Day Ten

The weather has held off on what has been one of the most interesting days for finds for Trench one.

In an attempt to discover what might be under the rubble spread at the lower half of the trench, a slot one metre wide running the width of the trench was opened up this morning. While we are only 50 cm below the turf level (and still finding 20th century finds mostly) we have had around 24 recorded ‘small finds’. Small being used loosely, as some are not only large but also heavy.

It really is surprising how deep we got in this slot, while 50 cm does not sound like much we had to stop every minute and a half to record a new find. It reached the point where we left the level out as it was in more or less constant use.

Aside from the sherds of pottery we’ve found, we also uncovered a glass bottle from the 18th century, and a very large selection on varied metal objects including some large metal objects (possibly from a door) and several ‘nails’ so large they really deserve the term ‘spike’ or ‘murder weapon’.

Whilst the team of trench one were uncovering finds faster than they could physically record them, some of the volunteers were attempting to keep up by washing them. Some fragments of glass in a variety of pretty colours were cleaned as well as numerous nails and pottery. A particular favourite of the day was a small bottle, which may be a ‘smelling salts’ jar, or perhaps a medicine bottle. Hopefully we will find out more information soon.

Trench 1 was not the only one to reveal interesting finds today, as trench 2 uncovered some 12th century Saintonge pottery (called “frog skin ware” because of its shiny appearance) from western France.

By Nicola Main- Reade and Rebecca Kelly, student volunteers.