Day 1 - Wednesday 8th July 2009

We have worked on three trenches today. The first was trench A on the north side of the site towards the west end. I expected this to uncover the north wall of the house at the junction of the kitchen block and the service wing. The soil turned out to be deeper than expected and so far we have found no more than an area of cement which may turn out to be the wall. Work on this will continue.

The second trench M was at the other end of the house and is thought to be on the site of an extension which was erected in the 1780s for the 12^th Earl of Derby to the designs of the Adam brothers. The foundations turned up in the position we expected. They were really badly made – apparently a piece of 18^th century jerry building.

The third trench H should uncover part of the house designed by the architect Robert Taylor in the mid-18^th century. This was started in the late afternoon and has gone little further than the removal of the turf.

We lost some time to rain but seem to be making reasonable progress.

John Phillips