Day 15 - Sunday 29th August 2010

Work resumed today. We continued excavating in the north end of the trench in search of an edge for the gravel deposit but did not have much success. It appears that the top of natural deposits in the north arm of the trench are marked by a layer of iron pan (a rust like deposit which tends to form in sand or gravel close to water table). The boundary we were looking for seems to be a cut close to the junction between the north and south parts of the trench. However, we were not able to fully investigate this as last week’s rain has caused the water level to rise flooding the key deposits. Rather frustrating. We have now excavated all we can. Tomorrow we finish some outstanding recording and will probably start backfilling.

I have decided to put soil over the chalk floor of the rectangular pond. This hide it from view for the time being but, if it is left open, the chalk blocks will be destroyed by the first hard frost. The last few cold days have made me concerned that this might be earlier than usual.

The long process of analysing the results has already begun and there will be a follow up reports from time to time.

There will also be a talk on the results of the excavation which will also include some new discoveries about the history of the house.

To see the details of this event click HERE.

John Phillips