Here we are again, with a three week dig on the Kiln Field. Come back each day to see how we progress, scroll down to the bottom for day 1.

For those of you who find reading on line difficult, Peter’s posts are preceded with an audio clip

Postscript It took 5 days to excavate and 7 days to backfill. Many thanks to Britannia Archaeology’s Charlie for making such a good job, such a vast space to level. Our third kiln has been carefully packed with matting and sand and once it has settled down, top soil will be added here as well.

Friday 23rd August Aylsham Roman Project 2024 Day 15.

It’s farewell and thank you and where has the time gone…

I really can’t believe we’ve been searching our hole in the ground for three weeks, and of course the previous week watching the digger remove the upper layers. There is nothing new to report re the archaeology. Just the final cleaning back and some whole site photos and some drone photos, which will be really useful for a plan of the site. Thank you Mark for your drone expertise.  Martin spoke Historic England, who have requested the kiln is covered over and preserved. If in the future a study of Roman kilns is required for a research project from a university, then we will be on the list with three well preserved kilns all of different construction and available to be re-excavated. We have a very important kiln! The like of which does not appear very often throughout the UK. Its wonderful preservation is also a rarity in archaeology. So many kilns are either robbed out or ploughed out.  So I know to some people, why are we getting excited about a strange looking amorphous blob of fired clay? The fact is that very few people have ever seen a Roman Kiln, and this one is special!  Must mention Beryl Hines, who was with us today and was able to pass on her considerable knowledge about kilns to the archaeologists. Beryl is a potter and kiln expert, and her thoughts were very gratefully received by Dan and Martin. Thank you to Beryl and family who were with us today.  Our end of season talk started with Martin explaining the archaeological process we undertook this year, and then Alice and Dan talking about the kiln excavation and the importance of our site. 

Thank you to everyone who has taken part in any way over the last few weeks. I am fortunate to have archaeology under my land. But without all of you being a part of it and being involved and digging and sieving and washing and cleaning, we would not be here.

Thank you to Alice and Andy and Jon and Rory and Martin and Dan from Britannia Archaeology for guiding us through the whole process.  And once again thank you to everyone who has helped to make my dream of having an archaeological dig here at Woodgate …. Come True.  Peter.

Thursday 22nd August Aylsham Roman Project 2024 Day 14

Well, the promise of excitement today was justified. The contents of our kiln have almost all been removed, and we still have an intact structure due to the very careful work by Alice and Andy. Assisted by various members of ARP carting away spoil for sieving, checking finds trays correctly labelled, carting finds trays to the Finds Tent and helping to extract Andy from his precarious position half inside the kiln!! Beautiful pieces of pottery, kiln lining, CBM and all manner of pieces of fired clay which presumably were parts of the kiln in some form, have been removed. At the bottom of the kiln, just above the solid clay floor was a half Roman roof tile, called a Tegula. Was it part of the kiln construction, or just randomly chucked in after the last firing? There was pottery above and below it, so it is tricky to work out what it is doing there. The left hand wall of the stoke hole is also lined with a piece of Tegula, could the two bits be from the same tile?  The pottery from this kiln is very different to the pottery from our first two kilns. These sherds are all very well made, very thin walled and many are decorated. I am told to temper my enthusiasm by the archaeologists!! This is still called coarse ware, but the top echelon of coarse ware! To put it another way, the pottery we found from Kiln 1 and Kiln 2 was kitchen ware, storage jars and the like. The pot from kiln 3 is far more fancy, going to the big house as fine table ware. Hopefully the photos will give you a good idea of what was discovered. I must away and water my plants….. So please come along tomorrow and see what has been found. Our end of dig talk will start around 2pm, and the archaeologists will inform you of what has happened in this dig and how it relates to the other kilns and features we have found in the kiln field over the years.  There is still some work to be done so the archaeologists will return next week to finish off. There is also plenty of sieving to be done, so anyone who would like to come along are very welcome.

My sincere thanks to everyone who has helped today. What an amazing kiln. Oh, I forgot to say that none of the archaeologists have ever seen a kiln constructed like this one. Historic England are rather excited as well!!

See you tomorrow.

