The last day is upon us, Martin is on site at the crack of dawn to get on with recording the trenches, while its quiet. When we get to site he has exposed more of the large stone in the Buckeye tree trench and enlists our help to lift it to see if it is carved. It appears to be shaped and shows signs of wear from possible foot fall. Martin will look at it in relation to the rest of the trench and surrounding walls, so more later.
When moved the shaping of the stone is clearer. The edge at the top of the picture is smoother and angled down slightly. There is also an area in the bottom right that looks like a square section has been cut out.
A side view of the stone, the sloping edge is on the left
While everyone else started the task of back-filling the trenches, Carol finished the mosaic trench excavation, and Fay and Rob headed for the bath house trench looking for the floor level.
Back-filling commences
The back-filling produced one last find. Max, not to be out done by his Dad, Steve the finder of the key, found this object still found in may shops but more expensive now 🙂
An old Maltesers packet costing 1 shilling/5p so datable to about 1972
Fay and Rob came up trumps! The floor of the hypocaust phase of the bath house room we have been excavating was found. The pilae are each sat on a large limestone slab which then sits on a very hard mortar floor. There is often nothing better than finding a good floor surface!
Three pilae with a box flue tile (bottom left of the picture) and the lovely hard mortar floor in between
Two other areas were excavated to check the floor carried on at the opposite end of the trench, which it did
Once Martin had finished his recording of the floor and sections (sides) of the trench it was time to put back all the soil we had just spent two weeks digging out!
Martin taking some levels in the bath house trench
The spoil heap: now you see it….
….now you don’t!
It only remains to thank all our wonderful volunteers especially our core team, Rob, Fay, Carol, Alex, Peter and Harry. So until next year its au revoir Chedworth Villa, thank you for making us so welcome and providing the Wows!
And finally …..
Archaeology National Trust SW 