Today on site, the team were visited by Hugh Beamish from Historic England.  The inspection went off without a hitch which was greatly encouraging for our first team’s last day on site.

From the start of the day, Elliot supervised James S, Charlotte and Henry in hunting for slate deposits in the western side of the trench, uncovering some large pockets of slate, interpreted as a roof collapse event.

Meanwhile, Hayley, Holly-Ann, Dan, James I and Chris were investigating some backfill from what may have been a robber trench, while James G may have found a section of robbed out wall.

Our star find of the day came in the form of a milk bottle and two plastic cups (one red, one yellow) which are almost undoubtedly leftovers from the original mid 20th Century excavations led by Hayward.

Later in the day, Holly-Ann took Dan and Chris to do some recording in the South-Eastern corner of the trench, drawing a plan and taking levels, while Henry went on a mission to find a drainage feature.

As our first team of the 2016 season reach the end of their experience, they would all like to share what their favourite part of the excavation has been:

Holly-Ann: “Being the wall whisperer, finding a glass bead and becoming a BBC celebrity”

Imogen: “Enjoying camp life and a pan of pimms!”

Chris: Meeting new people and getting to be on TV

Dan: “Putting up the greatest fence of our lifetime, being on the BBC and getting a Peugeot 107 across a wheat field”

Henry: “Experiencing life in Somerset”

James S; Discovering a genuine Roman tile floor”

James I: “Working out how to detect minute soil colour changes”

Kevin: “Getting to ride on the back of a tractor.”

Antonia: “Getting acquainted with Maggie’s kittens and having a load of new experiences”

Charlotte; “I loved every minute of the two weeks!”

We’ll be incredibly sad to see this team leave us – as everyone has worked incredibly hard, and each and every person has made a hugely significant contribution to this year’s excavation, and to the project as a whole.