Day 6 - Monday 13th July 2009

We continued work on trench D but the walls that we were looking for did not appear so we gave up. We did a little extra work in trenches F and G and a good deal of recording. We then backfilled all the trenches and put the turf back. The fence will stay up for a while until the turf has settled down and got itself re-established.

What have we found?

The main initial results are:

1. We have firmly established the dimensions of the house which will allow us to accurately scale the Victorian plan. We will use this information to mark out the site on the grass in the late summer or early autumn.

2. We have been able to collect a good deal of information about the construction of the building. We have not yet had time to analyse this.

3. We have discovered that at some point in the eighteenth or early nineteenth century the roof was covered which shiny black iron glazed pan tiles. This must have looked very striking. It is also unusual and we need to investigate the background of this.

4. Differences in the bricks show that the dining room at the northwest corner of the house and the wall to the east of it are different dates. The dining room was built for John Burgoyne about 1760. The next major alterations were designed by Adam for the Earl of Derby but the bricks from Adam’s work area also different from those in the  wall. It may be that the wall was built by Joseph Smith in the mid-nineteenth century or it may be part of a previously unknown set of modifications for the Earl of Derby. We will explore this further as we write up the report.

5. We are also left with the puzzle as to why we could not find the house walls in trench D. The most likely explanation is that this area was very badly damaged when the house was demolished in the mid-1950s but it is possible that our understanding of the building is wrong. We also explore this further as write the report.

What next?

Over the next few weeks we will collate our records and catalogue the finds. We will then write up a report which will be published as a Carshalton and District Archaeological Society Occasional Paper. John Phillips and Paul Williams will be presenting a talk on the excavation results and other new research on the history of the Oaks on 22nd October in Honeywood Museum. See the Friends’ Honeywood Events page on this site. Some of the finds will also be on display in Honeywood in the next few weeks.

Watch this site for further reports.