Day 5 – Tuesday 31st January 2023
Two days off didn’t do much for my aching muscles. It was good to get back to work, though. We had some good volunteers both morning and afternoon today and we made some good progress. The children of one of our volunteers came for a while this morning and took over the task I was doing (a chance for me to have a rest!). It was nice to have some youngsters joining in.
There were lots of visitors today despite the weather. The new information sheets were really useful but people seemed to enjoy being talked to as well. We’ve been complaining up to now about being stuck inside and missing the pleasant weather. Today we were glad to be in out of the rain. I understand there was sleet at Hunstanworth, so I was glad we weren’t working on the outside trench.
In trench 4 some flat stones are appearing on the side away from the wall. They may be the remains of a floor. The lowest part of the wall has been cleaned so that we can draw a section to record what it is like. Trench 3 is still a mystery but we’re still working on it and hope that things will become clearer in due course.
Today’s excitement came from Trench 2. We started to clear the levelling fill from it this morning. We hadn’t gone very far down when some large stones appeared, at a level where the other trenches only had the fill and no stones or other features. So we continued to clean the fill away and discovered – a wall! Well, the top of one, anyway. It clearly pre-dates the floor and is likely to be the remains of a building that stood on the site before the abbey. It’s something we were looking and hoping for.
Day 6 – Wednesday 1st January 2023
We started with a quick tidy up – the Diocesan Archaeology Advisor was due to visit this morning and we naturally wanted to give a good impression. He seemed to be quite interested in what we’ve found and he advised us on what we should do next. Of course, when we’re digging we get excited, so would get carried away and do a lot more than he’d approve of!
So, what did we do today? Another batch of good volunteers helped us make new discoveries. We didn’t do a lot in trench 4. It’s been cleaned up but other than that the main tasks left include drawing a section of the base of the 1750 wall and digging a sondage in search of the acoustic channel that we want to find.
In trench 3 we began to investigate one end of the cut channel that appears to be full of rubble, taking out the stones and trying to discover what it is. Clearing the fill and clay out of one end of trench 2 revealed something unexpected, although there was an anomaly on the geophysics which had been suggested to be a service pipe. This certainly doesn’t appear to be a service pipe. A layer of rooftile-like stones has been exposed and seem to have a void beneath them. Is it another drain? Does it continue on the other side of the wall we found yesterday? And is that actually a wall, or something else?
As the song goes – “there are more questions than answers”.
More visitors today, from various places around the region and further afield. They often stay to have a good look at what we’ve done, to ask questions and to chat. For some people our presence seems to enhance their visit, but it’s not so good for those looking for a a bit of quiet contemplation.
Day 7 – Thursday 2nd February 2023
Thursdays, especially the afternoons, have been set aside for the dig leaders to assess where we’ve got to and catch up on the recording. So today we only had 2 volunteers, one of whom was Revd Helen. She could probably run the dig on her own as she has plenty of experience as an archaeologist. However, she has more than enough other work to keep her busy and the opportunity to dust off her trowel meant that she could enjoy a rare day off (well, almost off) doing something she enjoys.
Trench 4 got little attention today as we concentrated on the other two trenches. In trench 3 the rubbly layer was removed and revealed what looks like it’s going to be another drain. It has much heftier stones forming the “roof” than the drain in trench 4 had. The roof stones have been cleaned so that each can be clearly seen. They have been drawn and fully recorded. We probably won’t lift them all, but might take a peek under one or two of them in due course, just to see what the drain is like inside.
Yesterday we found a layer of rooftile-like stones in trench 2, on the south side of the wall that we had previously exposed. We cleaned and lifted the tiles forming the roof or lid to find – a drain! Interestingly it runs parallel to the side of the wall. When we effectively stood on our heads to photograph along the length of it, we discovered that it ends a short distance in at the west end but extends out of sight to the east. On the other side of the wall another set of drain lid stones extends at right angles to both the wall and the other drain. These were all cleaned, photographed, drawn and their levels taken. The levels enable us to record the relative heights – or depths – of the features. This helps with working out which features underlie or overlie each other from which we can work out which existed first (the lower ones are older).
As with previous days, we had a number of visitors. Most weren’t local and had, presumably, come to see the abbey rather than the archaeologists. However the majority engaged with us and were keen to know about what we’re doing and why. Occasionally someone will put their head around the door, take a quick glance and go away. Whether they’re disappointed that the abbey isn’t quiet at the moment or whether they think we’re digging up bodies (no sign of any!) and are squeamish there’s no telling. Local folk, especially those who’ve had a go at digging, keep coming back to see where we’ve got to.
