Thursday 1 August 2013

1 August 2013, Hickleton Hall POW Project Day 9

Another busy day on site today, we had the following crew: Chris, Alex, Kate, Phil, Peter, Martin, Helen, Jo, Sue, Martina, Sue, Anne, Robin, Nick, Anita, Lauren, Connor, Paul, Andy, Ange, Shona and Graham! It must be the good weather bringing everyone out to play! In the afternoon, we even had Kerry from the Rotherham Advertiser visiting for a photo opportunity!Unfortunately we lost Anita, Lauren and Connor early on as Connor was the victim of several wasp stings, hopefully he'll get better soon!

The geophysics team finished off more of the grids to the south of the site, until wasps and nettles put a stop to the work, unfortunately. But they have covered a large area of the site that was unknown to us, as it was off the edge of the map we have. Hopefully the results will show us if there are any hidden bases or camp features we don't know about!


The photographs of the rest of the features still needed to be taken so part of the morning involved the sweeping up of cow pats...


This work would have been made a lot easier by a couple of days of glorious sunshine, but we just don't have the time left to wait for good weather. So this is how Base Three looked after the cleaning, the photo is facing to the east.


And here to the west. You can see the entrance slabs and some of the damaged concrete in the bottom right corner.


The same jobs had to be applied to Base Two, along with finishing off some of the digging that we were unable to do yesterday due to the rain:


Such as this sondage that Phil excavated on the side of the base, another one to assess the construction methods used. The lip that was identified the other day on the west was also present on the east side, giving a uniformity to the structure.


Sue also cleaned up the northern pathway which led out of the second entrance of the hut. This had a much sharper turn than the other path to the south, but was made of the same concrete material:


There was a lot of leaf fall on the base, so Martina gave it a good brushing ready for the final photographs:


Robin was also given his first lesson in drawing a section.


It would appear that certain things are required to keep the Brodsworth Archaeological Project running, one of them is a regular supply of biscuits!


And finally, although this wasn't found on the site, Anita provided us with this picture of one of two bracelets (one was lost), made by a Polish internee at Hickleton Hall camp and give to her mother.


It has the names of Polish towns along the length of the chain. Unfortunately, we don't have any information on the man who made this, but he could have been one of the displaced persons who were present at the camp after the war! Another brilliant artefact from what has turned out to be an amazing site!

Unfortunately, tomorrow is our last day on site, but we have many other projects in the future. If you are interested in joining us for any of them you can follow us on Facebook and Twitter which will keep you informed of our activities and forthcoming events!

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