Clean Cobbles

This is a shot of the cobbles in the north room. Only half the room is surfaced with these, the eastern half has compact stones. The slightly raised area to the south is a puzzle; although the slot makes it difficult. It is definitely different to the main slab of stones though.

The site has slowed down somewhat, due to the more delicate nature of the layers and having to keep these floor layers in place for the 25th July event. But the dedication of all the diggers on site is undiminished, and we are still working on other parts of the structure, especially the south room and the double door entrance. Still puzzling us in some respects.  

Not all hard work

It's not all hard work at the Drift Road site. Even when the winds a'blowing we can find time for a jest.

What a load of cobbles!

We seem to be nearing the end in relation to digging any deeper in the north room. Here we have come across a cobbled surface and we will stop there. The cobbles cover only half the room, with the other half comprising of packed small stones.

The south room is still causing a scratching of heads and there are lots of little jobs to be done still, including recording and drawing of horizontal sections of wall. But essentially this is what visitors will see when they come up on the 25th of July.

'The pen[knife] is mightier than the sword'

I had one of these when I was a kid, as did many of you I expect.

I don't expect someone was very happy to have lost it.

Dorset Diggers Have Bottle

This glass bottle was unearthed this weekend which, as you can see, was situated next to the internal wall of the north face; a lovely little find:

Here it is cleaned up:

Here is some research carried out by Ben:

Vet’s bottle found close-by same day, intact, with glass stopper.  Embossed  “ELLIMAN’S    ROYAL    EMBROCATION    FOR HORSES    MANUFACTORY   SLOUGH”   Possibly late Victorian, but was still about in 1980.  See below.

Greetings from Finland! I have a bottle with the embossed text: "ELLIMAN´S ROYAL EMBROCATION FOR HORSES MANUFACTORY SLOUCH". The height is 19cm and it is a BIM style bottle with a crown top and a second lip under the crown. The colour is clear with perhaps a slight tint of green (seen esp. in the thick bottom). The base is smooth and has an embossed "4" in the center and "11338" at the edge of the bottom (not on the side). The bottle itself is in mint condition, although the label has suffered some minor damage. It is still 99% legible and almost fully clean & white. The label says it helps for rheumatism, sore throat, sore shoulders & backs, capped hocks and elbows, broken knees etc. At the bottom of the label there is a reference to "the E.F.A. Booklet enclosed with this bottle, and the Elliman First Aid Book, pages..., 5th edition". This reference is for horses, cattle, dogs and birds. 

Workshop?

Having looked at the evidence so far it does suggest that we are working on the remains of a workshop, perhaps a blacksmith, although what they are doing outside the village seems to mitigate against that theory.

The structure does have some similarities with other buildings which are blacksmiths:

A Bit of Luck

Funny how some things just come together at the same time. There we were today, digging up more metal stuff, when this made an appearance:

A horse bit. Took a few in situ photos then back to work. A few minutes later I heard a voice and saw a horse with its head over the gate apparently saying "what are you looking for then?" Luckily for my sanity I then saw the rider. So we asked them in and I saw that the bit in the horses mouth was just like the one we had just dug up!

This style of bit makes the horses head turn better. The twist in the old bit is no longer used, as it hurts the horses mouth more. Synchronicity.