29 July

The avoidance of tea breaks and days off finally paid off for the earthwork survey which managed to finish their survey. Saving the best for last the team managed to gain access to the castle motte, recording a number of 19th century features on the crest of the mound and suggesting that the motte may have been raised in height when these features were added. With the equipment work finished on the site we will now wait until nearer to the winter when the vegetation is down to draw up the survey and refine our interpretations. And for next year we will be free to go beyond Wallingford town itself to develop an understanding of the wider landscape context and look at other features such as the conjectured bridgehead burh on the east side of the river.

28 July

With the Kinecroft complete the team swapped over to the Bullcroft to continue the survey of the burh defences which in this area include the survival of the outer ditch. Fortunately the native children were somwhat more accepting of our presence, even rescuing errant pens which we managed to drop into the ditch. Again more slight earthworks were recorded identified in the Bullcroft area. The team were also pleased to hear that the Castle Meadows trench had uncovered a lower medieval feature beneath their possible civil war bastion, and happily reminded anyone who would listen that the survey team had identified an underlying bank which was tentatively interpreted as an ornamental medieval walkway on the first day. Such modesty!  

27 July

The team got down to work without a moment to lose in the Kinecroft dipping in and out of the overgrown burh defences to take readings with the total station. Unfortunately this led to us stumbling into the secret hideout of a local group of children who made us swear that we would leave immediately and never reveal the location of their secret hideout location to anyone on pain of some sort of terrible fate (walking the plank, buried alive etc...). Surveying can be the most dangerous of professions! A number of more ephemeral earthworks were also recorded in the open area of the Kinecroft itself, although these will need closer inspection when the site is drawn up before any decision can be made toward their interpretation.

26 July

Today saw the team move through the centre of Wallingford in order to complete the survey of the Bullcroft with a short break to show English Heritage surveying legend Graham Brown around the site. Unfortunately the over-enthusiastic attempts of the local youngsters in the Bullcroft to show us how to re-level our surveying tripods despite the fact we felt they had already been set up up a sufficient standard forced us to relocate into the Kinecroft to assault the burh defences in the style of some marauding Scandinavian surveyors!

25 July

Despite the excavation team having the day off, the earthwork survey juggernaut carried on regardless. At breath-taking speed a further meadow between the castle and the River Thames was surveyed, producing evidence of ponds, water channels and sluices which are likely to have been linked to the medieval castle. Then without even stopping for lunch a foray was made into the Bullcroft where beyond areas of post-medieval ploughing earlier features are being tentatively identified. If that was not enough the day was finished off with creating profiles of the castle ramparts. On days like these the survey team even amaze themselves with the extent and insightfulness of their work!

24 July 

Another hot day on site saw the survey team fortunately make their way into the relative shade of the Castle Gardens, whilst also incorperating a return visit to the possible moat dam in Castle Meadows. The Castle Gardens area saw the further identification of the extensive castle earthworks, though here they were interspersed with the site of a large post-medieval house and its associated gardens.

Due to the tree cover this area required the use of the old Total Station for surveying the various earthworks, utilising the most inappropriate of locations to set out our kit which risked both sore necks and grass-stained knees!

23 July

As planned the team made up for technical errors made yesterday, largely due to the sterling efforts of co-surveyor Adam Worth. The Castle Meadow was largely polished off with the Total Station; new observations included the identification of a possible fortified dam at one end of the castle moat. Next on agenda is the Castle Gardens in which we briefly forayed this afternoon to examine the continuation of the castle earthworks as well as later buildings and gardens.

22 July

A change was made over to a Total Station survey unit to finish off the last few areas of the Castle Meadows which couldn't be acheived with the GPS due to the density of vegetation. Alas due to a schoolboy error on the part of the supposed expert on site the afternoon session went a little off-course. Dismayed but not defeated, the team will return again tomorrow keen to make up for all these technological delays! 

21 July

Beginning before the diggers had even tucked into their breakfast the GPS survey continued with much haste spreading further afield into the riverside meadows. Speculation on the castle earthworks themselves developed, including the suggestion that the possible bastion being excavated in Trench 1 may overlie an earlier walkway of a possible ornamental landsape developed around the outskirts of the castle in the later medieval or early post-medieval period. A brief foray was also made into the Kinecroft and Bullcroft where we were finally defeated by an expired battery back at our GPS base station!

20 July

The earthwork survey hit the ground running on the first day, setting up a survey-grade GPS unit and working around the castle earthworks in Castle Meadows. In a breathtaking piece of surveying which eschewed all forms of tea break and other such distractions we managed to get a grasp of the complex phasing of the castle whose features included an early Norman castle with later additions and extensions as well as later post-medieval landscaping and gardening.