Peter

Wednesday 21st August Aylsham Roman Project 2024 Day 13

I don’t know if I can recall what I have been told today! All rather exciting and all rather complicated. Andy and Alice continued to excavate the kiln, focussing on the north side. Martin was with us as well, along with Hayley, Tessa and Robyn, lovely to see you all.

The top layers of the feature revealed many pottery sherds and pieces of kiln fabric, mostly parts of the outer wall. As Andy went deeper, he found evidence of burning and then a large tile forming the side wall of a stoke hole. This means what we thought was a stoke hole to the east is more likely to be a flue. Well possibly! As always more work required to make sense of this comparatively rare structure. He then started to work towards the kiln interior, finding evidence of severe burning, ash and charcoal along with more pottery. Eventually he hit a dense layer of pot sherds, and this is where excavation ceased for the day. We have taken numerous photos at every stage of excavation, so if disaster strikes we have a complete record of the entire structure.  We have part of a perforated floor in situ, but most has gone, probably collapsed. This would explain the large quantities of broken pot. I imagine that 1800 odd years ago the potter must have been very annoyed that all his hard work was ruined. All this means that tomorrow could be very exciting…. I hope.

Thank you again to all sievers, who found some very interesting pieces of pot today, possibly iron age. Brilliant. And as always thank you to everyone who has taken part. Be it digging, sieving, metal detecting, finds sorting or cleaning or simply watching from the side lines, taking in the excitement of an archaeological dig here at Woodgate. 

Tomorrow might be a very good day to bring your deckchairs and watch it all being revealed. What an amazing day, thank you to Britannia for guiding us. Marvellous. Peter.

Tuesday 20th August Aylsham Roman Project 2024 Day 12

Good evening to all. Just a few brief words tonight, as the hosepipe beckons!

Kiln excavation went ahead with Alice and Andy, and again slow progress, (just a reminder the structure is very fragile) but wonderful pieces of pottery being discovered. The north wall of the kiln is missing, well at least the top 30cm or so. To the north, and outside of the kiln there is a mixture of CBM, pottery and a few pieces of the original dome of the kiln. These pieces have withy marks in them, (where the clay was pressed over a lattice of hazel or willow twigs, which subsequently burn away with the heat of the firing… leaving the impression of the twig in the clay). I hope that makes sense!  I am so pleased we have found these pieces, as they match perfectly with the pieces we found two years ago just to the east of the kiln. So we know this kiln had a clay dome covering for the last firing. Archaeology is all about forensics! Tomorrow will be very exciting as they dig deeper in the kiln, and start to clean away the outer walls, always hoping the structure will remain in one piece. I have listened in to Andy and Alice trying to plan their approach to the excavation, and realised it is very hard to plan something like this as you don’t know what you will find next….. So a careful work in process is required.

The sievers continued finding the wonderful mix of flint, pottery, glass, clay pipe and lots of nails!! And a metal detectorist found very few metal finds, but he did find a beautiful roman clay spindle whorl (possibly a gaming counter) and a random piece of hypocaust tile. Why is hypocaust tile out in the kiln field? It should be in the kitchen garden. 

So much for a few words… Sorry

Thank you to everyone as always, you make this what it is. The team in the background organising it all, and the people who turn up and take part.  Looking forward to tomorrow…. What will the kiln reveal.

Peter

Monday 19th August Aylsham Roman Project 2024 Day 11

Another lovely day at Woodgate discovering our history.

Volunteers were continuing to 100% the features, and I’m please to say that Sheila found a piece of pot!! These pits and postholes have yielded so few finds that dating is almost impossible. Sievers continued their search, and again found all manner of pot, glass, clay pipe etc etc,

Alice and Andy worked on our kiln. A slow process, gradually removing spit by spit of soil, revealing more of the fired clay walls. Plenty of pottery emerging along with well fired chunks of CBM and some enamel from a tooth!! The kiln wall to the north is less intact than the rest, reasons unknown. The north facing spur I mentioned last week was not attached, just a piece of fallen material. We hope by close of play tomorrow we will be able to see most of the top of the structure in its entirety and a good section of the outside wall. There are at least two more features close to the kiln which need looking at, and maybe these will have to wait until the kiln excavation is complete. It might mean moving to next week to finish.

So as always a massive thank you to everyone who has come along and helped today. Without you, we would not be here.

