Shakespeare's Big Dig

National Treasures

2011-08-25T04:31:00.000-07:00

Decided I would take half a day off work to visit my favourite dig site. That and an opportunity to see in the flesh the delectable Dan Snow. National Treasures Live had come to Stratford. And Will's back.
The film crew had already set up and there was wires and equipment and bodies all over the place.
Tasked with cleaning up the stepped section in the front garden with 2 other ladies. The soil is so dry and crumbly, it was a nightmare but we got it done and then we started cleaning up the Haliwell brick structures. Just to make everything look nice for the camera.
Then suddenly we were inundated with all the guides from the house who came down to have their photo taken as a group. We weren't very impressed when we were told to make way for the diggers!!.....and we are.....!!!!! Obviously volunteers don't score very highly on the digger's scale. Miffed wasn the word!.

Anyway, it was interesting to meet Sian and Dan. They appear to be friendly, approachable people and Sian even had a bit of a banter with some of the volunteers.
There were several rehearals throughout the day and the umbrellas were in constant use. Yes it rained and we all got very wet...twice.

There was a lot of hanging around and doing nothing, because the film crew kept moving us out of shot etc. But they were very polite to joe public.

Chloe grabbed a couple of us and said that there were some t-shirts with "Dig for Shakespeare" on that she wanted us to wear. However this didn't go down well with the rest of the volunteers because the t-shirts were something we wanted since last year. Even if we had to put something towards them. I think there will be a few emails flying around.

Finally Will had a couple of minutes away from his newly found star status (yes he's on camera) to start alloting jobs for the actual live run. Myself and Colin were tasked with "pretending" to do a section drawing in the "Brew House". We actually got it done as well. Well it saved hanging around for hours with nothing to do.

All to soon the programme had finished, and I think I became Dan's oldest groupie that day, by asking him to sign my site diary which he did graciously.

When I watched the programme later that night I realised that my dig bag got 2 seconds of fame and that I was just a little dot in the background clutching our finished plan in the final few minutes of the show. Oh well, it was in interesting experience.

Catch-up August

2011-08-21T10:26:00.000-07:00

A very hectic August at work meant no time to update blog!!! But here's the story so far:

Will and Emily had a baby boy called Arthur, little brother to Freyja. Congratulations to you all.

SBT (or at least a gardener) went down the well. Strangely enough only last Sunday somebody was asking me if there were any plans to go down the well, and a week later it happens. Apart from the usual coinage, there were a few other interesting items: pair of matching earrings, smartie tops (you remember...the plastic ones with the letters on them), marbles, small plastic toy figures, a conker with a pin in it(!), a 1950's flashlight (very interesting. It still had the liquid in), a 1966 world cup ornament, a couple of pencils, a pen knib (of the dipping variety and circa 1917's) and other assorted rubbish!

Found this whilst washing finds.

the girls sieving......
...and Gem
David finds marking

Me!!!

A much needed ice-cream after a long, hot, hard day!

Day 1 of 4 day stint

2011-08-21T10:19:00.001-07:00

As I enjoyed it so much last year, I decided to do another 4 day stint at New Place. After dragging the caravan to the Riverside Caravan park in Tiddington and enjoying the evening in Connolly's Deli Tapas bar, I was well set up for an early start Saturday. And did I earn my bottle (or two) of coronona that night....in fact every night for the next 4 days!!!!!

So what delights did the 4 days hold for me.Well there was the rain Saturday morning and the chance to meet some of the Saturday diggers in rather soggy circumstances in the sieving tent, where we sorted finds, washed them and marked them. I washed but also took the opportunity to catch up with Mat from last year's 4 day stint which was nice. The afternoon turned sunny and Gem and I did a bit of gardening and cleaning at the front of the house garden to prepare for photos...that never happened, but that's another story. We then weightd the brick, tile and stone from 4003, and there was a lot of that as my arms will attest to on the Sunday and Monday. Boy did they ache!!!! I finished the day in the sieving tent where I had a heck of a busy afternoon and after 9 people had cleared me out of all the soil, another 20 came in (students) looking to do some sieving!! No chance, so I had to turn them away. Honestly the place looked like a bomb had hit it! There was soil everywhere, but fortunately with everyone's help, it didn't take too long to clear up.

The expectant father

Sunday 26th June

2011-06-26T10:53:00.000-07:00

What...a...scorcher!!!! Over breakfast I thought, ah well dull but dry, but by the time we'd parked up, we could feel the sun beating down on our backs. And it didn't get any better!!
First up in the sieving tent, me and Rita, tried to open as many panels as we could, to find that because of the windy weather, a lot of the eyelets had been attached to the main fram by plastic ties!. Not to be out-done, we got a fair few panels open. The breeze, when it happened was a welcome relief from the heat and humidity.

After tea-break it got worse as we relocated to context 4003. A right little sun trap. However, frequent stops wer necessary as Madam Blackbird ferreted around for worms and stuff. Me, I prefer a bacon sarnie!

Finds for us today started well as I spotted 2 pins in the soil, but this was followed by a lot of nothingness, but we did a good mornings work, taking back the raised platform to the cellar floor...well not all of it of course but 22 buckets in the morning and 33 after lunch wasn't bad going I don't think.

Meanwhile, Will was all alone in his little trench, trying to make sense of it all.....42 I hear you cry (or was it 41!)

The knot garden is looking, wait for it, blooming marvellous!! The gardeners doing a great job making it look absolutely gorgeous.

Catch up blog

2011-06-22T06:05:00.000-07:00

Well for all my fans out there!!!( Who am I kidding) I'm back. It's going to be a short one but lots of nice piccies. My year of barreness has finally ended when in the dying minutes of last Sunday, I pulled from the ground a disc-like object. Will took a look and reckons that it's the 3rd of its kind that we've found on site, and it's a .......token. Still got to do a bit of research on this, but I'm very happy with in. In fact the smile still hasn't left my face!
And this is my star find

A remnant of the old lake bed - sand and gravel.

Knot Grden looking good again this year.

Fame at last for me and Rita. See if you can spot us on the info boards...

The blackbirds have been visiting us again. I wonder if they're the same ones as last year. They're very bold.

Coupkke of drains that Will's uncovered and Halliwell missed...by inches!!!

