Day 12: The View from the Trenches – Supervisor Edition!

Yesterday was a great day in the trenches, with all sorts of exciting things coming to light in the afternoon. We'll give you more information after we get a closer look tomorrow, but for now, here is a view from the trenches with our supervisory team.

Chez – Trench T

This is my first year as a supervisor, and so far, I’m enjoying it. It’s been interesting having to work out all the different contexts, which I haven’t had experience doing before. I’ve really enjoyed teaching new students, and getting to meet everybody, and it has been insightful listening to what everybody thinks my trench is. The current consensus is that we have a brick kiln, which Sarah, who is studying bricks, is very excited about. We also have located a wastage pile of bricks 20 metres away from the trench. I think it’s going to take a few more days until we’re finished, but I’m enjoying the experience so far.

Chris – Trench R

This is also my first year supervising my own trench and it has been a great experience. The most different thing to being a volunteer is having to work out the phasing and order in which things need to be excavated. I enjoy teaching the volunteers and students but my trench has been essentially empty for most of the two weeks so I haven’t been able to work with that many people. Yesterday, however, the first non-negative feature in the whole trench was found. It appears to be a floor that goes with the robber cut that we had previously excavated. This is an exciting development because there may be evidence in this layer that could show us the purpose of the building. The next things to do are to clean off the floor layer and excavate the natural build-up in the robber cut that was missed during its initial excavation. The floor surface seems contained by at least one face of a wall that is at least two courses deep so it is likely that there is a lot more to excavate!

Courtenay – Trench S

This is my first year working at Thornton, having previously supervised at other training digs in the country. It was great to be thrown into my own trench, but I was very grateful to have my overlord Rachel, who is looking after Trenches S, T and R, to help put some context and time scale to the pottery that was being excavated from my area, as I had not previously come into contact with the styles of pottery found on this site. Having been secluded across the road from the other trenches on the site (possibly due to the secret wish of the other supervisors to lock me up behind an electric fence), it turned out that my little lonely trench has provided some very interesting and head-scratching moments as to the stratigraphical arrangement of the architecture being uncovered. It seems that my trench holds some similarities to the film Inception with its series of floors under floors, and walls coming out of my ears. In the 5x5m space I have so far had 3 phases of flooring (one on top of the other) and 5 walls, two potential pathways or corridors, and even a potential external bricked courtyard. This is all made incredibly more confusing since the corners to this architectural conundrum have been robbed out from the building, obscuring the relationships that the walls share with each other. All in all it’s been a thoroughly interesting experience both archaeologically and socially, as I have met some really lovely people during this excavation.

Martin – Trench N

This year is my fourth year as a supervisor on this project, and once again it has been rubble all the way down. After a lot of effort from the volunteers and students in the past few days, much of this rubble has been removed in the north of the trench, revealing potential medieval ground surfaces. Also revealed in the past few days is a 1 metre thick wall, constructed from some large and shaped stones that match the walls in Trench P, despite the level of stone robbing that had occurred sometime in the post-medieval period. This building seems to have been high status due to the amount of painted plaster fragments that have been recovered by the eagle-eyed diggers. Hopefully in the next week we will be getting into the medieval floor layers inside the building, to work out what the building was used for. With much more rubble to be removed from the south of the trench, the new students arriving this weekend will certainly be in for some hard graft!

Claire - Trench P

I’ve had a great time returning to Thornton for the fourth year, and supervising Trench P, which has been described by one student as being like Disneyland but with more walls! A completely accurate description, I can assure you. We are investigating the medieval hospital and church on the top of the mound; Trench N and Trench P are both working on opposite ends of the same earthworks, so it is fascinating to compare how different features are presented in each. This week we have uncovered a substantial early stone building, which once contained a floor of glazed white and black tiles, as well as a brick building and several areas of collapsed wall, two walls with areas of repair, and at least three areas where the stones from walls have been robbed out. This is the largest trench I have supervised, and I’m really enjoying the challenge of identifying all the different periods of activity in this area. Thank you to all of our students and volunteers who have helped us get this far; hopefully our old hands and new arrivals over the next two weeks will aid us in finding some answers to all the questions we have. Watch this space for our next update tomorrow night!

Day 11: A Series of Small Walls

Just a quick update today, as most of the trenches are removing lots of rubble or earth so there is not much progress to report. However, there have still been several developments that are noteworthy.