Peter

Friday 16th August Aylsham Roman Project 2024 Day 10

Two weeks done, and what a two weeks. Three weeks ago we opened a trench and discovered far more features than we thought were there according to geophys. Ten times more features! The sievers have found bigger and better pieces of pottery than ever before over the last eight years. The pottery kiln is looking rather exciting, because it’s so different from the existing pair found in years one and two.

On the down side the features have yielded very little dating evidence. Which according to the archaeologists is typical for an industrial site, rather than a domestic site. Actually makes sense when you think about it.

The kiln excavation has continued with Alice doing her best to dig, record, photograph, and chat to people as well. Thank you Alice. The walls of the kiln are very fragile, almost as if the kiln was not fired to a very high temperature. Our first two kilns were far more robust. This one is needing very very careful work, for fear of causing a demolition. I am already prepared for the collapse of a wall at some stage…. It will happen. But we have taken endless photos, and Alice has recorded every event in the excavation. Plenty of finds, mostly pottery and CBM have been removed as well as lots of samples for environmental analysis.

The wall of the kiln does behave rather strangely to the north side, part of it curving round and part of it moving up. It could be just a demolition event, but possibly a different kiln design. As always further digging will give the answers.

Thank you and farewell to Jon (Britannia Archaeology) for helping us over the last two weeks. I hope you enjoyed your first community dig. Please come and see us when you can.

It is time for me to return to the hosepipe. Thank you to all who helped in any way. I do think next week could be rather fun, as we uncover the secrets of our kiln.  Peter.

Thursday 15th August Aylsham Roman Project 2024 Day 9.

Welcome to another hot day at our hole in the ground.

Just a few words this evening, as my watering system decided to give up this morning, but engineers came and fixed it in a couple of hours, thank goodness. However, I’ve got some catching up to do.

Alice and Jon were leading us this morning, and we continued with the discreet features. There are just a handful left to complete, although one of them next to the kiln is quite large.

The sievers continued bravely and as always with good reward. Thank you to the new people who started today, great to see new faces.

Alice was working on the north side of the kiln, finding yet more pottery and kiln material.

I gave an hour’s talk to a lovely group of people from Aylsham, thank you for your interest, and brilliant questions. Really hope you enjoyed learning about some of your local history.

I hope you all have a peaceful evening. Looking forward to what tomorrow brings. As always, Thank You All.. Peter

Wednesday 14th August Aylsham Roman Project 2024 Day 8

We are halfway through this season’s dig…. Can’t believe it.

It was lovely and cool this morning and got warmer as the day progressed, but at least the morning’s excavation and sieving was a bit more bearable.

More pits and postholes dug today, and one due west of the kiln had plenty of finds, CBM and chunks of what look like fired clay of some sort. Possibly packing for the post. There are more postholes near the kiln, so perhaps they are associated with the kiln. No doubt we will learn more in due course.

Sieving again produced loads of finds, pottery through the ages, mostly Roman, metal slag from a bloomery, some lovely pieces of rather old glass. Roman? Possibly! And a pig’s tooth!!

Work on the kiln progressed very slowly and very productively. We are still excavating from the south side and working down both inside and outside the kiln itself. The possible feature due west of the kiln, was not a feature, so we can work across that with no fear of damage. Lots of pottery and CBM being removed, including kiln lining material with evidence of finger prints.  One piece of pot found deep in the kiln itself can be dated to approximately 180-260AD. This then makes our new kiln contemporary with the first two.

Right, I must go and water plants. So will say good evening to all, and thank you to all for being here today, especially the new faces.

Looking forward to learning more about the history of Woodgate tomorrow.

Peter

Tuesday 13th August Aylsham Roman Project 2024 Day 7

Another hot one! The sand in the trench is bone dry and blowing around in the wind, causing features to almost disappear. Working on the features is now really hard work, and my sincere thanks to all who persevered. The fact that it is very tricky to dig, apart from the intense heat, makes your efforts even more applaudable. And you still keep coming back for more! A wonderful team spirit. The feature to the north west corner is still the most productive…. Lots of burnt material and some CBM and a few bits of pot. The sievers are battling on in the heat, with many more trays of finds appearing at the finds tent, where Jan, Donna and Maggie sort it all out. They organise the cleaning of all the finds, then put it into bags. Each one labelled so we know where the finds were in the trench. We have a few wonderful people who come along and spend their day in the finds tent doing the cleaning and washing. With this archaeology there is always something that someone can do.

