Twenty Second Dig Day – Sunday 7th July 2013

Not being fans, this Sunday my mother and I went digging instead of watching the tennis! Luckily the summer heat was made tolerable by a nice cooling breeze up on the hill.

We have now fully excavated the inside of the outside toilet and can confirm it had a side doorway  to access the bucket.

The remains of its east walls were built of brick and flint, but were in a very poor condition – badly damaged by WW2 shelling – such that it was a challenge to distinguish their in situ remains from the collapsed flint, brick and mortar rubble which surrounded them.

Indications that the inside walls were plastered was uncovered on just one single stone, but this was in a very bad state of decay. Interestingly, isolated demolition fragments of plaster/rendering have survived in very good condition near the surface, whereas no in situ plaster/mortar render seems to have survived anywhere else on the site.

As expected there were not many finds (no sign of the bucket!); the best of which were the usual milk and beer bottle fragments, some nice decorated ceramic shards, a small tubular iron right angle connector, and another bullet cartridge.

We met several more interested visitors – mostly passing walkers – with and without dogs. They all received handouts about the dig, and an invitation to join us. The forecast is for the summer to continue till at least until our next dig day on Friday – so we hope to see some new faces and the return of some of our former regulars – though there are so many other distractions, other archaeological digs included!

Our next targets are the front gate, the path from it to the front door, and the location of a possible well to its east.