Never seen a bullet before. How small is that!

Sunday 8th April Day 2

2011-05-09T09:34:00.000-07:00

Bit of a mixed day today weather wise. It started off really naff, with a few spots of rain, and then it became glorious.

Will had marked out all the features in the garden, but due to the rain yeasterday, he had to do it all again today. I had a bit of a disaterous start. Will asked me to tidy up a section ready for photographing, but I got a bit too close to the edge and the sides fell in! So a 30min job turned into a bit of a session as Will re-drew the goal posts, so to speak, making the section bigger!!
My section

The marked features

After tea, I started on the opposite quarter of the section from this morning. Nothing much occuring. Bit of glass and bone. The 1st quarter had given up some lovely tudor pottery but also some later bricks. The 2nd quarter gave up 2 bits of blue and white amongst the CBM! Sort of put the kybosh on the dating of this section. I'm so glad I'm not doing the interpreting!

After lunch I spent the afternoon in the sieving tent. It was really quiet all day, with relatively few visitors, but the Stratford Half Marathon was on in the morning presumably with lots of associated events so people went to them instead. We were serenaded most of the afternoon by a very good singer. Goodness knows where he was, but he played some really nice music.

Hot and tired, we left the house and made out way to the ice-cream barge. We've got quite a good tradition now, and more people are joining us.......

Sunday 17th April Day 1

2011-05-04T15:07:00.000-07:00

Well it's been a long time, but going back into the garden, it's just like we've never been away. A smaller crowd this year with Adrian, Karen, new girl Rita, Kat, David and another chap (never got his name) with Colin joining us in the afternoon.

For my loyal followers (who am I kidding!) soz I've taken so long to get this blog started but what with Easter, wedding holiday all in the way, then I've been a tad busy. BUT I'M BACK NOW. Yippeeeeeeeee

Oh, right don't get too excited. Photos will come later.

So what did we do? Well a health and safety talk was followed by...guess what..... a stint in the sieving tent!....Oh no it wasn't, that came after I actually got my trowel dirty in the front of the garden chipping off a raised bit of dirt to get it back to the level of the surrounding dirt...then it was off to the sieving tent. Oh joy!

But hey, it's good to be back

Sieving

Will and David contemplating the spoil heap.

Can you guess where it is yet? Yes it's the Knot garden. The quarter we did last year...or did we!!!!

Adrian in his favourite hole

Dig Day Sunday 31st October 2010

2010-11-03T06:37:00.000-07:00

This is officially the last day of the dig, so I hobbled along on my crutches. It was very frustrating watching people get on with things and me watching them. Main activities were sieving, although that had slowed down, felting over the exposed archaeology and then putting a layer of soil ontop. This will protect the archaeology until next year.

Adrian was practising being a contortionist in the pit at the front of house, which has given up it's secrets in the form of bone and pot, and when I got down to the sieving tent, David showed me the large pieces of tin glaze which had come out of the pit yesterday. All exciting stuff 'cos there's another 3/4 of the pit left to do next year.

As I walked past the knot garden, it was a shock to see it all filled in. Did I imagine it, or did we really find some fascinating stuff in this little part of paradise.
Will the gardeners ever forgive us for digging up part of their treasure? Life goes on as I noticed that they have already planted out the winter pansies etc.

Walking through to the sieving tent, I was again reminded of the dig's final hours. All the equipment, bar a table and a few sieves, have been removed.

And the final team photo (missing D & H who were in sieving tent)...roll on next March....what on earth am I going to do on Sundays now!!!!!

Dig volunteer's Party Tuesday 19th October 2010

2010-11-03T06:19:00.000-07:00

Fortunately this event happened before I went into hospital. Having picked up Clayre and Sue on a disgustingly wet night, we arrived at the SBT very wet!!! We were one of the first to arrive and not suprisingly the last to leave, with Clayre on a mission!!
SBT had laid on a veritable feast of tasty sandwiches, snacks,sausage rolls and finger desserts, all washed down with a choice of red/white/rose wine and elderflower sparkly, for the drivers amongst us. I think I can safely say it was a much appreciated gesture.
It was great to see everyone together from Team Sunday, including those who hadn't been able to make it for a while due to other committments. Unfortunately Colin wasn't able to make it and the only other person missing was Will, but the bust of Mr. WS himself in the following piccie, made a pretty good stand-in!!
Below are a selection of photos taken on the night. Note the "rescue" of the unwanted sandwiches in the last photo.........

Hiya Colin. Can you give me your email address so I can tell you when night out is please?

Dig Day Sunday 17th October 2010

2010-11-03T05:45:00.001-07:00

This is my last week of working at New Place. Some joker in hospital admissions has booked me in for an op next week....on my birthday!!!!!!!
Never mind. It's a beautiful day, sun shining, blue sky and warm.
Started off backfilling the knot garden. About 40 barrows between myself, Clayre and Will this morning before t-break!!! Not bad going.
Mind you, it doesn't appear to have made an impact on the spoil heap which looks as large as ever!!
After t-break took over from Heather and David who had been playing squares......!!!!
Did some potwashing before catching D & H busy backfilling........

Heather making an angel....
After lunch, Will took pity and put me out front to dig in the section of the large square pit. Found lots of bone, normal for this pit, plus med and late-med pot.

...and then this beautiful sight wafted over the town.....
All good things must come to an end, so it was with great sadness that I had my last scone and ice-cream.

Just a few pictorial memories....

Dig Day Sunday 10th October 2010

2010-10-11T00:03:00.000-07:00

A pictorial blog me thinks.........

After sieving and drawing, I actually got to do some digging at the front....

I hope Adrian's wife sees this picture!!!!!!

Dig Day Sunday 3th October 2010

2010-10-08T00:07:00.000-07:00

It's amazing how much I've missed coming to Stratford on a Sunday, but I've been out galavanting in Yorkshire, Northumberland and then Scotland. Fantastic!

Team Sunday
So getting up Sunday morning at some ungodly hour was a bit of a shock to the system!Front of site hasn't changed at all, but our knot garden looks completely different. For starters, there's the huge soil ramp reading from the scaffolding down into the excavation area, the huge hole in the middle had been filled in as have numerous other holes. However, futhers sections have been dug and a series of post holes revealed.....but not today because they're full of water!!!