Now to our kiln… Kiln three as it is now known.  I know this is a bit naughty, but I want to say ‘are we sure this is a kiln’ ?!   Alice along with Andy (Roman Pottery Specialist), have been excavating the kiln, very slowly and extremely carefully. We are now hoping to excavate it whilst keeping the external structure intact. This is a very delicate process, and requires much patience. The walls are quite thin and the hot weather is causing them to dry rapidly, so regular watering is needed. As soon as a section is dug, we cover it up with a tarp to reduce the moisture loss. We have a few trays of finds, mostly kiln structure material, but also some lovely pieces of pottery.  Some of the pieces of kiln lining have finger prints on them. So we can touch the person who placed that piece of clay! I just love that connection. Many people think I’m mad saying that, but if you understand it, then you understand my passion for archaeology! Onwards to tomorrow, where kiln excavation will continue slowly and carefully. Features will be dug, soil will be sieved and finds cleaned and labelled.  Hope you all sleep well. Can’t wait to see how things progress tomorrow.

Peter

Monday 12th August Aylsham Roman Project 2024 Day 6

Good evening to all, our second week begins. It was hot!!

Dan and Martin came for the morning to run through the process of excavating the ‘kiln’ with Alice. A line was strung west to east, so a profile of the ‘kiln’ could be revealed. Then the gradual process of removing layers, or spits began. Each 10cm spit is dug and samples taken for environmental analysis. (ie: looking for seeds or fragments of bone or even remains of insects such as beetles), this information is very useful in helping with dating of the feature, and giving an idea of what was happening in the local environment regarding the flora and fauna. All finds such as pottery or CBM are put in a tray with a specific number, so we know what part of the kiln it came from. I have stopped putting commas around the word kiln, because they tell me it is most definitely a kiln!!

Meanwhile some of the features which were dug in section last week, were 100 percented as the terminology goes, they were fully dug! And again very few finds. But  one feature to the north west of the trench is full of burnt material, charcoal and some pottery. There have been mutterings about another kiln further to the west, possibly under the nursery carpark. NO! I won’t allow it, although it sounds rather exciting.

The valiant sievers carried on bravely despite the heat, and as always found a lovely selection of pottery covering 2000 years, burnt flint, worked flint, clay pipe, glass etc etc. Thank you to you all for persevering. And thank you to Jane for organising it all. I think its amazing that this field has seen human activity for such a long time. All the finds discovered over the last ten years paint a wonderful picture of the history of Woodgate and Aylsham over the last few thousand years.

And now back to our kiln, the third one we have found!

As Alice slowly excavated the top of the kiln, pottery and kiln material appeared. Many small pieces of pot, but also some lovely large chunks. I hope these can be dated, it would help hugely if they can.  Keeping the kiln structure wet was very important, because the heat today was drying the walls very quickly. So Alice was spraying the kiln with water every few minutes to preserve it. Loads of photos were taken after each spit was dug, so we have a complete record of the structure as we dig down.  We now have the flue confirmed to the east of the kiln. Our first two kilns had the flue to the south west! And this flue is square in structure, the last two were oval. Sounds so dramatic, but these subtle differences are important.

I have waffled on enough now, and I need to get back to the nursery as many plants need watering.

A massive thank you to all who came today in the heat, and battled on bravely. Let’s hope tomorrow continues to deliver wonderful archaeology.  Peter

Friday 9th August Aylsham Roman Project 2024 Day 5

This evening’s report will be brief, as I have not been on site for much of the day. Nursery work continues I’m afraid!!

Having spoken with Alice (leading us again today), the day was spent continuing to dig features, mostly random pits, and there were very few finds appearing. The sievers were again finding plenty from the spoil heaps. Lovely pieces of pottery, mostly Roman, and plenty of worked flint.

Alice has been preparing the ‘kiln’ in readiness for work to start on Monday. There do seem to be associated features nearby, I can’t wait to see the excavation begin.

