Day One: A trench reopened....

Day One was all about removing last year’s backfill and cleaning up the trench ready for this year’s digging to start…highlights include some unusual visitors and we introduce Keith the Spade and Kenneth the trowel. Hear how they got on….

Jack… Whether being bombarded by rain, baked in the sunlight or being invaded by a stray pair of ducks the first day was a great success. Focusing on the removal of backfill in an attempt to uncover the previous year's excavation efforts today was a day purely dedicated to manual labour. Continuously chipping away at the soil today only saw the occasional small find. With no major finds, it was painful to witness but, the overall experience was enjoyable and educational regardless. Interactions with members of the public provided insight on public interpretation while effective team-working served as a foundation of what is to come. As it stands, Team A and all other teams present found the experience highly enjoyable and can't wait to continue to excavate.

News from Sammy in Team C… Picking up from last year’s efforts was an exciting, albeit wet experience. My group was tasked with cleaning the trench which had been unearthed the prior day and making our way down through the backfill to the Roman ditch. As Jack is beautifully demonstrating below, the water level made this somewhat difficult!

Unexpectedly we found a variety of finds; clay pipe fragments, decorated Roman floor tiles, a variety of Roman Samian ware pottery and animal remains. It is fair to say the trench seems promising, especially considering this was only the backfill and we are yet to investigate any new archaeology.

Given that this is my first experience taking part in an excavation, the first day has very much put into perspective the amount of work that goes into them. This also includes the manual efforts, especially when the material you are removing is clay! All in all, spirits are high and the banter is on form!

Jessica’s group make some discoveries… We have already found some interesting items such as animal bones and teeth, glass and pottery which made us forget about the rainy start to the day. The day was made more interesting by the wildlife, the highlight had to be when two ducks took a tour of the site as well as a robin which kept checking in on us. As the day continued and the weather improved the time seemed to fly by and before I knew it, it was time to go. Hopefully the backfill removal will be finished soon so we can begin the next step of the excavation, the next few weeks are certainly going to be interesting.

Samuel offers a different perspective in ‘the adventures of Keith the Spade & Kenneth the Trowel’….I began work at 9am, in order to clear away and tidy the back fill from the previous year’s dig. During this I found my trusty sidekick, Keith the spade. I dug away the edges of the trench to create a flat and tidy border; this revealed archaeological layers (see the photo, the different colours show this) as well as numerous small finds. Small finds included clay smoking pipes, drainage pipes, pottery and slate roof-tiles. Our spoil heap grew ever larger across the day, leading to an expansion and development of the almighty spoil heaps road systems and dumping locations! Tidying carried on throughout the day, as well as introducing a second archaeological process and our second sidekick, Kenneth the trowel. Using trowels to finely sift through the remaining earthworks, we began the removal of the previous year’s tarpaulin sheets. This concluded the day, the adventures of Keith & Kenneth shall continue!