Day 1 - Saturday 10th July 2010

We started the excavation today. The first thing we had to do was put up the site fences and get the site sorted out.

The work the focused on a rectangular pond in the northwest corner of the garden.

Trench A was laid out to the south of it. The first 5 cm or so of soil have been excavated and we uncovered a line of stone block which probably edged a Victorian path. We have also exposed the top of a brick wall, foundation or some such along the west side of the trench. We should find out more about this tomorrow.

We have also started trench C across the north side of the pond. A foundation has turned up at the north end next to the pond. This may well be the remains of a building shown on Victorian maps which was probably a summer house. It can’t be earlier than the second half of the 19^th century as concrete rendering was used in the construction. Again we should find more about this tomorrow.

We have made a start of the clearance of the rectangular pond and on cleaning the little grotto and decorative structures along its west side. The decoration seems to be in two phases using different mortars.

John Phillips