Day Seven

I arrived on Saturday morning feeling quite excited but a little nervous as I had never done anything like this before and was worried about saying or doing the wrong thing and worried that I might not be physically up to it!!

Straight away I was welcomed by friendly staff and put at my ease. Slowly, the other volunteers began to arrive and we had a very comprehensive induction session. Myself, Solinda Jonathan and Kirin (I think that's how you spell it!!???) were put to work in trench three at the bottom of the knoll with the lovely Ellie as our supervisor.

Although we had never met before, and on the surface had not a lot in common, we all got on like a house on fire and had great fun. Jonathan and I even had matching hats from Tesco - spooky!

We set to work cleaning up and trowelling, and almost immediately, Jonathan found a tooth!! It set the scene for the day. Every five minutes he was finding glass, pottery, metalwork, a hinge etc. whereas we found - stones!!! Lots of them.

By the end of the day we had all found something interesting. Possibly the most interesting was a coprolite found by clean freak Solinda!! Typical!!

A memory of this day was the screams which punctuated our time in the trench from Solinda and her daughter who are frightened of - you guessed it - worms. Yes - I asked myself that question too! Joining a dig when you are frightened of worms is like joining a tennis club when you are afraid of balls!!!!

We were surprised how quickly the time passed and I really didn't want to go home. We had recieved so much encouragement and teaching from the staff, and such cameraderie from the other volunteers.

However, home we did go. Next morning I couldn't wait to get back so turned up an hour early and took some photos. Ellie was not around, so the equally lovely Chloe supervised us, although, to our chagrin, Solinda was put on another team. Myself and Jonathan scraped away with trowels and mattocks, all the time learning nuggets of fabulous information from Chloe.

In the afternoon, Chloe went home and we were then supervised by the wonderful Edith - who was a fount of knowledge on all things Roman and again, very supportive and a natural teacher.

I found stones and Jonathan found, you guessed it, a probable musket ball. Typical. Not that I'm bitter.

To sum up - it was the most interesting weekend that I have spent for a long time and I felt that I learned a lot and made real friends.

The dream team ( me, Jonathan Solinda and Kirin) would really like to come back next year so I really hope you manage to find the money to run another dig as it has awakened a love for, and respect for, the past in so many people.

Thanks to all at GGAT for your patience, help and support. Hope to see you all soon!!!
Sian Charlton, Volunteer