Part of a series of bulletins from the BAS excavations at Wickham House
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Attendees: James, Susanne, Debbie, Nigel B, Charlie K, Geoff, Tricia, Charlie N, Stuart, Paula, Doug and Keith
The final day of the project – none of us could believe that the last day had come around so quickly. Looking back at our past blogs we have covered a huge amount of ground since starting the excavation in April and made some amazing discoveries. However today was all about finishing off work in progress and recording…
After the discovery of the masonry walls in trench 4E, Geoff, Tricia, Charlie K and Debbie set out to cut slots across the line of the wall to determine its length, locate at least one return and the direction the return. After much digging a corner was located with the return of the SW-NE aligned wall heading to the SE with the length of the NW facing wall being some 7.5-9.2 m in length. Within trench 4E itself James and Nigel B focused on recording the masonry wall in section as shown in Figure 2.
In trench 4C Stuart recorded the section of the ditch of the Roman road, whilst in trench 4B Paula and Susanne finalised the recording of the building foundations discovered the previous day. In trench 4D Charlie N completed recording the sections through the beam slot foundation.
By 4:00pm everything was done, equipment packed into cars and terram placed at the bottom of the trenches in readiness for Tuesday next week when Nigel B, Björn, Gary and I will assist the Wickham House groundsman Mark with backfilling the trenches. The only remaining task was to head to The Five Bells for a refreshing and well earned cool drink…
Whilst this brings this season of excavation at Wickham House to a close, the post-excavation phase of the project is already mobilising to assess the many artefacts discovered and archaeological features recorded in more detail. It is planned that an interim interpretations of this season’s excavation will be presented at the BAS Day School taking place at St Nicolas Church in Newbury on 11th October 2025.
To bring this season’s blog to a close we have once again to thank Mr & Mrs D’Arcy for being such generous and supportive hosts throughout this season of excavation, and for allowing us to explore the history of the very special and beautiful corner of West Berkshire where they live.