Part of a series of bulletins from the BAS excavations at Wickham House
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Attendees: James P, Judy, Julian, Nigel B, Lindsey, Carrollanne, Stuart, Andrew H, Gary B, Gary A, Peter C, Paul, Bob, Doug, Thalia, Karen, Tricia, Charlie and Keith

This was the hottest day of the year so far with a sweltering 32⁰C to contend with, so the team took plenty of breaks in the shade to cool off. Not withstanding the hot conditions, good progress continued to be made in all of the trenches being excavated.

Trench 4C continued to offer a range of new discoveries with Thalia finding a nice fragment of patterned Samian ware above what appears to be the first surface at the northern end of the trench. Whilst to the south of the Trench Peter and Julian started to remove the large flint deposits within the ditch the Roman road discovering a small pottery vessel in situ that was carefully removed for further examination.

In Trench 2 Carrollanne, Stuart and Lindsey completed recording  and began work to open a further sondage to investigate what lies before the current cobbled surface. Stuart meanwhile completed the section drawing of the gravel deposits to the north of the Roman road ditch that interact with the cobbled surface seen to the north. In Trench 4B Judy completed the excavation of the pit she had been working on, and James finally encountered what appears to be another cobbled surface beneath the occupation deposits that will be explored further next week.

In Trench 4D Charlie, Karen and Tricia started to section the linear feature and pit revealed earlier in the week as seen in Figure 2. Whilst Gary A, Nigel B and Bob finally revealed the first horizon of archaeology beneath the topsoil in Trench 4E.

We were very lucky to be visited in the afternoon by Professor Mike Fulford and Amanda Clarke who led excavations at Silchester by the University of Reading for many years. Not only were Mike and Amanda able to offer guidance and advice to the BAS team, but were able to catch up  with the many familiar faces taking part in this excavation.

Part of a series of bulletins from the BAS excavations at Wickham House
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Attendees: James P, Judy, Julian, Nigel B, Lindsey, Carrollanne, Stuart, Andrew, Gary, Geoff, Deborah, Doug, Thalia and Keith

With more fine weather and only five more days to remaining of this season work started as soon as we got onto site! In trench 4D Geoff and Deborah picked up with the contexts defined the previous day by Paula and Karen to explore the linear feature discovered as shown in Figure 1. The initial sondage suggested that the dark linear running left to right in Figure 1 (and perpendicular to the Roman road ) contained a possible post-hole supporting the initial interpretation that this could be a wall. Further exploration continued in the afternoon across the full length of this feature.

In Trench 4B Judy continued to excavate and record the fill of the pit which in addition to the large amount of CBM also contained the lower portion of a ceramic vessel. Also in Trench 4B, James continued with his sondage to explore what lay below the deposit of large flints in the NW of the trench. In addition to an assemblage of Roman period pottery, James also discovered a beautiful tinned Romano-British brooch possibly of the ‘Hod Hill’ type dating to the 1^st – 2^nd century AD complete with its pin still intact!

Elsewhere on site, Gary, Thalia and Julian continued to excavate Trench 4C, with the large flint deposit within the Roman road ditch being cleaned, recorded and photographed by the end of the day. Once levels and context sheets are completed tomorrow this context will be explored further to reveal the stratigraphy of the deposits within the road’s ditch. Meanwhile in Trench 2 Carrollanne and Lindsey cleaned up the newly revealed cobbled surface for recording tomorrow whilst Stuart completed defining how the layers of gravel north of the road ditch interacted with the cobbled surface being excavated by Lindsey and Carrollanne. In the newly opened trench 4E, Doug, Andrew and Nigel worked hard to reveal the archaeological horizon beneath…

Part of a series of bulletins from the BAS excavations at Wickham House
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Attendees: James P, Judy, Julian, Jackie, Carrollanne, Nigel B, Louise, Lindsey, Gabby, Karen, Vaughn, Paula, Charlie and Keith

With only five more days remaining of this season of excavation after today and the return of fine weather after last week’s downpour, the team set about their tasks with renewed vigour! 

In Trench 4C Julian extended the trench a further 1m to the south to span the full width of the ditch of the Roman road, where a deposit of large flints had been discovered at the end of last week. On cleaning the newly revealed surface, Roman roof tiles and pottery soon emerged as seen in Figure 2. At the north end of Trench 4C Louise and Gary focused on a sondage to identify the stratigraphy of deposits.

