Well, Friday’s digging saw highs and lows. Highs = the continuation of the “doughnut Friday” tradition, lots of finds and new banners ; Lows = sideways rain, strong winds and more rain. Spirits remained high, though, and work carried on!
We were joined again by Cat and John from ACA and were also lucky to have Dr Carenza Lewis on site offering support, advice and perspective.
We were pleased to get our new banners, funded by the Mi-Community Initiative grant from Braintree District Council. It was great to finally get a team photo which should appear in next week’s Halstead Gazette.
Team photo
Thanks to Phil and Corinne for the doughnuts; those extra calories came in handy during today’s digging in the rain.
Jill demonstrates her doughnut technique – pinky up!
Trench F keeps providing clues to its early medieval origins in the form of more pottery, and an aim for tomorrow is to get on top of the new ditch and possibly flint-packed post hole features which came to light today.
Janet and Carenza discuss Trench F’s new features
In situ flints – possible post hole packing?
Maddy and Sallie carry on trowelling through the rain
An intriguing Roman roof tile from Trench F
The diggers on the western end of Trench E carried on going down through yesterday’s flint layers and came down on an area of compacted bone most of which appears to be pig – possibly piglet. Work will carry on tomorrow to get to the bottom of this feature and reveal it better in the section.
The western end of Trench E
Masses of bone from Trench E, including possible piglet
Further pit and posthole features were excavated in the eastern end and the fill from the large ditch included a piece of Roman box flue tile. No Roman finds we’re known from this site previously and yet two were found today!
Eastern end of Trench E
Roman box flue fragment
The large ditch feature in Trench E
Chris, Peter and Gil also carried on trying to identify the bottom of the central oven in Trench A. This is proving a difficult task as it appears many ovens were built one on top of the other over a series of time and the exact location and nature of the heat source are still elusive. Work will carry on with this task tomorrow.
Diggin carries on on Saturday and Sunday will be dedicated to recording and planning. Sunday is also our Open Day, so please come round to have a look at our finds and discoveries.
It is hoped in the future that a big bid can be put together so that larger-scale excavations can be carried out at Goldingham Hall, which is proving to be an important site, not only for community heritage but to further academic research.
An artistic representation of the medieval manor at Goldingham.
Stour Valley Community Archaeology 
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