Pete and Martin discussing the Trench N wall

Trench N

We are continuing to reveal the east end of the hospital church in Trench N. As stated in previous blogs this is very substantial, and it is somewhat surprising that this has remained whilst its adjoining walls have apparently been robbed entirely. One possible theory is that the church has either been extended at some point, so this wall was not visible at the Dissolution, or it is constructed of poorer quality masonry which was of comparatively interest to the stone robbers. We are currently hypothesising that the quality of the stonework indicates the church may be Saxon, although this is far from proven!

Trench P

Removal of the interior rubble in Trench P has revealed yet more floor tiles, with additional evidence of burning that is probably linked to the dismantlement phase of the hospital. However, it also appears that the building continued to be used during the post-medieval period, potentially as a barn. This is due to an area of cobbles at the eastern end of the trench that have been laid deliberately both outside and inside the building. As a result, it is extremely plausible that these were laid during the post-Dissolution period to provide a slightly more level surface for agricultural purposes. This could mean that the several large stones within the trench are in fact pads for roof supports. In addition, there is a hemispherical spread of rubble on the outside of the building which may indicate a projecting staircase for the church tower; this is supported by the large amount of chamfered masonry which we have found in its vicinity.

Flying the quadcopter over Trench R

Trench R

Trench R is still open! Having ascertained the external edge of the robber trench yesterday, we assumed this meant the trench was now devoid of archaeology. However, the silver half penny we found yesterday (see yesterday’s blog) indicated the building had been erected on made-up ground and this has been proven today. A large spit has now been removed to reveal more features, all filled with medieval pottery. As the trench has now been thoroughly cleaned, these will be excavated tomorrow.

Three of the walls in Trench S

Trench S

The walls in Trench S continue to tantalise and confuse in equal measure. Removal of the bricks in the northern portion of the trench revealed another floor layer, this time of crushed and tightly packed limestone, and yet another possible wall in the west of the trench. This supports our theory of a later insertion of a doorway, as unlike the previous brick layer the limestone runs under the later “corridor” to the exterior wall. However, excavation of the robber trench has proved it to be extremely shallow, only removing several blocks at the very eastern end of the wall. Unfortunately this is also the junction between the two north-south running walls; the chalk one to the north and the limestone one to the south which is on a slightly different alignment. As a result, we are unable to tell the stratigraphic relationship between the three walls and thus cannot tell which wall was constructed first. We suspect it is the limestone wall, as it is of a higher quality and this usually indicates a medieval as opposed to post-medieval date. Therefore, like Trench P, the building within Trench S may have both a medieval and post-medieval story to tell.

Cleaning the vaulted structure, Trench T

Trench T

We have decided that Trench T contains a bridge. This is suggested by two linear areas with an absence of stone, which may indicate beam slots to support a wooden bridge over a brick arch. The size of the bricks in the vaulted structure may indicate the bridge is post-medieval rather than medieval in date, and thus is either related to the dismantlement or revised use of the hospital after the Dissolution. 

Tomorrow we will be live tweeting our end-of-week trench talks, so tune in to Twitter or Facebook from 5pm to hear the very latest developments. In addition, whilst we are extremely grateful for the lack of thunderstorms this week, the heat today has meant excavating has been very hard and sweaty work. Therefore, we are all hoping for a repeat of last night’s events, when an ice cream van turned up at the campsite. Keep your fingers crossed everyone!

Day 10: Return Visitors

This time last week we interviewed three overseas students on their time at Thornton. Now we get to know three current students at the University of Sheffield who love being here so much they keep coming back for more!

Name: Greer Dewdney

Hometown: London

Why have you returned to Thornton? Because it’s a very good place to get good digging experience in a low stress environment. The fact that it’s a teaching dig means that you can come back and learn even more, even if you’ve been here once.

What do you like best about digging here? The atmosphere. Everybody is really friendly and pulls their weight, so you get a real sense of progression. If you come for the whole month, you also get a chance to see the whole dig from start to finish.

What do you like least? Camping. I love the digging, I’m just not overly keen on living in a field; coming from London I’m used to large buildings, not big open spaces!

Which is your favourite trench, and why? Trench N because I like church architecture and to have found the eastern end is extremely exciting because that’s where the best bits are. 

Name: Rob Usher

Hometown: Knaresborough, North Yorks

Why have you returned to Thornton? I enjoyed it a lot last year, I’m looking to expand my practical field skills, particularly focussing on survey.

What do you like best about digging here? People I’m digging with as everyone is very friendly and helpful. Finding things is also quite fun too!

What do you like least? The bugs, particularly thunderbugs which have a tendency to stick to your suncream.

Which is your favourite trench, and why? Trench S because it’s really interesting to see how it has developed and how everyone’s theories have changed as the excavation has progressed.