In Trench 2 Lindsey and Carrollanne cleaned up the newly revealed cobbled surface above which deposits were found to contain a number of fragments of patterned Samian ware. Whilst in Trench 4B Judy continued to excavate the CBM filled pit found to contain a large fragment of pottery that hopefully will be able to suggest a likely date for this feature. In the north of Trench 4B James opened a sondage to investigate what lay beneath the deposit of large flints which  revealed a layer of black organic soil rich in Roman period finds – but not showing the expected continuation of the foundation deposits seen in Trench 4A 2m to the north. This new evidence will require the initial interpretation of Trench 4 to be reassessed.

In Trench 4D Paula and Karen explored the newly discovered linear feature and pit so that they could be planned, recorded and photographed. It is not clear whether this feature represents an external boundary or part of a building, although Roman period pottery sherds were being found at the top of these contexts suggesting a possible period of occupation.

Part of a series of bulletins from the BAS excavations at Wickham House
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Attendees: James P, Hazel, Judy, Julian, Geoff, Peter C, Bob, Björn, Susanne, Stuart and Keith

A day of mixed weather forecast – so work began as soon as we arrived on site to make the most of the dry overcast conditions while it lasted! In Trench 4D Geoff, Peter C and Björn continued to dig down to the archaeological horizon which was achieved just at the dark clouds started to gather – but revealed a horizon of clay to the east of the 2m x 2m trench, a dark linear 0.3m wide aligned with building #1 and a dark brown/orange horizon to the west of the trench. So far this supports the geophys survey suggestion that this rectilinear feature may be the eastern wall of another building, but more work will be needed next week to confirm this initial interpretation. 

In Trench 4B Hazel and Judy completed the recording and planning of the current horizon of features that have been explored in detail this week. Unfortunately the weather closed in before these feature could be explored further, but the current interpretation is of a Roman period roadside building alongside Ermin Street and the lane branching off to the north.

In Trench 2 Bob and Susanne continued to remove the occupation layer lying above the cobbled surface revealed yesterday. This deposit contained lenses of mortar, bone and pottery, however the forecast heavy rain intervened before this could be completed. Alison & Stuart in Trench 2 continued to explore the gravel deposits on the north side of the Roman road where they adjoin the occupation deposits seen to the north – but once again ‘rain stopped play’….

In Trench 4C Julian and James started a sondage at the south end of this 6m x 1m trench across where the Roman road ditch is expected to pass which made good progress. However, instead of the expected deposits of pottery and bone seen within the Roman road ditch in Trench 2, the road ditch in Trench 4C was full of large flints with only a small amount of pottery within the uppermost level. Once again work had to stop when the forecast heavy rain started at lunchtime.

However, Julian wisely made sure the trench was covered over to protect it from the heavy rain, and after it was decided that we stop early for the day, stayed behind talking shop over a coffee. Unexpectedly, the dark clouds parted revealing blue sky and bright sunshine, so despite only Julian, James P and Keith remaining it was decided to carry on with Trench 4C for an extra couple of hours. This revealed the full extent of the northerly end of the Roman road ditch in front of building #1 to be filled in with large flints. To the north of the ditch heavy trowelling is yet to reveal a surface or the south facing return of the building, but Julian did discover a 4^th century AD copper alloy Numus coin close to the edge of the ditch which was a great end to the day!

Part of a series of bulletins from the BAS excavations at Wickham House
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Attendees: James P, Carrollanne, Gary, Lindsey, Thalia, Charlie, Hazel, Judy, Julian, Geoff, Deborah, Nigel S, Jill Tricia and Keith

Another day of fine weather and a large group of volunteers allowed us to make strong progress once again on site as we enter into the final stages of this season’s excavation. Jill and Thalia spent most of the day in Trench 3 completing the section drawing and bringing activity in this trench to a close. Whilst a clay surface was found where the geophysics survey predicted there to be a 6m x 8m rectilinear feature, there was no evidence of substantial foundations and no material culture to provide a date for construction or usage.

But as one trench closes, two more open! In Trench 4D Deborah, Geoff and Nigel worked hard to remove the turf and the overburden of what the geophysics survey suggests may be a second roadside building aligned with the Roman road. The archaeological horizon was not reached today, but work in this trench will continue tomorrow. Whilst in Trench 4C which was opened yesterday, the archaeological horizon was reached allowing Julian and Garry to define the surfaces revealed by trowel and record the first contexts, take levels and photographs. 

