A short and sweet update today, mainly because most of the
trenches are having large areas cleared and, as a result, there is very little
to say about them. However, these are the latest developments on site:
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| Cleaning the rubble in Trench N |
Trench N
We are continuing to remove the rubble around the exterior
of the hospital and hope to reach the medieval surfaces in the next day or two.
In the interior of the building, we have started to remove the post-medieval
floor surface and possible stone pads for roof supports and, with a bit of
luck, this should enable us to reach the medieval floor surface very soon.
Trench P
More rubble is being removed from Trench P, with particular
focus on the brick building in the western half of the church. This has
revealed a door slab set into the wall which may be a reused medieval
gravestone; however, we can only confirm this by fully extricating it from the
surrounding walls and turning it over. In the next day or so all the demolition
rubble will be completely removed and we will be able to start studying the
occupation levels in far greater detail.
Trench R
We have now completely emptied the cut for the structure
which stood within the trench; this also contained pieces of mortar and stone
which confirmed our suspicions of this being a robber cut for the walls which
have now completely disappeared. At the moment we are excavating two slots
through the internal surface of the building which show it is a shallow feature
built on top of the sand which fills the rest of the trench. After these have
been recorded we will start removing the rest of the floor surface and by
Friday the trench should be empty once again.
Trench S
Trench S is also on the verge of being closed, although its
end is somewhat more imminent than Trench R. All the surfaces within the
various structures have now been removed to reveal pristine sand running
throughout the trench. As a result, the trench will be photographed tomorrow
before plans, sections and elevations of the remaining walls are drawn. These
are the final actions to take place when excavating and mark the end of the
trench, although with the amount of work left to do in some of the other
trenches, Courtenay will still be very much in demand!
Trench T
The internal surfaces of the kiln have now been exposed.
Initially we thought the kiln had been lined with clay, but it transpires that
in fact the interior is of brick construction. All the rubble within it has now
been removed and we are currently drawing the plan and sections of the kiln.
Due to the instability of the trench sides our excavators will not be able to
dig deeper into the kiln to reveal a possible floor surface but, given the
importance of fully understanding this structure, we are currently
investigating ways to resolve this.
By the end of the week, we will probably have said goodbye
to at least two of our trenches: R and S, and T will also probably follow suit
shortly after this. However, with the amount of work still left to do in N and
P there will still be plenty to keep everyone, from diggers to supervisors,
busy for the final week of the excavation!
