Part of a series of bulletins from the BAS excavations at Wickham House Follow the project on our YouTube channel

Attendees: Nigel R, Janet R, Stuart, Julian, Philip, Phil U, Martin, Tess, Alessa, Kate, Millie, Thalia, Carol, Stewart and Keith 

Day 9 got off to an exciting start in Trench 17 with the discovery of a bone hairpin by Nigel shown in Figure 1. Initial comparisons suggest that this may be a ‘Crummy Type 3a’ hairpin dating to the early 3^rd century AD which aligns with the radiate coin found nearby within Trench 17 by Julian. Once these finds had been recorded, work in Trench 17 continued to reveal a spread of large flints at 0.60m depth consistent with the Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) anomaly at the same depth. Once this surface has been recorded work will continue next week to explore the stratigraphy below and compare with the GPR anomalies identified. 

In Trench 16 Stuart, Stewart, Millie, Thalia and Tess continued exploring the masonry wall and the surfaces revealed to the north. By the end of the day Stewart had revealed what promised to be the return of the masonry wall to the southeast – and many finds were made to the north of this feature including pottery, bone and iron slag.

In Trench 15 Janet, Martin, Phil, Carol and Kate continue the definition of the northeast facing ditch of the Ermin Street Roman road and exploring the stratigraphy of its intersection with the lane branching to the north that was excavated in 2025. 

Work continued with the earth resistance geophysics in the southeast of the pasture led by Philip. This high resolution (0.5m) survey is starting to reveal new rectilinear features aligned with the Roman road previously unseen in past low resolution (1.0m) surveys. These new insights into the extent of this roadside settlement and the morphology of structures not only adds context to interpretation of discoveries within the trenches, but facilitates planning for future phases of excavation.

Part of a series of bulletins from the BAS excavations at Wickham HouseFollow the project on our YouTube channel

Attendees: Nigel R, Janet R, Gill, Tony, Stuart, Julian, Philip, Ben, Tess, Alessa, Paula, Jean, Kate, James P and Keith 

With rain forecast for the afternoon, work in the trenches got off to a brisk start. In Trench 15 Paula, Kate, Jean and Janet continued to define the fill of the Roman road ditch, and by the end of the day appeared to have identified the intersection of the lane adjoining the Roman road from the north as shown in Figure 1.

In Trench 16 James excavated the northern extent of the masonry wall that has so far been revealed, and in the process discovered a copper alloy ‘barbarous radiate’ coin. Keith started the detailed planning of this horizon of archaeology, which will be completed tomorrow with levels and photographs once James’ area has been cleaned. At the northern end of Trench 16 Stuart and Tess continued to explore the ‘dark earth’ deposits where the masonry wall is no longer to be seen, and in the process discovered a nice sherd of Central Gaul Samian pottery featuring a leaf motif.

Philip, Ben, Tony and Gill carried on with the high resolution earth resistance geophysics survey of the far southeast of the pasture where it is hoped new light will be shed on the extent of roadside settlement to the southeast of where excavations are taking place. In Trench 17 Alessa, Julian and Nigel continued to explore the archaeology of a rectilinear geophysics anomaly identified by GPR a couple of weeks ago. So far this has revealed a horizon of large flints that today was cleaned, recorded and photographed.

Part of a series of bulletins from the BAS excavations at Wickham HouseFollow the project on our YouTube channel

Attendees: Thalia, Jill, Nigel R, Janet R, Stuart, Julian, Martin, Philip, Millie, Tess, Alessa, Celia, Paula, Jean, Doug, Geoff and Keith 

The initial post-survey processing of the Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) data collected at the start of the project was completed over the weekend. Based on this initial assessment, Philip and Keith identified three areas on the site being excavated with rectilinear anomalies aligned with the Roman Road for further investigation. Today Alessa, Nigel and Julian opened the first of these trenches as seen in Figure 1. The GPR suggested that the archaeological horizon in this area begins at a depth of 0.6m, which was almost reached by the end of the day. Work will continue tomorrow in this trench – and possibly in the other trenches to correlate the GPR survey anomalies with archaeology present in these selected areas.

In Trench 15 Jill, Paula, Doug and Jean continued to reveal the surface of the fill of the northly ditch of the Ermin Street Roman road close to where it intersects with the lane branching from Ermin Street to the north. By the end of the day the first hints of the agger of the lane were emerging, so tomorrow promises to see the intersection fully revealed. As seen in Trench 4c in 2025, the fill of the road ditch in this area appears to be full of building rubble containing Roman period pottery and CBM. Figures 2 and 3 shows the Trench 15 team hard at work – and relaxing during a well earned tea break!

