Today was the first day on site for our second team of diggers and was a trial by fire for the new team.

The day kicked off with Elliot drawing plans of an in situ pottery deposit as well as the squatter wall in Room 4.  After giving Jeff and James B a crash course in how to take levels, he finished off that little job and moved on to lifting the deposits and hunting for more of the squatter wall (unfortunately to no avail).

Meanwhile, Hayley worked with Becca and Sue in order to investigate Hayward’s excavation of the partition wall between Rooms 3 and 4.

Doug and Frankie were working on the extremely exciting apsidal heated room on the north side of the trench, cleaning it and following the cut of the room around to see where it leads.  By the end of the day, and with a bit of help from Elliot, the apsidal room was sparkling clean, ready for its photo shoot with Andy.

Tilly and Lucy were working hard all day on the hunt for colour change in Room 4, and were lucky enough to have the star find of the day – what appears to be some mid fourth to fifth century pottery (on which James G has written a few words in his time)!

Josh and Freddie were reverse roofers today, and engaged in hard work removing the large roof slate deposit.

Elsewhere in Room 4, Jeff, James B and Pete were searching for the areas of the room which remain unexcavated by Hayward.

James G continued his mission, recruiting Tom and Matt to his service in the North-Eastern corner of the trench, investigating the robber trench connected to a wall and perhaps a conduit for a waterpipe.

At the end of a hard day’s work, the team returned home to a delicious meal of cheesy pasta prepared by Tom and Matt.