Day Twenty: going down the drain

The start of the start of the final week has seen us getting to grips with the more sensitive archaeology. With all the demolition finally removed it's just 16th century walls and surfaces everywhere. These need careful cleaning, recording and excavating.

Back to work!

The greatest excitement of the day has been the discovery of an intact cobbled surface running along the south side of the trench. This is in (almost) as good condition as the day it was laid around 450 years ago, and careful trowelling had revealed this very nicely.

Andy, Charlie, Robin and Susanna revealing the 16th century surface

One feature in this surface that has really got people talking is an intact capped drain running down the length of the cobbled surface. We're not sure where it's running from and to, but it has never been disturbed so hopefully it might contain some interesting gooey deposit.

Only in archaeology can we get excited by a capped drain, but it's as near to 'Indiana Jones' as it gets for us

Gareth can't resist the urge to take a sneaky peak, terrible things may happen

Another exercise we've undertaken today is to extend a small slot from our trench to the wall of the church. This is so we can 'tie in' the features we've found with the upstanding masonry, and see if there were any connection between the two. This has been undertaken by Emma, who's thrown herself into the task with her usual enthusiasm and verve.

Emma demonstrating that the trowel is not the only way to clean a surface

It's exhausting work

Being a weekend we've had a good number of visitors as well as being joined for work by some old hands from previous weeks, Paul and Charlie. The next few days are shaping up to prove the most exciting yet, so make sure you check the blog daily; and we might remember to take the photos on time!

He's back, can anyone else hear duelling banjos?