In Trench 16 Stuart, Martin, Tess, Millie and Thalia started by recording, planning and photographing the surfaces revealed to the north of the masonry wall footings as shown in Figure 4. Having completed this recording, this surface was began to be removed, but as yet the continuation of the masonry footings (or the cut of its construction trench) have yet to be identified. Work will continue tomorrow to determine whether a ‘return’ at the north end of the masonry wall can be located…

Despite many interesting sherds of Roman period pottery, CBM and metal objects being discovered during today’s excavation, the “find of the day” was once again made by Julian within the overburden of Trench 17 – well preserved radiate coin of Tetricus II!

Part of a series of bulletins from the BAS excavations at Wickham HouseFollow the project on our YouTube channel

Attendees: Lindsey, Dee, Debbie C, John M, Thalia, Nigel, Carol, Phil U, Stuart, Stewart, Julian, Martin, Susanne, Philip, James L, Chloe L, Doug and Keith 

The day started with cleaning at the south end of Trench 16000 to begin the process of recording and planning for the archaeological horizon revealed over the past two week of the excavation. The results of the detailed cleaning were impressive with some different contexts being identified  in this area of the trench, as can be seen in Figures 1 and 2. These include the two faces of the masonry wall and its lime/chalk mortar core that can clearly be seen (in the section across the wall excavated and recorded in 2025), a large pit, gravel fills of the construction trench and a number of gravel surfaces.

The overcast weather was ideal for photography, so this element of the recording process was prioritised. However, John, Thalia and Susanne began the process of planning and completion of context sheets. Completion of this recording will be continued next week before further excavation is initiated.

At the northern end of Trench 16000 the alignment revealed to the south was projected to where it is hoped the masonry footings continue, and possibly continue along a return heading to the northeast or southeast. The initial GPR survey images of this area of the site have not yet been able to offer a clear indication of the morphology of the wall in this area – so tried and tested “old school” methods were applied by Martin and Stuart as seen in Figure 3.

Figure 3. Martin and Stuart project the line of the masonry wall  northwards in Trench 16

In Trench 15000 Lindsey, Dee and Debbie continued to clean the gravel surface revealed earlier in the week. A sondage revealed the level of the fill of the Roman road’s ditch which was extended towards the likely agger surface of the road in the south of the trench. Now the level of the archaeological horizon has been established, work will continue to the west to define the rest of the Roman road, its northerly ditch and the lane which will be planned and recorded in the coming week. The extent of the spoil heap after only two weeks of excavation in Figure 4 shows the energy that has been brought to bear by the team of volunteers during the past six days of excavation. Now that the first objective of revealing the archaeology is within sight, projects will be assigned next week to address the goals of the research questions for this site in the week’s head.

In addition to the excavation work, Philip, supported by Phil U, James L, Nigel and Stewart, undertook high resolution earth surveys to assess the archaeological potential for further settlement alongside the Roman road to the southeast of the site. The planned surveys will add further insight into the full extent of this roadside settlement and the functions taking place during different periods of occupation.

Part of a series of bulletins from the BAS excavations at Wickham House

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Attendees: Jill, Paula, Lindsey, John M, Stuart, Julian, Tim H, Tony, Martin, Susanne and Keith 

Once again excellent progress was made in both trenches despite the extremely warm weather. In Trench 15000 a compact pebble/clay surface was revealed in the south of the trench which has been interpreted as the extant surface of the Ermin Street Roman road. Figure 1 shows Jill, Paula and Lindsey cleaning this surface. Some interesting pottery was found in this area of Trench 15 during the course of the day, one example of which (found by Jill) is shown in Figure 2.

Also in Trench 16000, the turf was removed from an area to the northeast of the trench by Martin, Susanne and Keith, which is in due course expected to reveal further details of the lane heading to the north and the nearby building revealed in 2025.

In Trench 16000 work continued to reveal details of the masonry flint wall footings and the surface on either side of the wall. Stuart spent the day extending visibility of the wall to the northeast, but the expected return was not yet reached. In the southern end of this trench John and Susanne focused on cleaning the details revealed during the previous day, including a likely return heading to the northwest. In total approximately 12m of masonry footings have been revealed and work will continue to better define these features over the coming days. It is hoped that the result of the Ground Penetrating Radar survey undertaken on 31^st March (Day#1) will bear fruit with the first visibility of the area being excavated expected to be ready for assessment tomorrow. 

Part of a series of bulletins from the BAS excavations at Wickham House

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Attendees: Chloe, James L, Jill, Paula, Lindsey, Nick, John M, Thalia, Millie, Stuart, Julian, Tim H, Celia, Debbie S, Geoff and Keith 

Much progress was made in Trench 16000 revealing the masonry wall first discovered in 2025. A ‘return’ heading to the southwest was revealed in the south of the trench, but the wall was still heading north-eastwards in the northern end of the trench at the end of the day. However the photographs in Figure 1 and 2 show the wall when cleaned up and the progress made today. The find of the day in Trench 16 was the belt hasp found be Stuart shown in Figure 3.

