Slippery visitor

Forgot to mention that we had a visitor on site. Didn't even pay. 

The Walls Are Closing In

The walls are now seeing the light of day once more, and quite substantial they are. This is a pre-ex plan (1:20) of the N-S running wall, made of flint, tile and brick on a chalk foundation, or so it seems at the moment. No evidence of mortar.

This is the less substantial wall running E-W with a brick dump at the E end, which looks as if it has fallen rather than been chucked randomly. The long tube here is a pipe, not a rocket! Once, finally, the topsoil has been removed from all the site we may be able to make more sense of this, so as to see if these walls are connected and then if they are connected to the main structure to the west.

Meanwhile the diggers are sporting a series of millinery creations to rival Gertrude Shilling (look her up, those under 40) :

Here we have Angela wearing the 'court jester'; very in this year  

Chris & Ben are sporting the 'OAP' with Chris topping off the look with the completely unnecessary hi-vi accessory

Ben shows how not to do measurements i.e. without a tape measure

This picture shows both walls. The work for this week will be clearing the rest of the topsoil to the west and beyond the main structure and then planning the dumps of rubble. Hopefully this will make the walls clearer and may uncover floor layers.

Double Trouble

The Drift Road site has just doubled! This wall came up just to the east of the main structure and could be connected or free standing. Excavation from east to west will confirm it either way. The wall is made up of brick, stone and tile, two of which have been stamped with the company that made them:

This one is stamped Dunball Steam Tile & Brick Co. and were based in Bridgewater. This one is stamped Symons & Co. and they were based in Wales and possibly Somerset, but more research will have to done:

Meanwhile large amounts of metalwork is coming up:

We are cracking on with the work and the view from the office is not bad:

Look in again for more news from the site.

First digging day

18/04/13 was the first digging day and we managed to get a lot done despite the weather deteriorating after lunch.

A whole new wall was found and is parallel  to the main structure (new wall on the right & structure on the left). It is made of stone, brick and tile and we hope to unearth a made floor between the two tomorrow.

Finds have been mostly tile and brick so far, with one tile having been stamped:

Meanwhile the main structure has been cleared and we can now begin the removal of grass and topsoil:

Digging, surveying and laying out the grid go on apace:

Thanks to our friends the sheep for being accommodating:

Tomorrow looks like a nice sunny day, so we hope to get a lot more of the site unearthed and answer some of the questions about this forgotten piece of Maiden Newton history.

Scrubbing About

A small band of scrub clearers did a great job over the weekend clearing the site ready for digging next weekend. 

The finds were somewhat underwhelming, but as we were not looking in the first place...

One bit of news is that the structure could be connected to the cheese making industry in Maiden Newton. Whey was pumped up to the pigs, we have been told, and this could be the old pumping station. If so this is a forgotten part of an important employer in the village and we are putting it back on the map, especially as the factory is long gone, as are so many other places of work in the area. More information to follow.