Art & Archaeology

http://www.lsibridport.co.uk/art-archeaology-world-treasurses-of-human-creativity-a-short-course-with-chris-tripp/

This is a link to an archaeology course on 'Art & Archaeology' at the LSi in Bridport, Dorset for those that live in the area.

Roll up, roll up.

The event at the Stalbridge Village Hall went very well. In co-operation with the Dorset County Museum 'pop-up' display, Dorset Diggers and the Stalbridge History Society it is a weekend history event for the village. The coffee/tea and home made cake were excellent. c.200 people visited our displays on Saturday.

Two for the price of one!

Chris Tripp and Chris Chaney looked at the excavation and interpretation of Stalbridge House today, illustrating the need for developing a partnership between off site and on the ground research to answer some tricky questions about the scale of the house and what elevations are shown on the two drawings that exists from the 18th century. 

   

Courtyard or caught out?

The cobbled surface is within the known footprint of the house.

A major question has been did Stalbridge House have a courtyard? The cobbled floor seemed to suggest that it did and research has unearthed a mention of a courtyard. So the two together makes a convincing case that the house was an open square. Of course, this 'courtyard' in the record could be anywhere, so will have to be confirmed by archaeological excavation. Hopefully next year we will confirm or refute this interpretation on the ground, but it is looking good and would make a major contribution to our knowledge.

Stalbridge Open Day

The Open Day went very well with over 40 people attending. Two talks at the hub on the history and archaeology of Stalbridge House. 

Post talk chat

Special finds table

Doris the Donkey and visitors to the site

On site before the backfill

Med mud?

A small 2m test pit was dug at Weycroft Hall, Axeminster, Devon on Friday. No structures, but some interesting finds.

The grandest archaeological site hut in the UK?

Clay-silt with angular stones and chert.

A possible arrowhead, a blade fragment and a possible prehistoric pot sherd.

Lay down your trowels

The 2019 season has now finished as regards excavation and we have had a fruitful and hard working time. With the exact location of the house now established, the finding of the well, nice small finds and the first floor surface we have had a good year.

After all that we deserve a nice sandwich and cup of tea!

The YB3 floor trench, with the earth bank trench behind and well trench to the right, just.

In YB3 we have had new structures, which we hope to find out more about next year.

We wuz robbed!

The floor trench is now being worked on to try and find out what is cutting what. It seems that the modern intrusion does not touch the robbed out wall trench, seen here in the baulk section (red). More fill may need to come out of this latter feature. We are still awaiting the machine to come free so as to extend this trench to the east.

'So, plastic isn't from the 17th century then?'

As Sir Mortimer Wheeler may have said "archaeology is like a box of chocolates; you never know what yer goin' to get".

It was a great disappointment that the void suggested by the geophysics turned out to be modern and had cut through the cobbled floor. The black cross on the geophysics are robbed out walls. To make more sense of this we will try to get the machine in and strip back the trench where the spoil is in this picture. Hopefully we will then have more floor and perhaps one other.

Some positives are the painted wall plaster and moldings and the fine thimble, which is being looked at by an expert to date it more closely.   

The 'cellar' is, in fact, a modern intrusion, with plastic at the base!

Cobbled together.

Some pics of the cobble floor. Meanwhile, the fill of the possible cellar is reduced.

Anchors away! To the archive.

Very nice button with anchor motif

Two fragments of a finely made dish with decoration

We've been tagged

This very nice tag was unearthed this week

An important new addition to our wall collection

The H4 trench has unearthed a new section of wall which will add to our understanding of the location and dimensions of the house. This second season has seen a big leap in our progress to bring an important structure back into the life and memory of Stalbridge.

Always nice to get stoned.

Nice piece of worked stone came up to day.

Our hopes are not floored.

Great news at Stalbridge: the new trench has produced a floor surface, plus possible evidence of the 'Great Sellar'. The next few weeks will be concentrating on these features. An exciting addition to our site.

The site dog keeps an eye on things

The floor surface - with drain!

The green clay to the left seems to be cut by the orange rubble material to the right. 'The Great Seller'?

Quality materials

The quality of the materials used on Stalbridge House continues to be found. 

Nicely worked stone

Nicely shaped glass

It's been a trial...

Finishing off a trial trench then onto the main excavation to the north-west, where we will open a 5m square to see if the house wall runs in that direction and if it does we can open the area to 10m square by machine. Fingers crossed we get floor surfaces etc this time.

Trench Q awaiting back filling

Reducing the overburden of dumped material by hand - hard work

But worthwhile when more structures appear

"You want this taken down by hand?!"

Archaeology - what can you do? The walls we have dug at Stalbridge are good, but the house may run off them to the North-West, not the South-East! 
Local research and geophiz suggested the latter, but careful measurements (of the existing walled garden - it was extended) and reinterpretation of what looked like a classic 17th c. garden suggest the former, as this garden may actually be the house, as suggested by the old map (which we were skeptical of). 
It's 50/50, so a 5m square test pit is needed to find out. I was not a happy bunny yesterday morning, but now it could be quite exciting to have floor surfaces. 

[The drone shot north arrow is wrong]

Doing very Well

The cap on the Well was removed to assess the shape, depth and construction of the Well. After recording, photographing and leveling the cap will be replaced. H & S demands that this feature is now finished and the farm manager will back fill. However, he may decide to keep the outer walls showing as a feature and this would make a nice memorial to our work this year. 

Removing the cap stone

A sturdy feature

Over 8m deep

We are now concentrating on establishing the shape and form of the house by opening 5m square trenches at certain locations and also looking at some walls that were indicated by geophysics to the east of last years trench, which may also be indicated on this old drawing. Also, it may have had what is called a 'stylobate'. This is a platform in front of the main door of a house, sometimes decorated with columns. As can be seen here the gate gives access to an enclosed area leading up to the entrance where the stylobate would be situated. This is where the elongated earth mound now sits. 

Our 2018 trench is the right hand corner of the house with what looks like a wall running away from it.

    

To uncap it all

The great stone covering the well will be opened on Wednesday!

Work continues on the earth mound wall section.

We will also be opening another trench in the south east area of the site to find out the exact location of this part of the house. 

Testing, testing...

We have been given permission in July to do a small 2m x 2m test pit at Weycroft Hall, Axminster to see if there are any surviving foundations of the medieval buildings once attached to the hall. 

Not sure why the videos won't open, so back to pix.

The 'well' dig goes on. The walls are being recorded now that the internal fills have been removed.

The Great Drain mystery has been solved. They serviced.... garderobes!