Tiles, the culvert and cookies

Mark updates us for Friday -
After the climax of yesterday's Elizibethan coin find (courtesy of Zoe) and my total jealousy of it, my finds today were a little lacking. These consisted of two body sherds of Black Brown ware and a slightly more interesting copper alloy artefact, which looked as if it had totaly mineralised into verdigris. The tubular object was approximately 35 mm wide and 40 mm long, possibly the broken part of a product of a tinman (solderer). This was too fragile to remove and remained at the lower margin of the rubble fill, between the hearth and culvert. It may even defy the most attentive attempt to lift it, and disintegrate by the look of it.
However, during the "finds 4" session (with Julie) a reappraisal of the medieval green glazed floor tile fragment I found in the first week showed that it may have more diagnostic significance than first thought. The pattern on the fragment depicts the lower legs and talons of what could be a Gryphon, Wyvern, Dragon or similar, and may be from the late 14th or 15th c. This tile could be from St John's Church or the Chapel of St Anne and maybe was re-used in a high status building prior to breakage / dumping into the rubble fill of the current trench. The tile does have an ecclesiastical style to it, and it has now been separated out for further examination.

And Tom lets us know about the progress in the trench -
Despite the early rain and the besieging army of squirrels, it has been another productive day at the dig. Work continued on the building area and culvert in the afternoon by team D (or the newly coined Joseph Tong experience) who uncovered something rather interesting. Gary believes that we have found the area of the culvert that would have resided in the structure of the house. It is reported that Adam has found ‘stuff, important stuff,’ but as of yet this source cannot be verified. In between the Joseph Tong experience and Gary’s manic trowelling, teams B and C continued to record and excavate the site taking us down to a level past the demolished layer of Cholmondeley’s manor.
Of course the highlight of the day was no simple find or feature, but cookies baked personally by our very own Meggen (Thank you kindly). Aside from that, the students are geared up for the open day on Tuesday, which will be filled with fun activities, a chance to see the site in all its glory and possibly a chance to meet yours truly. So my friends, eat, drink and be merry on Tuesday, for on Wednesday we work.