In Trench 2 Lindsey, Carrollanne and Tricia started to remove the next deposit at the north end of the trench in 50% section, revealing a new cobbled surface beneath a layer of occupation deposit. These organic deposits contained pottery, animal bone, a large iron object and a large amount of pungent midden deposits of which a bulk sample was taken for future analysis. Meanwhile at the southern end of Trench 2 Stuart and James worked on defining the layers of gravel to the north of the Roman road ditch in section to better understand their interaction with the occupation deposits seen at the north end of the trench.

In Trench 4B Hazel continued to define the linear feature of large flints thought to be the footings of a roadside building wall, and discovered another Roman copper alloy coin within this context. Judy meanwhile continued to define the lens of CBM deposits discovered. Now cleaned and photographed, these deposits will be planned and context sheets started for these features before excavation continues.

Part of a series of bulletins from the BAS excavations at Wickham House
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Attendees: James P, Martin, Carrollanne, Tim L, Gary, Lindsey, Thalia, Charlie, Hazel, Judy, Julian, Jill, Gabby and Keith

With the return of fine weather work quickly got underway in Trench 4A with Hazel, Judy and Charlie to define the surfaces revealed last week thought to be part of a Roman period roadside building. Hazel was focusing on the defining the linear feature of large flints and Judy was exploring a lens of CBM/pottery sherds on what was thought to be outside of the building as shown in Figure 1. Hazel discovered a copper-alloy radiate coin most likely of Tetricus II dating to AD273-274 (probably minted in Trier) in context giving a useful spot date to these contexts. In Trench 4A James completed the recording of the features explored last week bringing work in this trench to an end.

In Trench 2 Lindsey completed recording of the surface revealed the previous week and marked out the next context for excavation, whilst Tim and Carrollanne continued to remove deposits to the south. At the far end of Trench 2 Martin focused on recording the sections of the ditch of the Roman road.

A new 6m x 1m trench 4C was opened to explore the relationship between the building being explored in trenches 4A and 4B and the Roman road to the south. Julian, Gary, Gabby and James made good progress in removing the overburden, and in the process discovered a Roman 4^th century AD numus coin and a gilded button most likely dating to the Medieval period.

In trench 3 Thalia and Jill finalised the excavation and completed much of the recording. With a small amount of work remaining it is likely that this trench too will be completed tomorrow.

Part of a series of bulletins from the BAS excavations at Wickham House
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Attendees: Beth, Joanne, Geoff, Charlie, Stuart, James P, Martin, Carrollanne, Paul, Chris, Tim L, Jean, Gabby and Keith

Yet another showery day – but within the two gazebos for Trench 2C and Trench 4A and in the other Trenches between showers! For Trench 4A and 4B the focus was on the recording of the likely roadside building being revealed, whilst in Trench 2 excavation of the ditch of the Roman Road continued apace as seen in Figure 1.

Braving the elements, Carrollanne and Joanne continued cleaning the latest surface revealed in Trench 2A. Whilst in Trench 4A Charlie and Geoff started recording the newly cleaned archaeological horizon revealing yet more of the likely Roman roadside building. Elsewhere, Chris and Tim continued with the excavation of the building surface revealed in Trench 3, whilst Jean continued to discover new archaeology in Trench 1A.

In the evening BAS hosted 90 visitors to the site who after enjoying drinks and light refreshments kindly provided by Mr & Mrs D’Arcy and Mr Tett, were able to view finds from the site, hear a lecture summarising discoveries made and a tour of the trenches. A total of £900 was raised towards ongoing repairs to St. Swithun’s Church.

Part of a series of bulletins from the BAS excavations at Wickham House
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Attendees: Beth, Joanne, Geoff, Charlie, Stuart, James P, Lindsey, Philip, Nigel S, Peter C, Martin and Keith

Another showery day – but the upside was that the ground was much softer than it has been of late and the overcast conditions were perfect for planning, photographing and recording. In Trench 2 Martin and Beth focused on recording the details of the latest layer of fill of the Roman road ditch to be revealed, and started excavation of the new context by taking a bulk sample. This current fill has far fewer pottery finds compared to the fills already removed, but is definitely not the bottom of the ditch. Work will continue in this area tomorrow and next week until the cut of the ditch is fully revealed.

Elsewhere in Trench 2 Joanne, Lindsey and Peter finished removing the last of the dark organic deposits found beneath the N-S aligned deposit of large flints. The deposit below is orange/brown in colour and is showing animal bone on its upper surface. This surface was cleaned ready for planning, recording and photographing tomorrow.