And because of the water falling from the sky we have the pleasure of sieving all day.

Dig Day Sunday 5th September 2010

2010-09-06T23:58:00.001-07:00

This post could be a little lacklustre as I can't get the sd card out of my camera! Mind you there is only 1 photo and I'll discuss that later.

Well the dig is officially over and we've been relegated to 5 volunteers per session by Chloe. Not that many people knew that! Clayre and myself have been relegated to Sunday pm, so it was very strange getting up and then having nothing to do (so to speak) until I went to pick her up at 12.30. It was very strange arriving at 1pm 'cos all our normal crew were already there. They had wondered where we were.

Bob was on his own this week, and by the sounds of it there will be no-one in from B'ham Arch unit Monday or Tuesday! but we are only sieving and recording. Actually Jade and Adrian and Peter got to do some digging in the front on a 1m square trench, and the amount of stuff that was coming out from that small area was pretty phenominal. Mainly bone with a lovely bit of green pot.

Adrian and Clayre in the most exciting hole of the day.....

Started in the sieving tent. This week we had a lot of interested adults, as well as children, who wanted to have a go at sieving. It's very rewarding.

The Mulberry tree behind the kitchen has now become dangerous and only a member of BAU can go and get spoil, so that means that Bob has been very busy over the last couple of days and now he's on his own today.........so I suggested that if he fills the barrows and wheels them to past the Mulberry tree, myself and someone else can wheel them to the temporary spoil heap from where people can then take it to the tent. It was was going swimmingly, then I decided to speed up the process, donned hard hat, grabbed spade and ran under the tree to the spoil heap, where I stayed and helped fill up barrows. I let Bob wheel them past the tree. Speeded up the process somewhat.

After a much need coffee, I returned to the sieving tent once more, and that was it until 5pm. Not even any scones today as the tourists had eat them all! We just had to make do with our ice-cream.

So not a very exciting day really, but that's not what archaeology is all about. It's the taking part, meeting lots of new people, learning new skills and generally having a great time.

Dig Day Sunday 29th August 2010

2010-08-30T23:51:00.000-07:00

We're at Burford for the Bank holiday weekend so although I didn't have to pick Clayre up, it was still an early start for the 1hr journey to Stratford.
Day started dull and windy and remained so for the rest of the morning.

Will took us on a site tour as usual. Because of the rain, some nice features have appeared in trench A.

Will put me in the greenhouse to sort out the 50+ finds trays! All had been washed, but they needed sorting and bagging. Firstly I removed all the trays which were labeled U/S (Unstratified) sieving, and then sorted them into find type, e.g. glass, pot, clay pipe, bone, metal etc), then bagged them. This done I started on the rest by sorting them into 1000, 2000 and 3000 contexts. Then I took the 1000's and amalgamated trays where I could, i.e. there were 5 trays labelled 1011. Then I took each tray, sorted it into find types and bagged them.

Some nice pot.

It was really interesting work in the fact that I actually haven't found a great deal over the last 19 weeks so it was nice to see what had been found. What stood out for me where 4 shards of pot (couldn't tell you what date!) with nice bits of decoration on. Then there was the metal "sequin", a 3 x 0.4cm piece of lead which had been decorated and a piece of handle from an enourmous storage jar.

At 12.45 the heavens opened as they had been promising all morning!. I chuckled to myself as I busied aroung the dry greenhouse, that is until I found it leaked!
Pottered round tidying the rest of the green house up before having my lunch.

Finished lunch and the sky was blue and the sun shining. Lovely-jubbley!

Will put me in the knot garden, in the kiln trench. Aim was to clean the sides and make them straight, and remove the "bridge" from between the clay lump and the side of the excavation. That done, he asked me to remove the clay lump (which ir wasn't. Just compact soil), and trowel down to the sandy layer of the kiln flue floor. I didn't finish this last bit but left it clean and tidy for tomorrow.

Big excitement in the sieving tent as news of a star find reached us. A little girl had found a silver coin whilst sieving! Excitement didn't last long as it was identified as being a toy coin the children are given as they walk through the house.
Got us all going....for 2 secs!

Dig Day Sunday 22nd August

2010-08-26T23:16:00.000-07:00

Can you believe it. 6 days of rain and yet it's another glorious Sunday! I wonder who the Patron Saint of Archaeology is? Anyone out there know?

A bit thin on the ground today due to holidays, but a new lady did start.

Just to show the enormity of the spoil heap! That's David on top....

As promised in last weeks blog, if asked I would draw and I did. Me and Clayre, assigned to dran the South facing elevation of the long brick built thing that Halliwell put up to protect the foundations. So bloomin' long was the wall that instead of a nice clear 1:10 scale, we had to use 1:20 in order to fit it onto the permatrace. Boo-hiss!

It took us ages to set things up: the line level, the tape and then trying to decide how to tackle it. It didn't help that when we did get started, we hadn't realised that the wall was over 3m long, so I had started with 1:10 scale! Aaaargh

I think we managed 1 row of bricks before lunch!

After lunch, well no prizes for guessing what we were up to!. Back to the wall.
I have to say we did get progressively faster as the afternoon went on, but it was very uncomfortable for both of us. I was drawing so therefore sitting for most of the afternoon, so got bum ache and Clayre was measuring therefore her knees got the brunt of this activity.

Simon did pop over and made some such noise on the lines of "haven't you finished it yet?" We still don't know if he was joking or not!. I'll tell you something for nowt, it was bloomin' hard brain work and we were both wrecked at the end of the day.

Did we finish the wall? Of the 7 layers we did 3 and a half, and the 2 most important things we learnt that day was that we work well together....and we don't want to be drawing any more brick walls!!!!

It was a very beautiful and detailed drawing in our eyes.......
Ice-cream couldn't have been more welcome, and we were serenaded by a great violinist.

Dig Day Sunday 15th August 2010

2010-08-17T00:13:00.000-07:00

After a week in the sun (Norfolk) whilst Coventry basked in rain, and then returning to rain I fully expected to be swimming in the Knot Garden. I packed waterproofs for the inevitable soaking...which never came. It has to have been one of the hottest Sundays we've had!!!

