Dig Day Sunday 27th June 2010

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.