Day 15 - backfilling the trenches

Who decided that rain was a good thing? Not only rain, but thunder and lightening. But wait - its the Green Man festival this weekend so its obliged to rain.

Early start - In my dream I had asked for a man with a digger to come and fill the trenches. The team would then put the turf back and then we would all have coffee and go home. Wrong picture - rain not included. By coffee time a drenched group of turfers and an even wetter group of barrowers threw in the towel and went home for dry clothes.

Most of the holes are filled in, but returfing will have to wait for another day.

Thanks to Jemma, Mike, Ed, Debbie, Charlene and David for getting the job started, and to Trevor Meredith, Steve, Alex, Glyn and Ben for their excellent effort in getting the holes filled.

Watch this space for further posts - just because its day the last this is not the end of the blog......

Day 14 - all gone to pot

This is the last day for finishing trenches and recording. A small but select group gathered to make the final adjustments to the trenches and to draw, photograph and take the levels in the remaining open areas. Thankfully the dry weather lasted until mid afternoon.

As today is A level results day we were missing two key members of the team, although news soon came through, and it was very good news. Congratulations to Ed and Jay. It was also good to be visited by Mikey Eustace, also the bearer of good news, and to hear from Vicki Jarvis, both of whom have joined us in previous years. Well done to all of you.

A steady flow of well wishers came to have the final tour of the archaeology before it is consigned to earth once again. We would like to thanks everybody who came with such enthusiasm and encouraging words. This is a community dig and it needs the community to get behind it for it to work.

A final push in the rain after hours saw all the work completed and all but essential tools cleared away. The final act of the day was the dig dinner, which was well attended. All the usual well worn jokes "I did not recognised you in your (normal) clothes etc" were trotted out for the last time this year.

One more push to fill the trenches in the morning and dig 2010 will become history!

Diggers today - Jemma, Charlene, Jan, Sue, David S, Debbie, Mark, Christopher, James, Callum.

Day 13 - follow the hard beaten road

Trench 5 now has a beautifully constructed surface, showing the track that leads to the lane. The revetments at the sides are not yet distinct. A small number of pot finds, probably from a wide range of dates, seem to be telling us that the fields on either side have been matured over many centuries.

Trench 4 has been recorded.

Trench 3 is still revealing more about the building's function and construction. The efforts of the Red Lion team were much appreciated.

We hope to have good weather on Thursday and Friday to finish recording and to back fill.

Todays diggers - Jemma, Ed, Peter S, Peter H, Mark, Jan, Charlene, Mike, David S, David F, Debbie, Richard, Adie, Mick & Nick

Day 12 - is that a floor I see before me?

In typical time team fashion, with just minutes to spare before the end of the day, a line of flagstones emerged from the dust in trench 3, in the area between the top robbed walls. This delighted Sue and Beth who had found practically nothing all day. A hard surface, maybe the lane came up beside the drain at the west end of the trench.

Trench 4 benefited from some heavy duty cleaning by Rodger, and Peter was able to see clearly to draw the features.

Trench 5 has uncovered the lane surface and now work is going on to see how the sides were constructed. It is likely that there is some sort of revertment at each side.

Finds continue to be construction material with a small amount of pottery which may have come from manuring of the fields.

Callum Richardson called in with a picture of a reconstruction of a pipe found yesterday with unique foot. This has two square marks impressed on the foot which will help with identification later.

The picture shows another major aspect of the dig - group discussion on the days work, with the help of some tongue loosening potion.

Diggers today - Jemma, Rodger, Charlene, Ed, Sue, Jay, Peter S, Peter H, Dave, Debbie, Mike, Jan, Bethan, Ed, David, Richard

Day 11 - a pipe dream

Today we had more diggers than ever before. Six people came along for the first time this dig and we made lots of progress. A new trench (no 5) was opened to explore the track into the site from the road to the south. This has been blocked up for some time as there is a mature Alder tree growing in the gap, and some holly trees.

The robbed wall was cleaned in trench 4 and a large area of trench 3 was excavated - and drain pipes were found in the bottom of the stone covered drain found in week one. Recording has started in earnest and with it cleaning, cleaning, cleaning. Hopefully the weather will hold off so we can complete all the work without rushing.

Diggers today: Jemma, Ed, Rodger, David S, Jay, Jan, Charlene, David F, Peter S, Peter H, Mike, Mark, Christopher, James, Callum, Rosie, Richard & Kerry.

Special thanks to Ann for the cake - we all love chocolate and we ate it all.

Day 10 - Ty Llwyd emerging from the ground

Trench 4 after cleaning. The wall and cobbled surface are on the right with the flagstones running across the centre from left to right. Not long after this was taken the cut of the robbed wall was excavated from the top end of the right hand ranging rod to approximately half way along furthest boundary of the trench.


Trench 3 looking due west. The cobbled surface is a continuation of that seen in trench 4. There is a stone drain just this side of the cobbles in the right hand side of the trench. Immediately beyond the cobbles is the robbed wall. There is another beyond the unturfed section. Between the two walls is collapsed stone on a fine red soil layer. The far end of the trench contained the majority of the pottery finds perhaps indicating a midden nearby on the platform.


So what have we here! An incognito professional supervising high level cleaning operations.

Thanks to all the people who have turned up to help this week. The weather has not been as good as week one, but only stopped operations on Tuesday afternoon. It is good to see some new faces. During the week we have had a number of visitors to look what we have found. Everybody is welcome to come and see and take the guided tour. If you are passing by please come over to see us. We are very tame even if we look a little grubby.

Diggers today: Jemma, Ed, Charlene, Jan, Kerry, Richard, Mike, Debbie, Hannah, Bethany, Christina, James and Callum

Day 9 - a little Treasure

Young Ed has found the metal detector. Watch out Mum and Dad Treasure as he will be practising with it at home this weekend. Just as well he is our agricultural expert, which makes him well placed to identify all the bits of broken machinery that seem to have been abandoned in part of the field.

Trench 4 is immaculately clean and ready for recording, thanks to the patient work of Jay, Charlene, Debbie, Rosie and Richard, but then it got bigger again so they will need to do a bit more. There is little in the way of finds, but the structure of the building is being resolved metre by metre.

Trench 3 is also growing. The structural features repeat themselves at this level and suggest that we may be near the bottom corner. It is tempting to get even wider to take in the return of the wall and also to find out what is happening to the floor levels within the building.

As week two is drawing to a close there are still lots of questions to keep us busy next week.

Diggers today - Jemma, Jan, Charlene, Jay, Ed, Debbie, Mike, Nigel