Lord Mayor visits Oystermouth community excavation

The Lord Mayor of Swansea, Cllr Richard Lewis, and the Lady Mayoress visited the dig in the afternoon. I was there to greet them, along with Gerald Gregory, one of our Trustees, and members Pamela Lewis and Luke Toft. They also talked to various members of the team. I showed took them round the site, and Rob and Andy explained what had been found in the various trenches. Andy also showed them some of the nicest finds, from last year as well as this year. Mrs Lewis was particularly interested to see what we had discovered, since she was brought up in Oystermouth and used to play at the castle when she was a girl.

Edith Evans GGAT Heritage & Outreach Manager

Day 17 - I aint gettin’ in no trench fool!!

With the weather slowly changing across the day from looming clouds to glorious sunshine the efforts of backfilling Trench 1 are well under way. This morning the remains of the trench that we had all worked hard on were still visible, and by this afternoon the resulting trench looks more like its former self three weeks previously. All day we have been digging along side the mini-excavator, which happened to break down half way through the day, and to be honest we are all shattered. I don’t think any of us will have trouble getting to sleep tonight.

Callum Allsop – Student Volunteer

Day 16

The weather wasn’t quite as hot today and there was a light breeze, which made it easier to work. No extra excavation was carried out today in Trench one, as the maximum depth had been reached in both sondages. Today mostly consisted of the recording of Trench one by taking photographs and drawing the sections in the sondage with the elevation of the foundation wall for the suspected drum tower. We also began digging a sondage in Trench five in order to see whether there were any features further down, however, we reached the natural subsoil at quite a shallow depth here, suggesting that this area was a quarry rather than an early bailey. We also had a special visitor – Richard Lewis, the Lord Mayor of Swansea! Yes, the Mayor came to enquire about our work here at the castle on behalf of the community and enjoyed taking a look around to see what we had found and accomplished.
Emma Williams

Day 15-The Beginning of The End

Another glorious day with the warm sun on our backs and a cool breeze in the air here at Oystermouth Castle. We have been busy continuing the excavations in Trench 1 with varied results. At the south end of the trench we have extended the sondage through a sandy layer to a depth of about 2 metres. Towards the north end the base of the drum tower has been excavated further to 2 metres as well to reveal that the structure runs deeper than we first thought. Trenches 4+5 have revealed little since the first week, we finished off recording those trenches today, and the majority of our ‘task force’ have been allocated to Trench 1.
Callum Allsop – Student Volunteer

Day 14

On site today from GGAT were myself, Richard and Sven; we were joined by a handful of volunteers keen to get some digging done! The weather was lovely, if a little too hot for our intended activity, nevertheless the team moved massive amounts of material to continue the investigation of the proposed castle ditch feature. Richard worked with, John, Phil and Brian in the southern part of Trench 1, excavating deeper into the ditch section that Faye had been working on yesterday and starting on digging an additional section through the ditch adjacent to this. In the northern part of Trench 1 Sven worked with Mai to continue the work to find a construction cut for the tower base ….and that was all before lunch! I was working with Fran sieving some of the material that was coming out of the ditch, we didn’t find much so changed tasks to trowelling up an area in the east of Trench 1 to see if we could find any edge to the ditch or other features here. Fran found a number of pieces of pot, glass and clinker but no features I’m afraid! Later in the day a few more volunteers, Ellie and her brother Ruben and their dad William, who had come all the way from England, joined us. William joined Richard in the southern end of Trench 1 and Ellie and Ruben got going on some finds washing, I gather Ruben wants to be an archaeologist. Everyone worked really hard and came up with some interesting suggestions as to the origin of this sand that appears to be filling up our ditch. I’m convinced we are well into the ditch and that this sand is part of its final infilling…well maybe!

Thank you all for your hard work!

Claudine Gerrard GGAT Archaeological Planning Officer

Day 13

A group of us continued the excavation of Trench 1 or the ‘sand pit’, as we decided to call it, on account of the masses of sand we shifted! We were aiming to find any hints of the castle ditch, but all we found was pure sand! We debated whether the sand was natural or wind blown because it was so clean with no shells or finds. But everyone endured and worked very hard and we laughed and joked all day as we dug. At the back of the trench we uncovered more of a natural outcrop of limestone, which was suspiciously round, but whether it is natural or shaped by human hand is also up for debate. It was suggested that such an outcrop it might be a good base for a barbican, but no suggestions are set in stone! A group continued the investigation of the tower base and revealed a nice section abutting the tower, which will hopefully yield more information about its construction, and I am looking forward to the results as the sand was also present in this trench. It will be interesting to establish whether the sand was cut through to build the tower. The cheerful pot washers continued merrily with their task not even complaining about their crinkly ‘mermaid fingers’, as they called them (which I really liked). All in all some interesting archaeology and lots of laughter.

Fay Bowen GGAT Project Archaeologist

Day 12

It seemed like there was not much digging to be done in the morning, with only part of the ramp out of trench to be taken out while everyone else was sieving for small finds and drawing. But by the afternoon with a new ramp we muscled out a deeper trench by the drum tower and in the south of the trench 1. In the south we were helped by some easy sandy soil to dig but I can’t say the same for anyone digging by the tower.
There were a number of good finds today, including rare pieces of medieval glass, fragments of medieval pottery and a medieval knife blade. Paul was happy to find out that the piece of metal he found yesterday was in fact an arrowhead. Overall it was another great day on the dig we made lots of progress and are all in high spirits!

Lewis St Ledger