So here we are halfway through our excavation and with work on area 3 coming towards a conclusion for this season we began to make plans to move the team into area 1. First thing saw Cecilia and Carol conclude the work in trench 5, and with recording on the round house completed backfilling commenced before tea break. Prior to backfilling a special matting was lain down first in order to protect the surface below. If we return to excavate the round house next year it will also help us to identify the extents of the disturbed deposits.

While Andy then took half the team off to the new site in survey area 1 the remainder worked on to complete the excavation and recording of the final two trenches in area 3.  In Trench 6 Keith and Joe completed the drawn record, leaving Roger, Liz and Linda to finish work on Trench 7.

Meanwhile in area 1 the team were laying out our next two trenches to investigate the remains of what appears to be a long house of possibly medieval date. It was determined that a trench across the northern end of the eastern wall and another across the southern end of the western wall would be the optimum positions to characterise the structure.

New arrivals Len and Bhav set to work de-turfing Trench 2 at the northern end while Carol, Richard and Cecilia did the same for trench 3 to the south. It wasn’t long before both had exposed the top of a substantial rubble wall, up to a metre thick. In trench 3 initial indications suggest that internal floor may have been lost and although finds are so far limited in either trench a fragment of flint was retrieved during cleaning of trench 2 and interestingly what appears to be a lead bullet was found in trench 3. Tomorrow will undoubtedly bring more discoveries in area 1.

Back at area 3 the rest of the team finished the day by backfilling trenches 6 and 7 and dismantling our site hut/tent, bringing to a close the work in this area for the year. Hopefully we will return to it next year for more work.