Author: Alberto Pearson

  Saturday 19th June – Week 2 Day 4 [Day 9] From the Swindon Evening Advertiser :- date published: Saturday 19th June 2004 A wealth of history is found just six inches underground ROMAN coins and blue glass beads have been found among the remains of buildings at the Groundwell Ridge historic site. Just over […]

Friday 18th June – Week 2 Day 3 [Day 8] Conditions:- Early short shower of rain was just enough to dampen the soil. Otherwise warm and humid. More of the same today gently trowelling the surfaces trying to reveal and define the structure of the building. What was thought to be a plunge pool seems […]

  Wednesday 16th June – Week 2 Day 1 [Day 6] A new lot of volunteers turn up at 08:30, EH have their full compliment of professionals and this week they have their “trainees” starting. The local schools don’t start on the mock excavation until next week – but the more I think about it […]

Sunday 13th June – Day 5 I was on my way up to trench 7 (over a possible road) when I was warned off by an EH guy. “I’d wait a couple of days, Chris”. So nothing like trench 6 then with archaeology appearing after a few minutes. Still if it ain’t there, you can’t […]

I like Pete. He has the air of a man constantly harassed. Mind you though :- Tuesday – he was travelling down to the site on the A419 when he ripped the back trim off of the EH Mondeo going over some roadworks. Wednesday – Volunteers on site. No delivery of hard hats or safety […]

Thursday 10th June – Day 2 Quote: From yesterdays post Dr Pete Wilson (EH Project Director) and Robert Dickinson (Swindon Borough Council) do the usual media interviews…….. From the Swindon Evening Advertiser :- date published: Thursday 10th June 2004 Mysteries of Roman lives unearthed ARCHAEOLOGISTS and volunteers have begun their quest to unveil the mysteries […]

Wednesday 9th June – Day 1 Trench Plan Plans of this years Trenches overlaying Mark Corney’s earthwork survey of 1997 Conditions for Day 1, heavy rain overnight, cloud cover, very humid. Hectic early morning start for all on site, first batch of volunteers tip up at 08:30 and are given an induction and initial training, […]

Thursday 17th June – Week 2 Day 2 [Day 7] Pete turns up to finally get the BT Broadband set up (we thought). So he gets out the laptop, connects the CD-ROM, fine. Plugs in the BT supplied Broadband modem…….”new hardware detected….you do not have sufficient privileges to add this hardware”. I stay out of […]

Sunday 11th July – Week 5 Day 5 [Day 25] The end of another great week. Today more features were being discovered, and causing Pete more headaches and there is really only next week left to dig, for the final week is reserved for backfilling. The building speaks for itself, it needs a lot more […]

Wednesday 7th July – Week 5 Day 1 [Day 21] Back on site and in the “deep room” to take two 15cm vertical strips down the soil adhering to adjacent walls to see how far the plaster goes down. The east wall gives us the answer – the plaster continues down to where we have […]