Day Thirteen: Demolition Day

After a day off, work started afresh and we were joined by a host of new faces. In Trench 1, with all the topsoil and 1950s disturbance removed, work started in earnest on the untouched contexts. In reality this meant that most people were involved in removing rubble and collapse that resulted from the final demolition of the building. Luckily this seems a relatively thin layer, so won't take too long.

The chain gang starts clearing

Ian poses somewhat unconvincingly, being 'an old hand' Veronica doesn't bother any more!

There was some work on other features. The newly revealed 'shaft' or tank features were cleaned up nicely for photographing and photos of these will follow tomorrow, hopefully along with a believable explanation of what they actually are! Sandy started the glamorous job of excavating the small drain feature first exposed a number of days ago. We're hoping she'll get some dating evidence in its fill that will help us date other related features.

Sandy seems to have forgotten her marigolds

Now we are digging through 'proper' contexts the finds have started coming thick and fast, and are even more interesting. The willow pattern china is now a distant memory and all artefacts are solidly 16th-17th century in date.

Kate, Shelley and Rachel sorting through the finds

Pottery is the most common find and we're getting some really nice chunks of drinking cups of two types, Cistercian ware (often decorated with yellow/white patterns) and its uglier cousin 'Midlands purple ware' which is, erm, purpley.

Lots of lovely Cistercian ware

Trench 2 is still with us, and soon we'll have a special feature on work taking place there. Today Dane has been supervising the digging and the relatively modern soils have flown off. They've also been making some nice finds too, all now 16th or 17th century in date.

Not to be outdone Dane shows off his find, enlarge to see the little petal