Yesterday saw the last bits of digging and recording on site. James, Josh, Elliott, Douglas and Andy dug a bit more of the post-medieval ditch in the hope of finding some artefacts that would allow us to date the feature more precisely. Alas, a whole load of digging produced nothing.

Elsewhere the southernmost ditches were recorded. Acres of clay were trowelled to a gleaming standard of cleanliness and photographed. Then the grid was pulled up, the tent taken down and we adjourned to the Mason’s Arms and the Prince of Wales.

Andy retired to the comforts of civilisation while the rest of the team contemplated life in the real world. Most seem to have preferred ‘barnlife’.

Today we’ve been tidying up camp and returning tools and soil samples to SSARG. Later we’ll be heading into Dorchester  where James will be giving a talk.

Elliott, Ellie, Samara and Zara have already left. The rest of the team will be leaving tomorrow for the start of term on Monday!

Due to the poor weather forecast for this morning the team had a late start, we reconvened at noon to assess the situation. After a brief visit to site, James and Andy gathered the team and headed over.

Many of the features that are in the process of being excavated were too wet to continue with. We therefore took advantage of the moist conditions to trowel back the surface of the trench to find any features that may not have been visible under normal conditions. After the team had finished it was apparent that several new features were visible, success!

We broke for a tea break, during which James and Andy called an end to the day early due to worsening conditions onsite. Despite a short day we’ve made the best of a bad situation. With a promising forecast for tomorrow we will be back for a full day onsite before next week.

This morning we gathered in the grain barn, many of us with grim looks on our faces due to drizzle.

James began the day by talking to the team about what we’d accomplished on site, in relation to the project research questions. He asked the students what they thought of the site, and their interpretation. James then explained his current interpretation of the excavated area, why we had less finds than anticipated and what the finds we do have mean in relation to the site. Reinvigorated by a greater understanding of the archaeology and the project, the team piled into the minibus not deterred by the weather.

We arrived on site and returned to our features from yesterday: James H, Chris, Holly-Ann and Sue cleaned and prepped the two Northern-most ditches for photographs and recording. Meanwhile Hayley, Tilly and Samara drew the section for the Post-Medieval ditch.

When we broke for our first tea break it was apparent the weather had continued to decline throughout the morning, James and Andy decided to stop the work on site until the weather improved. All-in-all despite the mud and the rain the team were in incredibly high spirits, filthy from head-to-toe we returned to our grain barn to dry off.

We will return to site tomorrow and crack on!

Today started much like yesterday had finished – arriving on site we returned to the features we were working on yesterday.

Hayley and Josh finished their feature (a ditch that might define one side of a trackway visible on the geophysics) and prepped it for photographing, Zara and Ellie joined in when the section and plan was drawn. James H and Holly-Ann finished removing the layer at the northern end of the trench, the area was then trowelled back to reveal any underlying features. Meanwhile Holly-Ann moved to help Chris in excavating a ditch further north – hoping to gain more dating evidence for the feature.

After finding the impressive Millstone yesterday Ellie and Zara pressed on and continued to excavate Andy’s ditch. Elliot and James H were then tasked with removing the fill from a ditch that is part of the many complex stratigraphic features at the Northern end of the trench.

The afternoon saw some finds being unearthed, Brian found a piece of worked flint. Having moved to a feature revealed in yesterdays trowelling, Hayley and Josh found some bone, flint and pottery after chipping away only a few centimetres of the fill. The slot of the Post-Medieval ditch Douglas and Sue were working on had been finished, and, with Andy’s guidance, they filled in the paperwork for the feature.

Today seemed to take a lot out of the team, I think we’re due an early night in anticipation for a hard day tomorrow. It would seem our luck may have run out with rain forecast for tomorrow but we can handle it!