It's also one of the most multi-cultural days we've had with Kendra and Michelle from America and Annie from France.

Started in the sieving tent this morning. Quite quiet so after a barrow or 2, I took sieved stuff to dump on the mountain. Took a spade as well because the path has been obliterated by people dumping barrows half way up. Got path clear and then started on clearing the space at the top so there's a turning bit before the final path to the top. I'm certainly going to feel the extra spade work in a couple of days!! Fortunately I was taken pity on by Adrian, who came and finished off. Thanks Ade.

So, what next? Will gave me a choice...digging or drawing. Not much choice really...digging! Later, I did feel a little guilty though so I offered to draw in the afternoon, but there's nothing pressing at the moment. I WILL DRAW NEXT WEEK FOR HIM IF ASKED. You are all my witnesses to that!

So I ended up in the Knot Garden, in a trench by the walkway and gate. I can't believe how much has changed in 2 weeks. The big pit has been excavated and it looks even bigger. It is massive. David and Clayre were taking it in turns to excavate the sandy layer. Dave was also trying to have a sandcastle competition!

My little trench was sandy and gravely. My task was to trowel back the dry soil and try to identify the different features in it. There was a circular dark feature with orange patches, a square biscuit colour feature and something else in the bottom RH of trench. But all that would have to wait until after lunch.

It's Annie's last day and she treated us to trifle and cheesecake with mulberries from the garden. She's back off to France now until next year's season. See you then Annie.

After lunch I was back in my hole. Having cleared back the main trench, it has defined the circular feature which appears to extend towards the next pit. Will asked me to start clearing back the top of the un-excavated area to see if this feature will show in the upper layers.

It was so hot that I had to keep having shade breaks....

...and then got somewhat side-tracked by the arrival of scones and biscuits, but after Anny's goodies at lunch I just couldn't do them justice. Still got my ice-cream to look forward to! I can just see what Will's thinking in this picture "Not another break! We'll never get anything finished at this rate. It's not a holiday camp" and other such thoughts. Either that or he's just looked at my last drawing and is clasping his head in despair as a result!

Dig Day Sunday 1st August 2010

2010-08-02T04:52:00.000-07:00

Day started cloudy and remained like that for most of the day.
Jonathan and myself volunteered to tidy-up the greenhouse. Reason: there is a shortage of find's trays!

It was a bit of a mess, with finds trays and bags all over the place and in the wrong place. So we got all the unwashed finds together at one end of the bench and then sorted washed finds, putting same named trays together and therefore freeing up a host of trays for the sievers.

Before.....(soz...Jonathan does make it look worse...te-he)

Once we'd done that, we started looking at the un-washed finds. We sorted the 2 larger context numbers together (1010 and 1011) and started to wash them. I got bored half way through and decided to tidy the bench behind us. That done I returned to pot washing.

After lunch, Jon went out front, with Clayre, to dig by the steps of the house and I stayed in the greenhouse to finish washing my context. After that, I sorted out the rest of the bags and trays, amalgamating contexts where I could, and also removing all the metal and bagging them up separately. (you don't wash metal).

It was a really interesting job, because being a person who hasn't found an awful lot over the last 15 weeks, it was nice to handle what other people had found. There were a couple of marbles made from stone. Very round and smooth and tactile. There was a lot of glass and bone, lots of metal nails, different types of pot, and tiny pins which together with the thimble and bone button template will make a lovely social story.

... and after.

I then spent a couple of hours in the seiving tent and it was manic!!! Children and adults everywhere wanting to have a go at sieving. How good is that! However, a lot of them went away a trifle disappointed at only finding the ubiquitous stones!!

Then I swapped with Jon and Clayre and moved out front to work with Colin, doing my favourite thing......digging.

End of day: cream scone, ice-cream......Oh happy days.

And here's one for Sue just to remind her what she's been missing all these weeks.
Hoper you're feeling better matey.

Dig Day Tuesday 27th July 2010

2010-07-27T11:02:00.000-07:00

Wasn't late this morning. Got the early bus and had breakfast at McDonalds with a good book. However, thought the day was going to be a washout when I left 'cos it was chucking it down.

Got to site, signed in and wandered up to the gardener's shed. Emily and I volunteered to weigh the CBM of which there was quite a lot. Seemed a sensible thing to do to get out of the rain, except that 2 minutes after starting, the rain stopped! Oh well, it only took us to t-break to do the lot, leaving the place looking a bit bare which was goog (except for the bits to be kept).

After tea and a chat, Emily went back to her wall and I went back to the brew house. Can I just say that as far as finds go, I've never found so many in the 14 days I've been coming! First bit out was a nice but of green Tudor ware glazed on both sides, with a decoration. Probably part of the top of a jug.

Then came a very small bone from a digit of a small animal. How I spotted that I don't know. This was followed by a selection of bones.

The aim of today was to trowel back the right hand side of the area to see if the orange layer went under the still very brown/grey layer. As it was I found a second patch and this was separated by the original patch by clay. In the corner the soil continued to be grey/brown.

After lunch I re-visited the brew house and found another bit of Tudor green. This time a rim sherd, glazed on one side only. Then I spotted a 1.5cm hollow cylinder. Again, don't know how I saw that. Just after that, Liz asked me to work at the other end of the trench with another lady, but 10 mins later i was pulled out to complete the planning I'd started yesterday. Boo-hiss!!!!

Actually, Mark had distinguished the area more which actually made it easier to plan. He'd added the context numbers and "drawn" around several features to be put on the plan. Once I got started it was fairly easy. One good thing was that I didn't have to draw the oven just the outline. That little task has been allocated to Emily who was completing her wall plan. I apologise now if my measurements are out!!!!!!

Completed the plan and was crowing about it, with the help of a cream scone (well actually a biscuit today 'cos there weren't many scones. Tuesday is also a good day to volunteer!), when I realised I hadn't actually added the crude brick path by the brick pit!!! Shucks!! Did half but unfortunately didn't have the time to complete the other half.

Ended a perfect day with a large bottle of well chilled Cobra sat outside the van, wishing I could be an archaeologist everyday!

Dig Day Monday 26th July 2010

2010-07-26T10:47:00.000-07:00

Buses... a question of necessity when you're stuck a mile from town. Two conflicting timetables didn't help either! Anyway got there late. I hate that, so it's the really early bus tomorrow and a McDonalds breakfast.

