Day Seven: Tuesday 29th June

Weather: Hot and cold with dusty winds.

Word of the day: Husband

Find of the Day: A piece from a grave stone with the inscription 'Husband' found in Trench 16. Pictured below.

Lauren showing Kate how to photograph Trench 18.

Chris and Kanani using a planning frame to make a site plan of the features in Trench 16.

Day Two of Charlie's Beard. Spot the difference from yesterday.

A different kind of brushing. Tom brushing the teeth of the canine, Splat, found previously.

Gareth teaching primary school pupils about the site.

Canine bones.

A new entry for Best Hat. A tiny top hat made out of clay.

Here is CJ, who has just finished his 1st year at Nottingham University studying BA Archaeology. He looks very happy to be involved with the work at Manor Lodge.

Introducing...

We would like to introduce some of the students and staff from the excavation to you.

Name: Will. A 14 year old work experience student from Sheffield.
Likes: History, science and lunch.

Dislikes: Spiders and maths.

When I grow up I'd like to be: An Archaeologist.

If I could be involved in any archaeological excavation, I'd like to excavate: Something to do with the world wars.

Name: Mauro. From north-east Italy. Just finished 1st year BA Archaeology.

Likes: Archaeology, history and Anthony Hopkins Movies.

Dislikes: Philosophy, politcs, lawyers, snakes and spiders.

If I could be involved in any archaeological excavation, I'd like to excavate: Paleo-Christian excavations in the Middle East.

Name: Tom. Who has recently completed his first year in Archaeology.

Likes: Archaeology, cheese and onion crisps and Muse.

Dislikes: Christiano Renaldo.

If I could be involved in any archaeological excavation, I'd like to excavate: anything with Flinders Petrie or General Pitt-Rivers

Flinders Petrie: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flinders_Petrie

General Pitt-Rivers: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustus_Pitt_Rivers

Name: Lily from the University of Rochester, USA. Lily hopes to title her degree, Biological Archaeology.

Dislikes: Country Music.

Two Favourite Songs: Furr- Blitzen Trapper and Dream On- Depeche Mode

If I could be involved in any archaeological excavation, I'd like to excavate: a medieval burial ground.

Day Six: Monday 28th June

Weather: Hot with dusty winds.

Word of the Day: Bricks and dust and bones.

Find of the Day: Cut line for the dog skeleton.

Quote of the Day: Alvaro- I haven't abandoned you. I have abandoned you.

Trench 15 have been digging out the 1970s trench. Here are just some of the bricks they have taken out.

Chris the excavation supervisor checking Trench 16's site plans.

We have our second entry in the Best Hat Competition. This entry comes from Gareth Perry, a PhD Archaeology student who is interested in 5th/6th Century Anglo Saxon Cremation Cemetries. Here, Gareth is sporting a straw cowboy hat.

Trench 17 are doing a second site plan after reaching the bottom of the base of the 1970s trench. Here CJ is measuring the from the bedrock to the base tape.

Lauren, showing Becky and Tom how to photograph a site.

Welcome to Charlie's Beard. This is where we are going to watch the progress of Charlie's beard over the next few weeks. This all happened when Charlie threatened to shave off his beard at Lunch. The group voted no and this feature was born.

A photograph of the dog skeleton in the soil before it's excavation.

Interview Corner: With Tom and Fogs.

(Tom and Fogs sharing a joke.)

Interview with Tom who has just finished his second year of a BSc in Archaeology and Fogs who will be moving into his second year of his BA in Archaeology.

Victoria: What do you like about Archaeology?

Tom: I enjoy the thrill of the find. (Laughs) I like to find whats been going on, trying to figure out as much as you can from a bit of pottery or bone, like that's been butchered, they've been eating meat and you can just build on that. I enjoy that bit personally.


Fogs: I've just always been interested in archaeology. Since I was a kid really. Done a year, looking forward to the second year, just exciting.

Victoria: Indiana Jones or Tony Robinson?

Tom: Bit of both I think.


Fogs: Tony Robinson in Indiana Jones' hat.

Tom: Always wanting to find the treasure but happy to find the rubbish. (Laughs) I think Indiana Jones really. Holding onto the back of a speeding truck.

Victoria: What is the most interesting thing we've found so far, in your opinion?

Tom: This. (Holding up a fragment of 1970s pottery). We found a marine button which is interesting to me. Depending on the age of the marine badge it could be off a tunic from the second world war, which would be great because it would place military installation up here.

Fogs: And you'd think there'd be one up here because it's high up. There's one at Wincobank Hill Fort and the concrete foundations are still there. Maybe there are some here.

A final word from Tom and Fogs about the dig.

Tom: It's applying it, like bits and pieces from different lectures and you're bringing it all together in one thing, seeing it come to life basically. Putting into practice the things you learn in lectures.

Fogs: The best way is actually getting out there and digging. Coming and digging something up. I've really looked forward to that. Having my trowel all scuffed up.

Day Four: Thursday 24th June

Weather: Cool

Word of the Day: Mattock

Find of the Day: Fragments of a small canine.

Today saw cooler weather then days gone by, plenty of mattocking and a collection of bones from a small canine. We also had a lecture in the afternoon led by Jill Campbell, a PhD graduate student from Queen's University Belfast. It explored 'Were Medieval Buildings and Landscapes designed?'. Jill used examples from her own research and study. This proved very interesting and relevant to the current excavations taking place at Manor Lodge.


Did you know? For 18 days in November 1530, Cardinal Wolsey was held captive at Manor Lodge. It was whilst Wolsey was awaiting an escort to deliver him into the custody of Henry VIII in London.

Above are the canine bones found in Trench 18. The students were incredibly pleased to finally find something interesting.

Here is Masters student Charlie Hay using his artistic talents to plan every feature of Trench 15 onto the Site Plan.



Becky Hankinson is officially entered into the Best Hat Competition. If we spy a good hat on site we will post a picture here. Eventually we will have a winner. Becky is sporting a very fetching tweed flat cap.

In Trench 18 a piece of pottery was found that looks remarkably like a segment of party food favourite, the party ring.

Tom Barnard, a BSc Archaeology student from Sheffield University was busy digging down to the base of an evaluation trench built in the 1970s

Each day students keep field diaries. These are logs of what was found, the location of these finds, how they dealt with the finds...etc. Above is Charlie Hay and Jonathan Buttery hard at work recording their day on site.