. One of the first jobs was to get Trench Two ready for this coming Saturday, when it will be the focus for our local community volunteers. The turf was taken off on Monday and today the remaining topsoil was removed today by Paul and Jordan. However, we forgot to take a photo so here you can see Pete and Alex attempting to steal the credit.

Small but perfectly trowelled, just not by them

Trench two is placed in an area where we dug a test pit at Easter. Then as well as Tudor period pottery and window glass we found evidence for what looked like a series of mortar floors. The new trench is placed to find more of these as well as including what we think is a wall which is visible as a parch mark in the grass, and is already appearing in the topsoil (both can be seen in the pic above).

Another wall emerging in Trench 1

Back in Trench One work continued removing the last of the demolition layer that was covering almost the whole area. This has revealed yet more sections of wall and it is clear that they belong to a variety of different phases, so a lot more digging will be required before they can be fully interpreted. One of the main ways we can do this is by looking at the stone by stone drawings that we're doing, and today Sandy and Veronica completed the second plan of the entire site.

Emma spots a possible tarantula, Alex and Hugh look sceptical as everyone knows they're only found in zoos, unlike octopuses

Finds continue to come thick and fast, and although so far we haven't washed any (so don't have many pretty pictures yet) this will be an activity being started by our community volunteers on Saturday. However today we found quite a lot of large pieces of architectural stonework including a fine piece of window tracery. This all comes from the monastic phase of the site and was probably reused as building material in the Tudor period.

'New' Will with his tiny pin

At the opposite end of the scale Will demonstrated beginners luck on his first day on site (as well as his eagle eyes) by finding a perfectly preserved copper pin. Pottery to be the most common find and we found another nice piece of slip decorated 'Cistercian ware'.

'Tash of the day' and 'sunburn of the day' proudly
on show at the end of week drinks

The week ended with the traditional lemonade in the Red Deer, when all were able to relax after all the exciting findings of the last six days. Paul and Rob seem to be displaying lasting reminders of their experience, and everyone is looking forward to a day off on Friday!