The masonry wall consists of an inner and outer facing of large flings with a white lime mortar core and is about 0.6m wide. To date approximately 8m of the wall has been revealed. Whilst there has been a number of pieces of Samian pottery plus grey-ware/black-ware pottery found along the wall, the dating of the wall itself has not yet been determined.

In Trench 15 work continued to locate the archaeological horizon for the Roman road ditch and the adjoining lane. Whist another nice coin find was revleaed in Figure 5, a numus dating to AD348-350, the upper levels of the road and lane features have yet to be located. Figure 4 shows the status by the end of Day #4, but further work remains to be done…

Part of a series of bulletins from the BAS excavations at Wickham House

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Attendees: Philip R, Nick, Stuart, Lindsey, Martin, Andrew R, Phil C, Jill, Julian, Tony, Stewart, Geoff, Fay, Margaret, Nigel B, Eric, Ben, John S, Tim H, Thalia, Garry and Keith 

Day #2 and Day #3 both saw amazing progress, but were also very similar – so I have combined the two updates. As for Day# 1 we had “team GPR” led by Philip collecting geophysics survey data using the Mala Ground Penetrating Radar, this time on the pasture we surveyed before Christmas with an earth resistance survey. Figure 1 shows “team GPR” in action. Philip will processing the data collected during this week over the long weekend, which will give us more information on where to open trenches to address our research questions. Watch this space…!

The earth resistance survey of the excavation site collected on day #1 didn’t reveal any new anomalies relating to the masonry wall discovered in the last week of season #1 – so we decided to revert to the “old school”/tried and tested method of re-opening Trench 4e and the test pit from 2025 where the masonry wall was recorded. This involved a lot of digging to remove the infill, but good progress was made by the end of Day#3 as can be seen in Figures 2 and 3. 

The layer of Terram fibre placed over the masonry wall prior to filling in Trench 4e provided a clear marker protecting the archaeology revealed in 2025. This will allow us to quickly pick up where we left off last year. New archaeology, possibly associated with the wall, was also revealed in the south of the trench where it was extended. Depending on the new insights revealed by the GPR survey, this trench will be further extended in the coming week to reveal more of the wall and nearby features associated with it.

In Trench 15 located across the intersection of the Roman road/lane next to “building #3”, good progress was also made. By the end of Day #3 the first hints of the surface of the Roman road were starting to appear, and the overburden revealed three late Roman nummi coins. As these artefacts were found in different locations and recorded as “small finds” within Trench 15, they were not thought to be associated (i.e. part of a single deposit), but part of the wide spread of Late Roman period coins found by metal detectorists across this pasture over many years as recorded on the Portable Antiquities Scheme. Work will continue next week to carefully expose the archaeological horizon using the sections recorded nearby in 2025.

Part of a series of bulletins from the BAS excavations at Wickham House

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Attendees: Philip R, Phil C, Eric, Andrew H, James, Geoff, Eric, Garry, Thalia, Tasha, Millie, Sophia, Fay, John S, Julian, Jill, Martin and Keith

The nine month since were last on site excavating at Wickham House have flown by – a blur of post-ex analysis of artefacts and drafting the interim stratigraphic analysis of the archaeology revealed in the 2025 season. As many of you will have seen from presentation given, the site we are working has phases of occupation dating to the Early/Late Roman and the Medieval Periods, with at least two Roman period buildings – and a large Medieval building location on top of the Roman road. The initial focus of the 2026 season excavation are to better define the morphology, function and dating of the Roman period buildings and how they interacted with the nearby Roman road, the lane heading to the north and the industrial areas discovered to the north on the site in 2025. A secondary focus will be to better understand the morphology, function and dating of the Medieval building.

Once we had arrived on site, work soon got underway after Philip had used the GPS device to mark out the first of the two trenches to be opened this week on top of the intersection of the Ermin Street Roman road and lane branching to the north. The turves were removed and work started on removing the overburden as can be seen in Figure 2. Work progressed during the day as can be seen in Figure 3, but by the end of the afternoon the archaeological horizon had not reached, so work will continue tomorrow…

Elsewhere on the site two teams of volunteers were busy undertaking geophysics surveys. Geoff was leading a team working on repeating the high resolution earth resistance survey in the east of the site as seen in Figure 4 to see if ground conditions were moist enough to reveal details not seen the survey taken in 2025 when conditions were very dry.

Another team of volunteers was trying out the Ground Penetrating Radar survey device being trailed by the Society. Philip soon got the GPR device integrated with the GPS device and data was collected across a 40m x 40m area was surveyed using this new geophysics tool as shown in Figure 5. Work will continue into the evening to post-process both datasets to help site the next trench to be opened across the masonry walls discovered in 2025…