Author: boxfordparish (Page 7 of 11)

No time for photos today! Everyone on site was working hard to get things finished before rainfall arrived late afternoon. We also had the pleasure of a visit from Peter Warry, an expert on cbm. His knowledge is so extensive and he was able to tell us that the maker of most of the tegulae, supplied the same for Roman buildings in the Wantage area…………. all this from the signature on the tile! He also approved the recycling of Roman tile found on our site – so somewhere not too far away is another Roman building which has been stripped!

The weather forecast is not too promising for Saturday but Richard Miller is hoping to take more aerial photos with his drone camera in the morning. We are also expecting Professor Mike Fulford on Saturday afternoon, from Reading University to see what he makes of our “weird” building. On Sunday we are hoping for a large crowd at our “Open Day” between 2-4pm.  And then the site is covered up once more on Monday.

Autumnal feel at the start of the day…………………..

But Isobel is soon down to it – or is it in it?

And everyone is cracking on………………….

But by lunchtime, all the hard graft takes its toll!

Photos courtesy of Lindsey

After the digging…………………………………….. comes the measuring and recording for posterity!

Here’s how you do it…………………….according to Jack!

After a well earned rest day on Bank Holiday Monday, everyone was back to try to uncover the mystery of the little Roman building. Neil Holbrook, ex Time Team and now Director of Cotswold Archaeology paid a visit. He was as mystified as the rest and described it as a weird little building! Guess we will have to wait until it’s fully excavated to discover its use!

And then he lent a hand!

Work begins on excavating the small building in Trench 2 with Gill being granted the honour of lifting the first flint having drawn the plan of the whole structure single handed.

Never mind the weather …………………works begins in earnest to reveal the secrets of our enigmatic building!

Gill’s task …………………….to meticulously draw the foundations and debris of our little Roman mystery building using a grid before we can excavate. She hopes to finish tomorrow!

Today’s thunderstorms mean no digging for a while as everyone is cleared off the field until the storms have passed but it’s quite a dramatic sight.

Photos courtesy of Lindsey.

Aerial shot of the site courtesy of Richard Miller – after a little bit of rain, the areas of interest  show up clearly against the chalk.  We have a lot more digging to do!! Just in case you are wondering where have all the diggers gone….they have downed tools for lunch.

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Today the two large trenches start revealing their secrets ………………trench 1 appears to be largely Iron Age and trench 2 seems to be more organised and Roman – so two eras for the price of one.

We also welcomed members of West Berkshire Council’s Heritage and Tourism Department to the site. They supported our bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund for our three year project. Steve Clark and Lindsey Bedford did the honours, walking them round the site.

Trench 2 below …………….where Freya is logging the position of circular burnt areas which would appear to be ovens. In this trench also the foundations of a small building have been discovered.

Trench 1 – Gary tidies up the side of an Iron Age pit ready for recording…………………….

while Steph from Cotswold Archaeology shows Agata how to record each context layer…….the pit was later carefully photographed so that no detail was lost.

On a sizzling day at Wyfield, 28 volunteers turned out to listen to an initial briefing by Cotswold Archaeology.

Matt explains what he wants this team of volunteers to do in one of two big trenches

Nancy and Barbara uncover a flint wall in trench 2 after the trench has been cleared back.

Meanwhile strange shapes possibly pits are being uncovered in trench 1 – these are marked out for excavation.

…………………And they are off! Mike on JCB and Matt as banksman – opening up the trenches.

James ready to commence a magnetometer survey. 

They’ll never know I opened a little bit more!