In Trench 4A Stuart and James revealed linear features running parallel to the Roman road together with a compacted gravel surface. In the newly opened Trench 4B, the level of archaeological deposits was reached by midday. Charlie and Geoff soon started to reveal linear features similar to those seen in Trench 2A, but perpendicular. Together these two sets of features align with the rectilinear roadside feature highlighted by the geophysics survey and suggest that they may be related to a roadside building. The material culture found within these contexts is Roman, and work will continue in this area to define the extent of this building and characterise its morphology. As well as finds of Roman period pottery a fragment of light blue glass (similar to that found in nearby Trench 2 last week) was also discovered.

Elsewhere on site Nigel and Philip continued with high resolution earth resistance surveys in the southwest of the site. Preparations also got underway for the site tour and lecture taking place tomorrow!

Part of a series of bulletins from the BAS excavations at Wickham House
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Attendees: Beth, Joanne, Geoff, Charlie, Chris, Stuart, James P, Lindsey, Jean, Tim L, Martin and Keith

All the first day of digging in meteorological summer got off to a damp start – but thanks to Tim and Stuart we had pop-up gazebos deployed to enable digging to continue in Trenches 2 and 4 as well as to providing shelter for other excavators during the morning’s frequent showers. This arrangement worked really well and is a valuable lesson learned for future seasons of excavation and were just as snug as the “Digging for Britain” yurt!

A new 2m x 2m trench (4B) was opened by Charlie and his team of mattock wielders to explore another of the pits seen of the gradiometer survey associated with the possible rectilinear roadside structure. In Trench 4A James and Stuart continued to explore the pit revealed last week and its contents taking samples and starting recording of the pit’s cut. Work in both these trenches will continue during the week.

In trench 2C Martin and Beth continued to explore the ditch alongside the Roman road finding more Roman pottery, a piece of lead and taking bulk samples as they progressed. Beth was particularly pleased to discover her first piece of Samian pottery! Although this was a small fragment it had interesting decoration that will be examined further during post-excavation analysis.

As it was too wet to excavate within Trench 2A, Tim, Joanne, Lindsey and Jean busied themselves with completing excavation of the overburden in Trench 1A and 1B where they discovered CBM and pottery from the Medieval and Roman periods.

Part of a series of bulletins from the BAS excavations at Wickham House
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Attendees: Björn, Bob, Beth, Ben, Pam, Deborah, Peter C, Terry, Barbara, Dee, Carrollanne, Martin and Keith

Another day of fine weather allowed us to continue to make good progress in our excavations. In Trench 2 Ben, Martin and Beth continued to define the ditch of the Roman road and began to record the next layer of fill within the ditch as shown in Figure 1. Work will continued next week to explore this new context once recording is in place. In the morning Peter and Pam recorded the section of the gully excavated by Peter yesterday and then in the afternoon moved over to help Ben/Beth. The find of the day was made by Pam “Eagle Eyes” Hart who spotted this tiny fragment of a green glass ‘melon’ bead which was recorded as a small find. This beautiful object is likely to have been worn by a female and suggests that both men and women were present at this roadside settlement during the Roman period.

In Trench 4 recording, levels and photography was completed by mid-morning by Björn, Terry and Barbara, and work started to explore the contents of the pit identified by the gradiometer survey as being part of a rectilinear alignment of pits at the side of the Roman road. The soil of the pit was dark and organic and soon started to reveal lots of Roman period pottery including the early fragment of Samian pottery possibly dating to the 1^st century AD. Also within this pit was a large amount of iron slag and at the bottom (just above natural earth) a large flat stone. Further work is needed to define the cut of this feature – but initial finds from the fill suggest at iron production was taking place nearby during the Early Roman period when the pottery sherd was deposited. 

At the north end of Trench 2 Carrollanne, Dee and Deborah completed the excavation of the contexts beneath the deposit of large flints, which at the south end which continued to reveal pottery from the Roman period. However, there were few finds at the northern end of the trench 2. The cobbled surface seen at the very north end of Trench 2 has not yet been seen elsewhere, with work needing to continue next week to remove further strata of deposits.

The high resolution earth resistance survey work led by Philip yesterday was processed overnight, and shows new details of possible archaeology on the west side of the site. However with only 12 days of excavation remaining decisions will need to be taken to decide which features are to be explored this season. This survey work has taken a lot of patience to record, but with only one 10m x 10m grid square remaining to record, these results will provide much food for thought during the post-excavation analysis.