Wednesday 30 July 2014

30 July 2014, Hickleton Hall POW Project Day 8

The day began with a cold start this morning,it looked like it was going to rain, but fortunately it didn't and the sun shone for most of the day! Helen and Glynis continued recording sondage 5, first of all by taking levels.


Then completing context sheets for all of the archaeological deposits. When they had finished this in the afternoon they began to remove the brick rubble and found that it was directly sat on the sandstone bedrock.


Meanwhile, we investigated parts of hut base 5, for this we only needed to open a couple of test trenches. The first one, showed that the hut base was made of a layer of concrete surrounded by a double skin of red bricks, so this was recorded.


The other test pit at the opposite end of the base showed a little bit more detail, for example it was seen that the brick wall was a couple of courses high. This hut base is very different to the others that we have investigated, having solid brick construction rather than wooden frames.


While all this was happening, back on hut base 8, Martin and Phil continued to clean the brick step and kerb stones. We have extended the trench to show the full step and see what form the kerb stones take. They are similar to hut base 6 and look like they enclose a small garden!


They also found this small piece of wire protruding from under the kerb, it appears to be electricity wire or even communications wire and feeds directly under the kerb stones. It will be interesting to see where it leads when we remove the kerb stones.


Once the sondage was cleaned up, we photographed it ready for recording.


On the other side of the hut, Ellie and Jonathan cleaned up the sandstone blocks they had uncovered in sondage 6.


Their cleaning has revealed the clinker path running directly up to the sandstone blocks, these were possibly placed there as a rockery, or even an aid for walking at night as they are light in colour.


Today was also button bonanza! Martin and Phil found one in their sondage:


And Ellie found four in hers! At least two of these are marked with the manufacturers' stamp; 'Cheney, B'Ham'


So with two days left on site, we are still finding interesting artefacts and features, so who knows what tomorrow will bring!

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