Live Updates
Another exciting find from Paul and Loraine's test pit!
This wonderful bone button has come out of Paul and Loraine and Florence’s test pit!
Our wonderful volunteers in the Finds Lab
We really couldn’t do this without our wonderful volunteers in the Finds Lab! Johanna and Freddy have done a marvellous job of organising the team and keeping them fed and watered with lots of tea and cake, and they’ve all made so much progress through the mounds of finds coming up from the test pits
Over at St Benedict's School, the students are cracking on too!
Harriet and Ryevitalise’s Joe are leading the pupils at St Benedict’s in digging test pits in the grounds of their school playing field. So far they have turned up worked prehistoric flint, C19th pottery and a wonderful clay pipe bowl decorated with a ship and a bunch of flowers. Brilliant effort!
Paul's got a wonderful find from his test pit!
Paul’s found a wonderful bit of history in his test pit. Three pieces of pottery which all match up to form a pot with a pouring spot. We wonder what it was doing at the bottom of the garden and what the former resident was using it for
It's the final day of the Ampleforth Big Dig!
The final day of the dig means all hands on deck! We’ve got three school groups, 17 test pits and hundreds of finds to clean and sort through. Let’s go!
End of day three - the finds are stacking up
The finds processing table is groaning under the weight of the finds coming out of our community test pits. Good job we have a wonderful bunch of volunteers in Jo and Freddy’s finds lab to help wash and sort! We couldn’t do it without them
Over at Coram, Stephen, Elaine and Denise are making huge progress
Stephen, Elaine and Denise have made such brilliant progress – they are down at least half a metre with no end to their finds in sight! Pottery, green glaze, charcoal, the history just keeps coming and coming. What a brilliant effort!
Sam has an interesting find
Over at the West End, Sam has found this interesting copper alloy tube. It is stamped with a crest, which has the word ‘Rugby’ at the base. What could it have once been?
Florence and Jodie help de-turf over at Sycamore Cottage
Paul and Loraine are keen to explore their long burgage plot at Sycamore Cottage, and so local lass Florence has joined Jodie to help de-turf and open a test pit right at the top. What a view! Florence is debating doing archaeology at University, so we hope this experience will encourage her to join us 🙂
Meanwhile, over at the West End of the village...
The Beck family have opened their test pit and have found a huge quantity of finds already! Here Kate, Sam and Lesley are digging and have found lots of china pottery, glass, metal objects and some medieval green glaze! All in a morning’s work
