Randall Manor Dig Blog 2010

Written by Andrew Mayfield, Community Archaeologist for Shorne Woods Country Park.

27 July

22 July

Progress by area:

Areas 3 (main north/south building) and 5 (main east west building). James's elevation drawing may have answered questions over which building in Areas 3  and 5 came first. Richard has continued the investigation of the garderobe in Area 3 and we are wondering if it was built onto the north end of the building.

21July

A busy weekend both archaeology and visitor wise. Another 172 people visited the dig over the weekend, bringing the total to 650, and Phil Andrews from Wessex Archaeology visited on Sunday and helped dig out a 1960's excavation. He had some interesting thoughts on the site, including that our ‘bakery’ might be a brew house.

Progress by area:

Area 1 is the bakery. Work continues exploring the bakery with the excavation of the flue.

Area 2 is the kitchen, we have excavated down onto a series of floor surfaces in the kitchen building and another possible structure at the back of the kitchen, despite my efforts to demolish it!

Area 3 is the main north/south building. Investigations into the ‘garderobe’ continue; we have expanded the trench on the join between buildings in Areas 3 and 5, and everyone has a different theory on which building came first. We also may have found a posthole inside on the floor of the building, and a pit beneath it.

Area 4 is the courtyard. We are making good progress to reach and record the tile layer that lies over the courtyard. We may also have a porch structure linking Area 4 with the buildings in Areas 3 and 5.

Area 5 is the main east west building. We are removing the demolition material inside the main building.

Area 6 is the main excavation trench. Albert has dug a trench to confirm dowsing results, but will there be a wall there?

Area 7, we are surrounded by a series of small walls. We believe there may be a drain running along the western edge of the site!!

Chalklands School visited the site today, the last of the school groups. With 12 days of the dig left, we will focus on solving some of the riddles.

I would like to thank every volunteer who has stopped to talk to a visitor or given a tour. Trevor, James and Dennis deserve particular mention. Also a special mention to Laurence for his determination to remove tree stumps from the site!

16 July

In the past 10 days we have welcomed pupils from Shorne Primary, Simon Stock School in Maidstone, St Mary's in Gillingham, Danecourt, Cobham Primary, Thomas Aveling, the Chantry and Cuxton Primary. We also ran sessions with an Early Stage Dementia Group, the Canterbury Young Archaeologists Club and the Halling Beavers. Everyone has been fantastic, working in all weathers.

This year we have split the site into 7 Areas - have a look at the plan.

Progress by area:

Area 1 is the bakery , where Gerald and his team are teasing out three phases of buildings. We have now exposed the flue for the possible oven or kiln and James has produced a section drawing of it.

Area 2 is the kitchen where we are working to reveal the original floor surfaces of the manor and find out what the owners were eating. All we need now is a big rubbish pit.

Area 3 is the main north/south building, with possible toilet in the north west corner. Medieval toilets clearly appeal to children as the Beaver Group has offered to return to investigate it; Dan is working to see if there is a drain for it outside the building. We have uncovered an early pebble floor surface in this building.

Area 4 is the courtyard. Trevor, Neil, Dennis, Ashley and James have been working on this area in conjunction with our school groups. The courtyard had a pebbled floor and is now covered by deep piles of roof tile. When these are all revealed, it should make a great photo!

Area 5 is the main east west building. Roger, who is also supervising Area 3 has been working with two Richards in this area. We have a good plan now of the demolition material in this building, thanks to Richard and Will! Will is off to University shortly to study archaeology, so we wish him well!

Area 6 is the main excavation trench from last year. We have a large north south wall in this area and we are extending this trench to the south to see where it goes. Too often the joke has been on site that our manor is actually a school for medieval wall builders....I hope we can disprove this in 2010! All the walls have to have some purpose....surely?

Area 7. Albert has been working here to understand the maze of walls on the southern edge of the Manor platform. Are some stables, Are others revetting wallsand what do they revett? What was the large stone plinth - a bridge abutment or a mounting block?

It was nice last week to see work experience lads from three years working on site at the same time, Tom from 2010, Luke from 2009 and Ashley from 2008.

Almost forgot - we found a 1960's shovel in an old excavation trench from the original 'dig'.  We may try to find a member of the 1960s team of archaeologists that worked on this site to present it to.