21. Wednesday 21 July 2010

We actually managed a full day’s work today, and even had sunshine in the afternoon. We received two visitors; the farmer's wife, who has always been interested in the project, came to see how far we had progressed, and our other visitor was David Thornton, the UWHG draughtsman, who inks up all the finalised plans.

The group was depleted as Phil was missing all day and Roger from mid morning – however, this did not diminish the amount of work completed and the day was most productive.

It was very much a planning day, with only a solitary figure excavating – but as this was Michelle, there were plenty of finds, for she was located in her favourite section of the “bone trench”…

Head down, trowel to hand, this was all we could see of Michelle – at times she disappeared completely from view!

Rebecca finally completed her marathon planning exercise within “DF” – ‘stone, upon stone, upon stone’ - much to her obvious relief. The rest of the planning went so well that we even managed to backfill one of the smaller trenches.

“Bob” and I were kept very busy plotting in the co-ordinates of all the plans that were being drawn.

Pat Carroll

14. Wednesday 14th July 2010

Despite heavy overnight rain the day started off dry. The test pit, DJ, at the bottom of the steep slope below the tents was drawn in section and then back filled. The Newcastle students were set on opening up another test pit (DK) to the north of the DJ test pit.

Don took his surveyors to the other side of the wall where they surveyed two long building platforms and associated walls.

Roger caused a bit of a stir amongst CHW veterans as he started to dismantle the wall below the “bone trench” but this proved to be only a minor incursion.

Heartstopping moment for dig veterans as part of the curved wall is dismantled

© Jane Lunnon

Michelle continued her work in the “bone trench” uncovering some rather impressive “flooring”.

Michelle and Jennifer working hard in the old bone trench,

while Roger instructs Aidan in planning techniques

© Jane Lunnon

The number of finds seems to be decreasing, even to the extent that the now partially redundant Finds Team were redeployed to actually do some digging.

Debbie learns about triangulation © Jane Lunnon

Roger had just started giving a talk on site photography when the promised rain arrived with a vengeance, which resulted in a very rapid packing up and an early finish.

Alan Williams, UWHG webmaster

12. Week 2 - Monday 12th July 2010

A rejuvenated Roger was back on site but so was the rain; not hard enough to stop play, just enough to make digging unpleasant and the Find Teams note book become very soggy!.

Don and two of the Newcastle students started surveying the area about 20 metres from the east end of the trench edge near the hollow way.

We were joined by young Jennifer, a member of the Skipton branch of the Young Archaeologists Club, who put in a splendid effort and said that she enjoyed her day despite the rain.

Aidan continued his mammoth planning task and Michelle not only excavated copious amounts of bone but also a collection of snails! Not content with this, she also spent time before the day's activities began, and after it finished, by using her metal detector to find several objects.

A prolonged lunch break gave us some time to dry out from the rain, whilst Roger and Don reflected on the site, accompanied by rather loud giggles from the equipment tent housing
the students.

Some people actually enjoy digging in the rain!

A productive day and a busy time for the Finds Team.

Alan Williams, UWHG

8. Week 1 - Thursday 8th July

Day 5 -

A fine day today, with only a few spots of rain, but with a gentle breeze. Digging continued much as yesterday, but a student was co-opted on to the Finds Team to hold the reflector for ‘Bob’. This enabled Chris and Ruth to concentrate on coping with finds and recording them at the same time. This worked very well as it meant that we actually had proper coffee and lunch breaks at the same time as everyone else and we finished almost at the same time at the end of the day!

Emily, Roger, Don & mortarium - smiles all round ! © Ruth Spencer

Two great excitements of the day were two finds of small pieces of lead – this was thanks to Michelle and her metal detector; and in the afternoon Emily found a piece of a mortarium. The smiles on Don’s and Roger’s faces when they saw this had to be seen to be believed! Altogether a good day!

Ruth Spencer

3. Week 1 - Saturday 4th July

Here we are back at CHW again for another 3 weeks of glorious digging! The hill just gets steeper, but it made ‘us oldies’ feel much better to see that both Don and Roger were out of breath as they reached the top!
Day 1 started with introductions and a welcome to the 6 students from Newcastle University, who are with us this year. It was good to see Michelle and Rebecca back with us again and of course Don.

Clearing away top soil © Ruth Spencer

The first task was to set up the shelter and ’loo tents – the storage and finds tents having been set up earlier in the week. When this was done, and both well pegged down, the next task was to start to lift the stones, soil and black polythene sheeting, put down at the end of last year’s dig to protect the site.

Suddenly it was coffee time and as it was blowing fairly hard by this time, we all retreated to the shelter tent. But not for long! A sudden extra strong gust of wind, the sides of the tent billowed and the roof took off! The small tear in the roof, which we thought could be fixed tomorrow, suddenly became 2 extremely large tears and there we were with a roofless shelter tent!

So then we had to dismantle it all (why did we put the pegs in so firmly?) and it was back to moving soil and stones. As lunch time approached, the first drops of rain started to fall, so we divided into 2 groups and squeezed into the storage and finds tents to eat our sandwiches. And the rain kept coming and at 3pm Roger decided that we should call it a day. We look forward to seeing better weather and more new faces tomorrow.

Ruth Spencer

1. Project background

Since 2002, members of the Upper Wharfedale Heritage Group have been involved in excavations at Chapel House Wood in the heart of the Yorkshire Dales, under the guidance of Dr Roger Martlew of the Yorkshire Dales Landscape Research Trust and in conjunction with the Earthwatch Institute and the Yorkshire Dales National Park

The 2009 season's dig © Jane Lunnon

Chapel House Wood is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, situated on private land, first surveyed by Arthur Raistrick in 1960 and 1965 and later by Stewart Ainsworth in 1977.

The site is mainly Romano-British and Iron Age, spread over a large area above the River Wharfe.

In this blog we will keep you updated on the 2010 season's dig.

For detailed information on the project see Upper Wharfedale's website at: http://www.uwhg.org.uk/reports/chapel_house/chapel_house.html
and the Yorkshire Dales Landscpae Research Trust's website at:
http://ydlrt.co.uk/chw_main/chw_main.html

The view over the Wharfe valley from the CHW site © Jane Lunnon

Jane Lunnon, UWHG Archivist