Bless, Kevin was there picking up his trowel which he'd left here yesterday.

Then I ran into Will! 'Twas a shock 'cos I didn't think I'd see him again until after his hols. He was shocked to. I think he thought he'd got the wrong day!

So not good really 'cos when I went to see what he wanted me to do, his one word was "planning". Urgh!! He knows I love it....not!

So, what's to do? Well trace of from the original permatrace to show main features and extent of trench in Knot Garden. Then trace from the next plan done of the knot garden, and then add everything that's current. Not a lot to it really !!!
Started tracing under the mulberry tree at the front on the picnic table, when a maniacal blackbird decided to deposit on me! He'd obviously been eating mulberries and I was covered....loverrrrly! Liz wandered over to see what I was chuckling about and she just cracked up when she saw the evidence. It took us a long time to calm down before we were able to move the picnic table to a blackbird free zone!

So basic plan done, it was time to meet my fellow volunteers in the knot garden. Mark, one of the supervisors, was busy scratching his head over the burnt/ash feature in the corner, and then there was Emily and Mat busy planning the brick work in the brick built pit.

We had everything..rain, sun and humidity. How nice. Drawing isn't fun in the rain I can tell you, but against all odds and a certain reluctance on my part, I did what I could and hope that the results are upto Will's high standards.

All that and no cream scones today. Roll on tomorrow.

Dig Day Sunday 25th July 2010

2010-07-25T11:20:00.001-07:00

Joyce, gerry and Anne came along today. Nice to see they weren't put off too much by their visit yesterday. In fact all 3 have now signed up as volunteers. Good for you. Rita and Kev came today as well, but as Kev's an old hand (and an old git!!) it was only Rita who had health and safety. We all sieved this morning while the rest went out front to dig. Regarding help from the visitors, it was a quiet day, punctuated with bursts of madness and the world and his wife! Below is a short video of Kev, just demonstrating the height of the sieved heap.

Add Kev video

After lunch Rita and mself worked in the brew house, and by the end of the afternoon we were both ready for a brew! It was so muggy. Basically we were trowelling back to the orange layer. There's a rubble patch in the centre and on my side I uncovered a circular featue, about 3 inch diameter, of what looked like burnt material. It was unusual in the fact that it was so round. Gerry took over from Joyce and Anne in the knot garden. After t-break, Bob and myself revealed the mystery beneath the tarpaulin in the knot garden, which has instructions to be left for Mark. Well you can't not look...can you? Very interesting. 2 layers of ash, not charcoal, surrounded by what is obviously burnt material. As to whether that's burnt soil or bricks, I couldn't say. Roll on tomorrow when all will be revealed. And as for the mulberry munchers....you know who you are.....and so do the rest of us! Cream scone and ice-cream followed!

Dig Day Saturday 24th July 2010

2010-07-25T11:06:00.001-07:00

No you haven't read wrong. It is a Saturday and yes I'm at Stratford. In fact I'm here for the next 4 days......Am I mad!

Joining me today are 4 newbies: Joyce and Gerry Saunders, Anne Clark and John Stubbins. It's CADAS day at the Stratford Dig and they're all raring to go.
Emma gave them the usual health and Safety check and then showed them round the garden to explain what's what.

Me...I spent all day in the sieving tent. Now I know I've lost the plot, especially as we were inundated with willing volunteers, but as it's not my day and I wanted the newbies to experience all that goes on, I just thought it best. Kind hearted soul that I am. Anyway, the kids were sieving barrows so fast it was difficult to get them filled up again.

What was nice for me was meeting volunteers on other days. By just doing 1 day a week, you tend to feel a little isolated and in your own "Sunday" world. As we say when we rock up on a Sunday, "the archaeology fairies have been in again"!

Best find for me was a large piece of tudor pot with internal glaze and a very blackened exterior.

So piccies.......

Just an up-to-date piccie of trench A. Looks a bit different from when I started.

The flowers in the knot garden are looking gorgeous. The apples are ripening on the trees and the mulberries are just disappearing as fast as people can eat them!!!

Proof of newbies at work...and I didn't coin this phrase...they did but last of the summer wine eat your heart out!!

Dig Day Sunday 18th July 2010

2010-07-20T13:46:00.000-07:00

This weeks post is dedicted to Jack, and all the other great kids, and adults, who have joined us on this amazing opportunity. For their enthusiasm and their dirty hands!!

We had a lot of nice kids in the sieving tent today.

After t-break, I went back to the sieving tent but then Emma asked me to start trowelling back in Area A.

After lunch, went back sieving, moved onto pot washing then joined Colin in the knot garden where we spent a very hot and hunid afternoon mattocking (well that was Colin) and clearing the soil (me) and emptying the barrows (Bob).

For all you gardening fiends out there, the Knot garden is looking particulary colourful.....

Star find of the day was fond by Heather in the morning sieving. It's a piece of bone from which they've punched discs to make into buttons. How cool is that!

Oh and another small thing found was the tudor brick built pit! Admitedly it was maissing one of its walls, but the Victorians had replaced it with they're own wall to presumably to support the older sides.

The knot garden it proving to be an interesting area.

Not impressed today..... only half a cream scone each and no biscuits!!!! Bloomin' tourists!

Dig Day Sunday 4th July 2010

2010-07-20T13:45:00.000-07:00

Busy weekend with the Godiva and Stratford, but managed to do both by compromise. Just did a morning and spent it weighing CBM (ceramic building material to you and me!).

After t-break, moved onto the sieving tent. Not much to say really.

I felt really guitly leaving early, but it was nice eating lunch by the river, watching the world go by. Followed it with an ice-cream of course!!!!

Highlight of the day was getting our discount pass from SBT for having completed 50 hours, well more like 78 hours but who's counting. It's a nice gesture and much appreciated, so for anyone reading this from SBT....Thank you.

Dig Day Sunday 27th June 2010

2010-06-28T04:59:00.000-07:00

Hot! Hot! Hot! Hot! Hot!
Hottest day of the year today so they reckon, and I wouldn't disagree with that!

