Thursday 21 October 2010

24. Wednesday 20 October.

A freezing cold morning after the heavy frost last night, and with a very cold northerly wind – definitely a day for the thermals! But the sun shone and the views were spectacular.
As today was scheduled as only a half –day, Roger took the opportunity for some instruction on surveying, followed by a general walk-over.

photo by Alan Williams

We started by looking at the 1: 200 scale drawing done last week by Ruth’s team, and comparing it with what could actually be seen on the ground. After Roger had instructed us about surveying and the appropriate use of hachures, we looked at the results of the geophys. survey, also done last week. Some very exciting structures could be seen, unfortunately not shown completely in the area surveyed. This means a further survey of the adjacent area next week, of not 7 but 9 x 20m squares!
photo by Alan Williams

As Roger would also like last week’s triangulation & off-set survey re-done at a scale of 1:500, together with the rest of the fields, it looks like a busy time ahead - let’s hope the weather holds!

photo by Alan Williams

We then walked over ‘Richard’s field’ to look at the ‘lumps and bumps’ there, and after a quick coffee to warm us all up, inspected the field adjacent to the ones we have already looked at, approaching this from Moor Lane. Again there appears to be quite a number of interesting features to be investigated here.

By this time it was 12.30pm, so we adjourned for lunch, with some reluctance as the sun was really pleasant by now.

Ruth Spencer



Friday 15 October 2010

23. Wednesday 13 October 2010

A glorious Indian summer allowed us to do a good day’s work in Bull Pasture today. Ruth, Margaret and Vera set to on the topographical survey using triangulation and offset measurements with tapes, while Jane, Pauline, Alan and Peter conducted a resistivity survey over a 8 x 20metre square grid. In the meantime, David helped Roger with some surveying using our total station, “Bob the Builder”.

The day went very smoothly, and a lot of ground was covered. The geophysics was hard work, but shared between four people it went remarkably quickly.

Jane Lunnon, UWHG

Sunday 10 October 2010

22. Wednesday 6 October 2010

After a very dubious start the weather gradually improved to give us a sunny afternoon, but with a fairly strong breeze, which was very pleasant for working.
Numbers were down today, with several people on holiday, so there were only 4 of us and Roger.
Jane and Pauline continued their walkover in the large field, joining up with the work done by Alan and Paul last time. Margaret and Ruth put the finishing points to their gazetteer and then began the actual surveying. Roger in the meantime had laid out two grid squares for a gradiometer survey, so Ruth and Margaret could use these tapes for their base line, which was very convenient! Consequently they made good progress and managed to complete the plotting in of the eastern end of the long south wall by the end of the day.
We adjourned for tea, leaving Roger to plot in points with the dGPS.

Ruth Spencer

Wednesday 6 October 2010

21. Wednesday 29th September 2010


The team were forced indoors today by inclement weather. Assembling in the Devonshire Institute Roger gave a introductory talk on the intricacies of converting field survey drawings to publishable material. We then took some of the survey drawings from this year's Chapel House Wood excavations and proceed to “ink them up”. Work also started on digitising the gazetteer details from the last 2 weeks of field work. Finished around 13:00 and repaired to the Fountaine at Linton for lunch, tough business this archaeology lark!

That's the way to do it! © Jane Lunnon

Hopefully the weather will be kinder next week

Alan Williams