Thank you everyone who came to help in any way. Please enjoy your weekend, and see you on Monday. Peter

Wednesday 7th August Aylsham Roman Project 2024 Day 3

Welcome to our third day on site, and another wonderfully happy group of volunteers. Whether digging, sieving, metal detecting, finds washing or simply watching, it all unfolded, it was a lovely atmosphere, thank you.

We started digging the features today, and most, unfortunately revealed no dating evidence. However the pit that Karen and Barnaby were digging had some lovely sherds of pot, which to my mind is not locally made. Hoping an expert can give us an idea in due course. I’m also hoping it might have a reasonably tight date range, fingers crossed. There was also evidence of burning and a couple of tiny fragments of bone.  There is more pot to be seen lurking in the other half of the feature.

Rory (Britannia Archaeology) was cleaning back the area around the ‘kiln’ and more features have been marked out, and possibly a layer of buried soil.

The sievers found plenty of Roman pottery, including another piece of the huge rim that was found yesterday. They fit perfectly together. Another flint scraper appeared, very similar to the one found whilst stripping back last week.  Jen the metal detectorist had a fairly quiet day, mostly random pieces of iron. One lovely square headed nail, Roman?  A few buttons, and her very last find was a rather warn Roman coin. My thoughts are 4^th C. Hopefully with a gentle clean up, we will be able to see more detail.

So we look forward to tomorrow. I believe that Martin and/or Dan will be with us. I think the plan is to start work on the ‘kiln’. We will also be continuing with the pits and post holes and other features, along with the endless sieving!!

Thank you to everyone who came along today to enjoy friendly archaeology.   Peter.

Tuesday 6th August Aylsham Roman Project 2024 Day 2

A little cooler today thank goodness, and as I write the rain is gently falling, which will make seeing features tomorrow so much easier. And I will have less watering to do!!

Alice and Jon from Britannia were leading us again today, overseeing the cleaning back process which is almost complete.

Thank you again to everyone, hot and tiring work. As I said yesterday there are upwards of 40 features, some look like post holes and some obviously pits. The rest may be tree throws or geological. Digging will reveal all.

Lovely to see lots of people on the sieves today, and the topsoil is proving very productive. Pottery from across the ages, bone, clay pipe, CBM, burnt flint…all the typical finds we get here at Woodgate.

Jon was working on our ‘kiln’ feature, revealing the walls at the top. Then carefully removing the soil from the sides, leaving plenty around the kiln to support it. The structure appears quite fragile, so needs the surrounding soil to hold it together. Plenty of Roman pottery emerged with some well cooked CBM. Interestingly some of the fired clay emerged with withy marks, identical to those found two years ago no more than three metres away from the kiln to the east side.  This kiln, if indeed it is a kiln, seems to be of a completely different sort to the two we discovered back in 2016/17. Very much looking forward to seeing how it was made. It has now been covered with a tarpaulin to hold the moisture, as the hot weather has been drying out the clay walls.

Thank you once again for being here, enjoying the archaeology and each other’s company. What will we discover tomorrow?  Peter

Monday 5th August Aylsham Roman Project, Season 7, Day 1

Well here we are again on the kiln field at Woodgate Nursery, searching for archaeological clues lurking beneath our feet. After an introduction from Martin and Dan (Britannia Archaeology), volunteers started the normal process of cleaning back… quite a daunting task in the very sandy natural soil, and coping with the warm humid conditions. You did a marvellous job, thank you.

Others were sieving and as always some lovely pieces of Roman pottery were found alongside pieces of CBM (Ceramic Building Material)

So what have we discovered so far… a large feature to the east side already looks like it might be a third pottery kiln! Spread right across the trench (all 25 x 35 metres of it), are about 45 discreet pits, post holes and possibly a ditch or two.  The geophys indicated about 6 pits, so as always there is far more to do than we initially thought. I am pleased to say that we will be asked to take part in some of the excavations.

Thank you so much to Alice (Britannia Archaeology) for leading us today, and to Jon (Britannia Archaeology) for starting to unearth the possible kiln. Already some nice pieces of Roman greyware are emerging. Many thanks to all who came along today to join in and help. Let’s hope we can all enjoy a happy and exciting three weeks discovering the history of Woodgate.  Peter.