Will's abandoned us (for 3 weeks) to the joy of report writing. Rather him than me, mind you air-conditioned office on a day like this....move over Will, I coming round. Well the report writing is part of the archaeological process isn't it!

Liz walked us round the site and pointed out an interesting metal bowl that's appeared. It hasn't been removed because the section would collapse if it did! The ground is so friable is some places, but in others it has set like concrete.

There's also a void, that someone found by putting their foot in it!
It appears to follow the line of another of Halliwell's brick-topped walls which has just appeared. A photograph into the void shows the top of a slab which sort of proves the point.

Moving into the knot garden, my favourite place, we see evidence of the gardener's hard work. The 3 remaining sections are beautifully laid out with some stupendous colours. My favourites are the daisy-type flowers....

Because "I've done a bit" of digging, Liz put me into the knot garden to try and help identify what's going on in the bottom of the pit, that Heather, who joined me, affectionately started calling the Grave, Well it's 1m down and grave width and she fits perfectly into it......

It was interesting if only for it's charcoal "seam" which was being extracted into an environmental bucket for later analysis (sieving through different meshes using water and then each sieved residue will be looked at in detail, with seeds and small bones being picked out using tweezers, and a whole host of tests carried out on the remainder...fascinating and a shame we can't be involved in that side of things).
Finds amounted to 1 long tooth, a small knuckle ended bone, 2 bits of fine black pot and a piece of Medieval green glaze pot which was good. Proves we're in the right area.

After lunch it got even more quieter than the morning if that was possible! Something to do with the footie methinks! Well the pub down the road sounded in fine form as they went through a repertoire of songs and chants, and we didn't have to be told when the National Anthemn was being played, nor the actual kick-off. A lot of booing for the first 2 German goals and the places errupted with the 2 English goals (ref should've been shot!), and then it went really quiet. That's 2 german goals later!!!! Enough of the footie....

In the sievng tent this afternoon for a barrowfull and then Liz asked if I would trowel back down the front in trench A. Can I just add that volunteer numbers were down to 3 this afternoon!!!!!
So I was in context 1035 trowelling back the foot high bank of earth back towards the "Bay windows". Needed a jack-hammer to get through the top soil. It was so hard. Liz suggested mattocking. We took one look at each other and went "no", so trowelling it was. It's what I like to do. A selection of Victorian finds and some glass slag is all I have to show for an hours hard labour and 2 barrows of muck.

Can I just mention that we had 2 new volunteers today in the shape of Anna (Clayre's daughter) and Anna's friend Saffron.

Dig Day Sunday 20th June 2010

2010-06-21T04:40:00.000-07:00

A fine picture of the team this morning. Will giving us the site update since last week.

The gardens are starting to look lovely with the new summer flowers starting to go in.

What a beautiful day. Blue sky and warm sun. Makes a change from the previous 2 weeks.

The other half of the horse's skull was found in the 2nd quarter of the pit in the knot garden. Heather was given the task of drawing the section of the pit...with all those bricks!!!!!

Due to a misunderstood word, myself and David (who volunteered!) were tasked with standing outside the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in order to advertise the sieving that's started in the now-closed public garden. We were provided with 2 hand sieves and 3 environmental buckets of much sieved soil and no decent finds. Believe me, it was very hard to be enthusiastic with a couple of grubby bits of brick, a bit of flint and lots of stones. A potentially good idea but not thought out. We were rescued after 2 hours.

In the public garde, 2 marquees had been set up for the sieving of the spoil heaps.

Inside each tent are 2 large supported sieving frames and a number of individual sieving frames. The idea is to get the public involved which was no hard thing. Ten display boards have been produced on easels which depict the act of Will Shakespeare throwing away and old inkwell into a well, the subsequent years and what happened to the well, the archaeological excavation which finds the inkwell and what happens behind scenes (conservation, analysis and final display). Myself and Colin arranged them in a line from the steps to the marquees so that the public would be drawn into the tents as they read them.

View from marquees to Guild Chapel

Large, supported sieving frame.

Individual sieving box.

Children and adults alike took their turn, trying to find that elusive bit of William Shakespeare. And low and behold, one little girl found a thimble. Second star find of the day. The previous one being the finding of a small bone dice in context 1010 at the front of the house, by a volunteer on his first day who had never dug before. Where's the justice in that. Well done to Adrian for that because we would never have picked it up in the sieving as the holes are huge.

Barrows later, Will finally shut up shop and along came the cream scones and biscuits. Yummy. This was soon followed by a stroll back to the car via the ice-cream barge!

A nasty reminder to Sue of what she's missing. Come back soon!

Dig Day Sunday 13th June 2010

2010-06-16T07:20:00.000-07:00

What a beautiful day again. However, Heather put the mockers on the weather by repeating the fact that it never rained on a Sunday morning. It didn't take too long to prove her wrong, although it was just spots of rain..........in the morning!

Will gave us the normal run-down on what had happened during the week. The tops of the brick walls had been removed from trench A to reveal..... more brick walls of the same material from the 18 Century. No Will Shakespeare's foundations here! A pipe bowl looked as though it had been purposely placed on top of one of the walls by one archaeologist, to be found by another over 100 years later. The final toppings of the last brick encasement had not been removed. This will be done with an audience of cameras on Tuesday. Let's hope that James Halliwell-Phillipps left something tantalising for us!

In the Knot Garden we can see that it's all down to one level. A lot of features have been exposed and Will has started to record them...

It was up to us to mattock back the final few inches. Jon and Will manned their mattocks and off they went. Will forged ahead in front, his experience showing....

We all got into a rhythm pretty quickly, with Jon, Will and Colin mattocking, Colin and myself filling the buckets and then passing them to Clayre to fill the barrows. It didn't take too long before we were doing the infamous spoil heap run. Fortunately this week, the spoil heap has moved and it was at ground level.

Stopping for a few minutes, I offered to get David some water for the pot-washing. Wish I hadn't bothered actually, as 2 minutes after filling the bowls, one of them, and me, ended up on the floor! Twisted my ankle didn't I! David was very lucky that he didn't end up with the bowl of water in his face but I managed to throw it to one side as I went down! Foot didn't hurt much, just a twinge so I thought nothing of it. And it was nearly lunch time.

Some twinge. Just hope I'm OK for next Sunday!

