Seventy Fifth Dig Day – Friday 24th January 2014

A truly memorable day – a laser scan, ‘aerial’ photos, new archaeology, and a herd of 18 Exmoor ponies!

At long last our promised hi-res laser scan from SeSurveying has been done – can’t wait to see the resulting 3-d image – though it might take a while since the unprocessed file is expected to be a huge 16GB!

Panoramic view from communications mast on Newmarket Hill looking NE at Newmarket Plantation and Lewes; click to enlarge

Later that morning maintenance workers from 8point8 Support on the nearby TV and mobile communications mast agreed to take photos of the dig site and the surrounding hills from high up the tower. Judging from the photos the view from up there was stunning.

Now that the laser scan has happened, the first of our planned sondages has been dug. It was to excavate the construction trench for a salt glazed stoneware drain that took grey water from a gully drain away from the kitchen sink on the north (front) of the cottage, eastwards, under the path to the shed against the east side of the cottage towards the site of the vegetable garden (now under the demolition rubble).

Finds were plentiful, with a potentially dateable assemblage of very nice decorated ceramic shards – which probably date to about the 3rd quarter of the 19th c. This was the approximate date of the ‘conservatory-like’ extension to the south of the cottage.

Somewhat distracting was a visit by 18 Exmoor ponies later in the day! They are doing a wonderful job keeping down the brambles on the Castle Hill Nature Reserve. We had tried to keep them out of the dig site, especially before the laser-scan, so we were lucky they only forced their way back into our dig site once this had been done. They are doing such a wonderful job eating down the brambles, etc, that I have now removed the tape which until now had served its purpose keeping them from disturbing our dig. Not that they are in any way scared of our flapping red and white hazard tape – they have even been caught chewing it! They are very curious, sometimes naughty, but I like them!!