Name: Emma Hook

Hometown: Buckinghamshire

Why have you returned to Thornton? You learn stuff here that you don’t in lectures. And it’s fun!

What do you like best about digging here? The variety of things; you have a lot of different trenches looking at different things, such as a church, hospital and stables.

What do you like least? Shovelling, particularly after today! [we’re currently taking spits of sand from Trench R, which is a lot of hard work!]

Which is your favourite trench, and why? Trench R because I’ve been in it quite a lot and it’s really interesting to see it progress.

The trenches are continuing to progress, although there is still plenty to do. Find of the Day goes to Trench R, for this silver penny dating to the reign of Henry III (1216-1272). It has been minted in York and appears to have be unclipped, suggesting it was lost very early in its life (if a coin is in circulation for a long time its edges get clipped by individuals who want to use the silver for their own purposes). As it came from the layer on which the building was built, it indicates the building was erected no earlier than the mid-13^th century. Hopefully tomorrow will reveal even more exciting finds!

Day 9: Walls, Floors and Doors

We are already halfway through the second week and things are gradually beginning to make sense (in some trenches at least). Even so, there is still plenty to keep our diggers occupied and we still have a long way to go before we can consider our task to be complete.

Trench N

The Trench N wall slowly emerges...

In Trench N, the east end of the hospital is slowly emerging from the surrounding rubble and is both extremely well built and massive. It transpires that what we formerly thought to be a possible undercroft is in fact the original walls, which have been largely robbed along their northern and southern length. As a result, the large humps within the trench are not walls, as previously thought, but are instead upcast, or large spoil heaps, formed by the individuals responsible for robbing the hospital stone. Pottery found within the robber trench appears to date this event to the 16^th century, shortly after Thornton was suppressed. Evidently the local inhabitants wasted no time in taking advantage of a valuable building resource on their doorstep!

The pile of rubble in the centre is a floor, honest!

Trench P

More floor tiles have been uncovered in Trench P and their distribution suggests that, as opposed to being discarded during the dismantlement of the building, they have instead been smashed in situ. However, they have been heavily disturbed, possibly indicating a large weight (such as the upper reaches of the hospital wall) landed on them. These have been carefully cleaned and photographed and will be lifted in the near future.

Towards the eastern edge of the trench, a large depression has been revealed as another robber trench, although it is slightly curious. Within the cut is a series of small tiles which are mortared firmly onto a long, narrow stone. Furthermore, to the north of this stone (and on the building’s exterior) is a rather fine cobble and crushed limestone surface which does not appear to extend to the west of the trench. Although we still need to investigate this feature further, it may be that the stone represents a former doorway, with the tiles used to level the doorstep in the same way as you might put a piece of card under a wonky table leg.

Trench R tiles

Trench R

For a trench with so little in it, Trench R is still proving to be fairly mysterious. The southwest and northeast corners were extended to find the outside edge of the robber cut, which was quickly located in the southeast. This was accompanied with a large spread of roof tiles which fell off the building’s roof after it had fallen into disrepair. However, in the northeast the robber cut appears to be far wider, and we are yet to find its edge. We will have one last attempt tomorrow to find it, but this may be one on-site enigma which remains unsolved.

Planning Trench S, with the "corridor" clearly visible

Trench S

Trench S is looking beautifully clean and tidy and is currently being planned. It appears to have had at least two phases, with the north-south running wall having been rebuilt at least once during the building’s lifetime. In addition, the robbed out portion of our original wall may have been in order to insert an internal doorway into the building, with bricks inserted in the place of stones that had been ripped out. The doorway also explains the area to the north of the wall, which consists of a broken layer of bricks which suddenly stop in line with the proposed door. The broken bricks could indicate a floor layer for an ancillary building to the hospital, such as a stable, with a corridor made of a different material, which has since been removed, leading from the doorway. Removal of the broken bricks will take place shortly any material found within it may provide a clue for the building’s former use. 

Trench T

Planning the undulating Trench T is challenging!

We continue to deliberate over the structure in Trench T. It is clearly vaulted and may be a bridge leading from the hospital precinct gateway towards the hospital itself, although Francesca (the trench supervisor) still remains convinced it’s a drain. However, removal of the rubble north of the structure has revealed a cut which we will soon start to excavate and this should hopefully start to answer some of our many questions about the trench.

Fingers crossed, the weather should continue to be fine for the next few days and by the weekend we may even be in a position where five trenches have been reduced to three. However, it is still relatively early in the excavation’s progress and there is still plenty of opportunity for further exciting and unexpected developments in all our trenches.