After lunch we were back to the drawing board, literally. With pencil and board in one hand and Clayre reading out the measurements, we completed the section drawing of trench B. And then it rained! Not as much as last week though. Cream scones and biscuits were eaten in the house again and Clayre and myself anticipated a visit to the ice-cream barge. Can you believe it, but as we approached said barge they pulled the shutters down....and it wasn't even raining! Oh well there's always next week........

Dig Day Sunday 6th June 2010

2010-06-08T04:45:00.000-07:00

Another day and another barrow!!
In the knot garden today with Annie, Jonathon and Kat and the aim of the day is to start removing the top soil of the final quarter.
It started sunny, bit of a wind, volunteers full of anticipation, and even smiles on their faces.........

Look at Jonathon, bless him. Big smile on his face completely innocent of the horrors that we would face later in the day!!
Several mattocks, shovels, spades and buckets later, we were soon filling them there barrows at a great speed. Enthusiasm dwindled after the 3rd visit to the spoil heap, so I took my trusty spade and applied my full knowledge of engineering skills (none!) to design the perfect route up the spoil heap. Mark had already done this job once this morning, but the amount of earth we were shifting was incredible.
Unfortunately when I returned to the excavation, another trip with the barrows was required. But it tested my expertise with the shovel to the extreme. I can truthfully say it worked but 2 hours later we were rebuilding the spoil heap yet again.

Lunch was quiet and we lost some of our morning volunteers. So we were down to 3 plus some of the staff from the house when they could be spared. Afternoon was much the same as the morning with the exceptional highlight of the day which was the finding of a rim sherd of Medieval pot. Made a change from the hundred-weight of flowerpot we'd been pulling out of the ground.
As the heavens turned the tap on a little bit more, Will came over and told us to tidy-up for the day. Five minutes later we were soaked!
Back in the reception we scoffed the habitual cream scones and biscuits, and not wanting to do away with tradition, I traipsed down to the ice-cream barge in the rain.......only to find them shut! Sorry girls.
A somewhat wet day, but still I get this feeling of accomplishment. What a wonderful way to spend a Sunday. Am I mad........?

Dig Day Sunday 23rd May 2010

2010-05-23T14:01:00.001-07:00

What a bloomin' hot day! That coupled with the fiasco of trying to get out of Cov at 8:40 in the morning on the day of the Coventry Half-Marathon! (Congrats to all who took part). But never mind, we got there, eventually. Digging today, although I did enjoy the drawing last week. Just wish that that particular activity could have taken place this week, although I can't complain too much as I joined Sue pot-washing. A very therapeutic task for a hot Sunday morning. Hands dipped in cold water (which soon turned very warm), removing years of dirt from........flower pots!
Oh and a couple of nice bits of glass slag, clay pipe, green pot, glass and a few other tasty morsels.

In the afternoon, we could dig in any trench, as long as it was trench A!!!! The morning group had uncovered an compacted orangey surface and it was our task to remove the 6 inches sitting on top of it. Not a big deal......on a cooler day, but that wasn't to be. As the sun shone down in its full glory, the ground continued to harden like quick-setting concrete. The "concrete appeared to contain lots of pebbles which weighed down the buckets and therefore the wheel barrows. And there was a lot of dirt to remove. Dairmud didn't help matters as he brazenly pinched one of our barrows! And that spoil heap just gets bigger.

After tea-break, I wandered back to the site to find that cream scones and biscuits had appeared and the temptation to sit under the shade of the tree proved just too much as you can see below.
Don't they look nice!

Yummmmm!

So, who's going to go first?

A moment of contemplation!

Dig Day Sunday 16th May 2010

2010-05-17T05:21:00.000-07:00

Boo-hiss....it's paperwork day today, so to speak. We are behind in the drawing of sections and pits and walls etc. Unfortunately, archaeology isn't all about trowelling and finds washing, there are some real nasties lurking in the background which are all part of the job! I have to say that I have avoided drawing of any description whenever I can, but needs must, and having done a section drawing 2 weeks ago, it has given me the confidence to tackle more. It's all about fear of the unknown and knowing that you are not the next Picasso or Turner! You don't need to be, and once you get the basic principles under your belt, then it all becomes perfectly clear.

Before I go any further, here's a picture of one of the spoil heaps. This is by no means the largest, but I didn't have access to the other one today. What you can't see is that the "path" takes a left hand turn at the top to the current dump level (just off the shot)

So we tackled the section drawing of trench B in the Knot Garden, adjacent to Trench A where the horse skull and pit were found. You can see the line of orange sand continuing in the top corner of the trench and another feature has appeared, possibly a pit, containing white material mixed in with a lighter coloured soil than the surrounding.

The blackbirds weren't impressed that we weren't providing them with worms this week, and the baby blackbird gave us a right telling off before he deposited himself in the pool in the bottom of Trench A for a quick wash and brush up. We were visited by them throughout the day, checking that we really weren't digging up their worms!!

So section drawing done, we had to prepare the side of the trench for drawing. We removed the soil so that it was in line with trench A, thus removing the really dry outer surface to reveal a damper interior. Could we see the difference between the top soil and underlying soil? NO, but then Will told us to wet it and voila, there it was. After the obligatory photos, we tackled the section drawing of the side of the trench. Will showed us how to set up the string and how to take the measurements of it. Again not something I had previously done (fear factor) but once you know how it's done, it's easy-peasey. Clayre and myself soon had the drawing done. We would have had it completed in half the time, but for the left-over cream scones and biscuits which were handed out!

Then we had a choice.....trowel back the surface of trench B or sort out the huge pile of brick, tile and stone which had been removed from trench A. We chose the latter because of time constraints. All too soon it was 5pm, time to pack up and reflect on our very productive day over the obligatory ice-cream from the ice-cream barge. It's sort of becoming a habit now. Roll on next Sunday!

Dig Day Sunday 9th May 2010

2010-05-09T12:20:00.000-07:00

Wow, what a difference 2 weeks make. The wisteria has come out in force over the last couple of weeks and the smell in intoxicating. In fact although the knot garden is looking a bit tired the colours and smell from there and also the wallflowers in the public garden make this place the most wonderfully colourful and fragrant place to work. Oh for smelly vision!!

