A cold blustery morning was spent looking for dating evidence for the outside toilet. Some of the east side of the toilet wall was taken down to check for possible dateable bricks. All were unfrogged, so dated to about the time of the cottage’s construction in 1830, but they were often reused – as they […]
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Sunday was too wet to dig, so we returned Monday, especially since the sun was shining! The first metre (2 lengths) of the 4″ ceramic drain were removed. It continued without signs of any blockage for at least another metre under the demolition rubble mound, towards the site of the cottage’s vegetable garden. The inside […]
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 […]
Sunday was a beautifully warm sunny day. As usual this brought several visitors, including a couple, one of whose family had been agricultural labourers for at least 3 generations in the local area. He was also interested in local history. They stayed for a while, looking for finds from both the spoil heap and the […]
The day’s dig, finishing off the trench to the east of the south end of the cottage went well, especially with the help of a regular volunteer who hadn’t been up on site since before Christmas. She was very impressed by our progress. Unfortunately, the day’s finds were not as impressive as before, a few […]
Friday 10th January I gave my first talk at the Woodingdean Holy Cross Church Hall about what our dig and research finds have informed us about the history of Newmarket Farm. It was very well attended and seemed to be very well appreciated – despite a failure to get the projector working! It was good […]
A very nice morning, which brought us lots of curious visitors out for a walk. Survey work continues, as well as further digging to the east of the cottage, south of the projecting chimney base. Because most of that excavated was demolition fill, finds were few and unexceptional. The day ended shortly after lunch when […]
A stormy day that stayed dry long enough for a mornings work on site. Whilst I struggled to do some important site survey work, I reluctantly allowed my mother to complete the excavation of the midden east of the chimney base rather than force her to help with the surveying. I am not good at […]
We are now into overtime. The first frosty start of the dig. Interesting to note, whilst the puddles on the way to the dig site were covered in ice, those on the dig site itself were not – an indication of how sheltered the cottage must have been. Fortunately for us, the day remained beautiful […]
A damp windy morning was spent up on the Newmarket Farm dig site. Fortunately we were able to experience first hand how well sheltered the site was from a south-westerly gale. The last part of the trench to the north-west of the front garden gateway was excavated. The demolition fill was very shallow over both […]
Newmarket Hill 