The morning did not start well, as our arrival at the dig site was shortly followed by an impromptu monsoon. We were all stuck waiting for the rain to stop for about an hour, and boy did it rain! There was even a worry that the excavation would be cancelled that day due to the severity of the weather. Thankfully, however, it stopped raining eventually and we were all able to make our way out of the hut and back into the trenches – which were now filled with puddles.
The excavators at the weekend had uncovered most of a large rubble spread in trench 1 as well as extending the trench a little closer to the castle wall, which revealed the remains of a path. As a result of these discoveries, what was left of the post-rain morning was spent doing more drawings of the trench and taking more levels.
At the bottom of the trench the top of a large rubble spread can be seen, so now we have the task of uncovering the rest of the spread and then moving the ton or so of rocks to uncover the next layer.
We started this arduous task with much singing and vigorous use of mattocks. However, the chain gang soon tired and our rippling biceps became mere twitches of cramp. Under this rather thick layer of rock we have discovered various little hollows, this led to some people worrying that the ground would open beneath them and swallow them whole.
We have found various odd objects including several ends of possibly Victorian pipes, more glass and china, three or four lengths of thin metal which could be very long nails and an object that we first thought was a skull; while the thickness is the same as a human skull it is covered in lots of grooves which are not found on bones. Thus the current theory is…it’s a coconut.
By Nicola Main-Reade and Rebecca Kelly, student volunteers.
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