The team

Will was away at a wedding, so Paul and Emma held the reins for the weekend. Due to his absence, the knot garden was "out of bounds" until his return. The reason is because it was getting complicated once we had uncovered the brick rubble and packed orange sides. Since 2 weeks ago, the level of other quarter of the pit has been reduced, but due to the blue tarpauline it was impossible to see how it looks.

Job of the day was back in the herb garden. Whilst Clayre and Cat started to excavate the path down to 3 bricks, I started to remove the remainder of the raised soil in the old grass area of the herb garden. For me not many finds (brick rubble and mortar) just the satisfaction of completing the job.

After lunch I took Cat's place and continued to excavate the path towards Clayre. Again more brick rubble and mortar but then a piece of glass slag. Very pretty. It almost looked like agate. The most wonderful colurs of blue and a bit of green and very smooth. Oh and also the obligatory Victorian pot (white and blue/white).

Re-appearance of Blackbird looking for worms for "the kids". One actually made an appearance. A right fat little birdy and not suprising the amount of worms we've been providing.

Dig Day Sunday 25th April 2010

2010-05-08T15:05:00.000-07:00

Getting into the swing of getting up early....just.

Can't believe how much top soil has been removed since last week. The outline of a pit has been exposed. Could this be the top of the cess pit everones being banging on about finding? I do hope so. Task was to trowel back to a flat level in preparation for photographs and a plan. As we trowelled back, the edge became more distinct and a line of orange sand and black charcoal appeared in certain parts of the diameter.

After taking the photos, Will gave us a lesson on planning and promptly handed the board to me! An hour later, a much worn eraser and a lot of squinting and head scratching, I had completed my very first plan. How chuffed was I!

Once all that was checked, we 3 lucky ladies were unleashed onto the pile of brick rubble in the top of the pit. Can I just say, lots of brick. Heck we couldn't get them out quick enough. As we removed them, we cleared back the contents of the pit from the sdes to expose the orange sand which had shown up at the edge of the pit. This proved to be a layer of well packed sand, extending into and around the sides of the pit as far as we could make out. And then.....in the last 15minutes.....Will wanders over to see how we're doing...and pulls out a rib bone and then the piece de resistance of the day, a pig's jaw cmplete with teeth. How happy was he! Tell you what, ice-creams tasted even better that afternoon.

P.S. Pig's jaw turned out to be a horse's jaw. Are we disappointed?...Absolutely not. For more info visit the dig website and watch the video.

Dig day Sunday 18th April 2010

2010-05-08T14:38:00.000-07:00

Allocated to trench A, located by the wall nearest the main road. There is a dark brown bank disappearing under a sandy layer. Our mission was to trowel back to show the difference between the 2 in preparation for photos. As you can see, the difference was very visible. Will instructed us on how to prepare the trench for photos and then on how the photos should be taken. Three sets are taken: 1 digital, 1 colour SLR and 1 B/W SLR. They are then recorded onto a sheet, which will end up in the dig archive.

We then started to trowel back the sandy soil, in order to expose the darker bank. We were helped by 2 of our feathered friends who were very cheeky and kept popping into the rench to snaffle the worms we kept digging up.

Back to the archaeology. The lighter layer was pebbly with specks of charcoal and few finds: oyster shell, clay pipe stem and bits of brick.

We were fortunate to be able to stay on after lunch as there were only 4 volunteers in the afternoon. Fantastic. Lunch consumed, we headed off to the knot garden where trowels were abandoned for mattocks and shovels to remove more of the top soil more quickly. Lots of flower pot, glass and tin glaze pot (1700's).
Unfortunately, this rapid removal of earth required treble the amount of barrows to be shifted and the spoil heap was now, quite high and caused me a Clayre much hilarity when trying to negotiate the steep slope to the top of it.

All too soon it was home time and after carting all the tools and finds back to the greenhouse, me and the girls decided to treat ourselves to a much deserved ice-cream from the floating ice-crem barge. Absolutely delicious.

Dig Day Sunday 11th April 2010

2010-05-08T13:57:00.000-07:00

Dig day 1, for me at least. However, getting up early on a Sunday morning is something I'm going to just have to get used to. Even the mutts looked at me gone out when I had my breakfast at 8am. Was it worth it? I'll let you be the judge of that.

After picking the rest of the troops up (hiya Sue and Clayre) we arrived in Stratford..... a very empty Stratford... well it would be at that time in the morning!

For those of you who don't know, the dig is taking place at Nash's House, in the garden to be more precise. There are 3 trenches. One to uncover the excavation done in the 1800's, one in the Knot Garden and one in the herb garden. To find out more information, visit the website: http://www.digforshakespeare.com/

After signing in and getting to know the rest of the volunteers and the more important things of the day (locations of kitchen and amenities) we were given a health and safety chat by or supervisor, Will. He then assigned us to our initial jobs........gardening for me and others! Remove the plants from the herb garden was our morning mission. Not one I had envisaged, but a very necessary job to do. Plants sort of hide the archaeology don't you know. I certainly came home with more daffodil bulbs than I expected.

Moved onto the knot garden after break. Much more my cup of tea.... digging. Remit was to continue to trowel back as they had started in the morning. Ground dry but hard. Weather sunny. Beautiful day actually. Not many finds. Bloomin' spoil heap is miles away and negotiating the wooden boards, the gate, the statue in the garden which just allows you to navigate the wheelbarrow past it, only mildly grazing your knuckles, past the confused tourists and finally to the mountain of the spoil heap itself. Certainly had a lot of fun lgging the barrow up the 6ft heap!!!

And then all to soon it was 13.30 and time for home. Boo-hiss. As we wandered back to the car we reflected on what a good day it had been. Roll on next week.

Wednesday 24th March

2010-05-07T11:48:00.000-07:00

Well after weeks of wondering when, my letter finally dropped through the letter box. My allotted time was...... Sunday mornings 9:30 - 13:30........disappointed was not the word of the day. However half a day is better than nothing, and it would give me the opportunity of doing what I love...digging....oh and all the other associated archaeology stuff!

However my 1st day was Easter Sunday. Not normally a problem most years, but this year we were in Bath. Could I wait another week? Well the fact of the matter is that I just had to.