Friday, August 8th

that's it for this year!

Nigel demonstrates the art of re-laying turves. The turves have suffered a bit from being stacked for 3 weeks, but should recover soon.  Our job here is nearly done.

A well-earned teabreak

Replacing the topsoil

Back goes the spoilheap into the trench

Thursday, August 7th

The long slot trench completed, now showing the reddish-brown soil containing medieval pottery (and nothing later) underlying the chalky clay and orange gravel layers of the later platform.

The show is over. Eyes down to the ground again. Backfilling goes on in the background while digging continues in the foreground.

A special flypast of the Red Arrows - in honour of the great digging effort put in by students and volunteers? Actually, there was an airshow next door at RAF Benson.

Wednesday, August 6th

This box section was excavated through the primary fill of the ditch and the earlier reddish brown layer cut by the ditch and underlying the platform. The base of the reddish brown layer was not reached, even at a depth of 2m from the ground surface.

Tuesday, August 5th

A test pit dug through the southern part of the platform, where it was much more gravelly in composition.

Monday, August 4th

taking samples of soils, to be analysed later back in the lab.

a long strip is trowelled down along the eastern side, revealing the alternate orange gravel and white silty clay layering of the platform.

Sunday, August 3rd

one of two public talks about the Castle Meadows excavations

Saturday, August 2nd

scanning the spoil heap for the finds we missed

many of the children arrive on bikes for today's dig

a new development in wheelbarrow design

Friday, August 1st

Today is our day off, but back tomorrow for another busy weekend!

Thursday, July 31st

another team photo - this time students and volunteers together

Wednesday, July 30th

the segment through the platform nearly completed.

The section enables us to see the stratigraphy of the central part of the site very clearly. The upper layer of chalky and clunchy whiteish clay, with the layer of orange sand beneath, is what the artificially laid platform consists of. Beneath these layers is the darker reddish brown fill of a much larger and earlier feature, underlying the platform.  From this earlier layer we have had only medieval pottery finds. Still no definite date for the platform itself though. Could be a Civil War bastion, or possibly a later landscape garden feature - or perhaps a combination of both.

In the morning most of the students (apart from Callum, who couldn't bear to part from his ditch) went away on their field trip to Silchester. This enabled the volunteers from Wallingford Museum, TWHAS and elsewhere to temporarily take over the trench, and a great job they did too.

Tuesday, July 29th

The supposed features found in the base and sides of the large ditch have proved to consist, not of a timber stockade, unfortunately, but of an earlier feature cut by the ditch and extending beneath and beyond the ditch sides. In order to clarify the stratigraphy we are digging a segment through the platform from the ditch.

Using the dumpy level and staff to measure heights

Monday, July 28th

Another hot day at the Castle Meadows trench, and much more trowelling and mattocking, enabling a fuller picture to emerge of the presumed Civil War bastion, but no features at all cut into the platform surface.  As ever we were fully aided by the hard working volunteers from the Wallingford Historical and Archaeological Society. 

The rampart face is being further examined - the trench workers here being so keen that they almost missed the tea break this morning!  Talking of which, our thanks to Judy Dewey and the Museum team for their much appreciated tea and coffee provision Next tasks? The extensive clay and chalk layer forming the platform surface is to be sectioned - let's hope for some nice clear dating evidence!

Sunday, July 27th

Today was a great day for the Castle Meadows team. At last we seem to have found an edge to the  platform surface. The strenuous efforts of students and volunteers are gradually putting a shape to the interior of the bastion. Meanwhile,  a curious feature (or set of features) is emerging along the edge of the base of the ditch. We're not sure, but we might have evidence of a timber stockade within the ditch

The possible stockade post holes show up as a dark band running between the side and the base.

Saturday, July 26th

Today we set aside a special area of the Castle Meadows site for children to come and dig.  Altogether they discovered hundreds of objects...

Friday, July 25th

No work today, a much needed day off to relax and prepare for a busy weekend!

Watch this space for more info and pictures soon!

Thursday, July 24th

The Bullcroft team joined forces with the Castle Meadows team today so lots more heavy duty mattocking and trowelling took place. More topsoil has now been removed to expose more of the platform and we are now ready for the expected rush of happy volunteers at the open day on Saturday. The next stage is to excavate the ditch around the platform with the hope of finding some evidence of the Civil War activities.

Wednesday, July 23rd

Exciting developments - we are starting to trace the northern edge of what looks very much like a bastion or outwork.  Lots of hard mattocking by all the team....

One of the main features showing up is a steep-sided ditch in the corner of the trench.  It's this feature that seems to define the edge of the platform of the bastion. It took us some time to find the true side as there has been lots of slumping of layers into the ditch..

...while Tony explains the intricacies of the environmental sampling strategy to Callum and Rob.

Tuesday, July 22nd

Across the trench a grey clay-chalk layer is appearing which forms a coherent archaeological surface (the platform of the bastion-like feature?). Many fragments of clay pipe have been found above this layer. A good sequence of visitors came by, including the bull (though he was more interested in rubbing himself up against the fence than asking sensible questions). A ditch-like feature is being excavated in the northwest corner of the trench.

Monday, July 21st

It was even hotter today. We put up the fence to keep the cattle out only to be immediately surrounded ( the cows must have thought they were safe now the archaeologists were fenced in!).  

Meanwhile, in the trench, the archaeologists formed a mattocking line to take the subsoil down. We don't know how far we have to go before we reach archaeological deposits, but only one way to find out...

Sunday, July 20th

Today was a great day to start. The sun came out for us in Castle Meadows as we started to de-turf Trench 1. Students from Leicester and Exeter had their first taste of this traditional method of removing the topsoil, armed only with spades and without a JCB in sight.

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