News

Wickham House Blog – Day #34 (11th June 2025)

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

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.

Figure 1. Thalia and Jill competing their section drawing of Trench 3.

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. 

Figure 2. Nigel leading the charge in Trench 4D, and Julian and Gary defining the surface revealed  in Trench 4C.

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.

Figure 3. Lindsey at work revealing a cobbled surface in Trench 2 and Carrollanne with the fragments of the large iron object she discovered.
Figure 4. Stuart and James unpicking the layers of gravel deposits at the end of Trench 2.

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.

Figure 5. Judy and Hazel defining the surfaces revealed in Trench 4B.