End of Project Talk

The end of project talk went very well last Saturday at the Stalbridge Hub. 40 + people attended. Robert Ralph talked about the history of the house and I did the archaeology. The commitment of both groups over the last five years made this project a great success. Hopefully our next project will be as successful.  

 

There will be a talk about the Stalbridge Park excavations 2018-2022 at The Hub, Stalbridge, Dorset at 10.30am on Saturday 26th November. Some of the finds will be there for your perusal!   

Pub Dig

 

Part of the grounds

A possible new project could be forthcoming. This pub is being restored to its original purpose as a community 'local' and saved from dereliction. It is an opportunity to do some non-intrusive geophysics in the surrounding grounds to see if any contemporary or older features can be detected. It is well known that in any village the oldest structures tend to be the church and the pub. Great news for the villagers. 

 

The last days digging team at Stalbridge Park.

There will be an end of season talk in the autumn, so please look in for details if you live in the area.

 

Behind the postholes found last week we found a section of 'hard standing' made from a mixture of mortar and small pebbles. This would indicate that this is indeed the gap that gave access to the inner courtyard. 

We thought that this might be another foundation or structure, but although quite regularly laid we don't think it is.

This misalignment was probably caused by the posthole being dug through part of the foundation.

 

The End

After 4 seasons over 5 years we have come to the end of the excavation at Stalbridge Park. However, lots of work still needs to be done on putting together the findings of all our diggings. That will be posted here as it is produced. 

Photos will be posted shortly.

 

Keeping you posted

This week we have found more postholes and cleaned up the foundation. 

Another posthole being excavated. One of three we have found in a line.

 

The foundation is now looking very nice and shows the courses that still exist.

This piece of Ham stone came up from a small trial trench and is the same as two examples of architectural stone now in the local pub.

This very nice stone-lined posthole indicates a very large twin gate (put together with the other two postholes) or the small building that is indicated on one of the images we have of this elevation.

This posthole has been cut through this foundation.

The foundation has certainly been knocked about and only survives as a handful of stones in a line heading ot the bottom of this image, with the posthole on the opposite side. The other two postholes are situated next to the baulk, one by the bag and the other by the yellow bucket.  

Trying to find the foundation, but it fades out as it heads NW.

The posthole that cuts through the scruffy foundation. It has been dug the same way as the others two; first a pit and then a stone-lined hole for the timber post.

The third posthole with the very nice stone lining.

This small trial trench was dug to see if the neat foundation ran toward the garden wall, just to the right of this digger (it did), and it produced a nice bonus of the Ham stone fragments. 

Wait for one house and then you get two!?

Well, it may be that we have an old house and a new house, made from the old one. It's all quite complicated, so we will leave all that to the final report, which will be summerised here a.s.a.p.

Meanwhile, here are some latest pictures of this seasons digging so far.

This year we have opened a small trench on what we hope is the NW corner. 

It was nice to see that several courses of this wall survived.

Apart from the wall foundation we had a rare posthole feature. It is a square at the base of a  circular pit, which would have been needed to hold a substantial timber post in place.

From what we can see the wall to the left was one side of a gap with the posthole on the right holding a timber post which probably held in place a gate or large door. This may be the gap that allowed access to the inner courtyard, which we found in 2019. 

Another angle on the wall courses.

From the wall we have another foundation that is at a right angle, and that is the one we are digging at the moment.

The new interpretations will need some thinking and discussion within the group. The archaeology is one of only several ways of researching a site and we have people looking at the archival material and surviving drawings of the house. Each can add information about the history of this important structure. It will then be a case of interpreting all this information and coming to some conclusion as to the building and modifications that happened over the two hundred year life of Stalbridge House. 

We all hope that our findings and all the artefacts can go on show for the education of local people and visitors to this historic village, home to one of sciences most important figures, Robert Boyle.       

 

Born with a silver spoon...?

The new season started this month and we are looking at the northwest corner of the house.  

As can be seen on this photo we found a foundation with several courses of stone with a width of 600mm, just like the other main foundations from previous seasons.  

We have been extending the trench to find the corner, but nothing so far. We will continue to extend, within reason, until we find it, as this is the final corner needed to ascertain the size of the main structure.  

As can be seen here, above and below, we are finding that several courses survive and as we excavate the surrounding layer more come to light. This surrounding material is a very mixed dump of sandy clay and rubble butting up to the foundation. 

Two very nice finds are the silver gilt and decorated button and a silver spoon. The spoon bowl has been folded in on itself before being thrown away, but why such a valuable item was destroyed rather than just lost intact will never be known.  

We have had new members volunteering on site this season, one volunteer having had extensive experience working on sites in another county, but now living here. For other members this is their first excavation, but they have been cracking on and picking up the skills needed to become archaeologists. 

Keep looking in to find out how we are doing. 

  

Season 2022

 The new season is scheduled to start at Stalbridge on 15th June. We are marking out the new trench the week before. 

It's been a long time getting to this point, but we hope to finish off the project with some more finds and questions answered to add to the previous seasons work on this important house once owned by 17th century scientist Robert Boyle, one of the founders of the Royal Society.