Day 8 – Friday 3rd February 2023
It was a day of varied excitements! It got off to a slowish start but that soon changed. The arrival of the men and kit to put a camera down the drains we’ve discovered had us all leaving our tasks to see what they could find. The first drain found, in trench 4 continues southwards for about 4m, then turns abruptly left (east), with a slight curve to the east along the way. We couldn’t get it into the drain in trench 3 because of the capping stones being so tightly packed.
The drains in trench 2 proved to be fascinating. The drain running E-W alongside the wall had appeared to end after a short distance westwards. It turns out that it actually turns north and extends in that direction for some 8m. Eastwards, it soon turns north along the side of the chapel. Further information, other than the archaeological findings, keeps coming to light and it’s been suggested that these drains might have channelled water for some industrial process. They would probably date from some time after the Dissolution of the Monasteries but before Wesley’s visit in 1747 (he doesn’t mention them), although they might be later. You’d expect some documentary evidence of them after that date though.
Our band of enthusiastic volunteers worked hard in between such distractions. In trench 4 a sondage (a small hole) was started to investigate lower without digging out the whole trench. That hasn’t had a chance to come up with any surprises yet. The volunteers in trench 3 had some really heavy clay to dig through. They seem to be finding yet another drain which is cut by the big drain. Their reward was in the form of some more interesting finds than we’ve had so far – a piece of mediaeval pot and some small pieces of mediaeval stained glass. Just what we’ve been hoping for.
Some useful theories have helped in the understanding of trench 2. It has now been suggested that the wall we’ve found is part of the school that was in the abbey. The wall is built on a layer of clay which itself overlies the drains – so it was built some while after the drains. It’s known that the blocked-up windows of the school can be seen in the wall above the arches of the chapel. Somehow, assumptions about the location of the school placed it above the chapel whereas it was actually a two-storey building within the abbey, and the blocked windows looked out eastwards and not into the abbey (as I’d always pictured it anyway).
There were lots of visitors again, chatting to the “workers” and enjoying what was going on. They kept us entertained, too! The atmosphere is always cheerful, which makes the work easier.
This afternoon I found myself doing one of my least favourite jobs – drawing a section of the side of the drain beside the wall in trench 2. Every stone has to be measured in for accuracy. So I was down the hole with a tape measure and Andy was drawing the section. There’s a proper way to do these, measuring down from a line that has been set completely level. It wasn’t possible to set that up in the usual way, so we improvised! We ran out of time before we’d finished so will have to finish the task tomorrow. My last job of the day was to brush off the grave slabs in the floor so that they’re clean for the students coming to do photogrammetry on tomorrow.
Day 9 – Saturday 4th January 2023
We had a full complement of volunteer diggers this morning. They worked really hard in the trenches for the first part of the morning and Andy and I finished the section that we started yesterday.
Just after 10am the students from Durham arrived. Their tutor took them on a tour of the village before they settled down to work in the abbey. What a lovely group they were! Polite and interested and a joy to work with and alongside. They settled down to their work recording the big grave slabs and we retired outside.
It was a bit warmer outside, not surprisingly. The volunteers set to and began trench 1 on the east side of the tower. They removed the turf and moss, then the layer of gravel, putting in a lot of effort. It’s now ready for us to start digging in earnest on Tuesday. Let’s hope the weather is kind to us!
The trenches inside the abbey are more or less finished. There’s a bit of finishing off to do and some recording, but that’s about all.
In the afternoon we had a lot more visitors than in the morning so, with the students still working, we were quite pleased to have just a couple of volunteers in the afternoon, including Revd Helen.
The biggest excitement of the day – at least for Revd Helen – was in trench 4. She was working on the sondage and revealed a floor-like surface, although it isn’t at all like a beautiful paved floor. The exciting bit is that she found it had been cut into; she exposed two sides of the cut and was working on the third when we had to pack up for the day. For all the world it looks like it might be a grave cut. I don’t know if we’ll do any more excavation in it.
All the time new information is coming to light. There have long been rumours about a boiler house which was eventually identified on an old postcard, situated along the outside of the north wall of the current chancel.
How the church was heated is shown on another old picture of the north transept, dating from 1935. It shows massive cast iron pipes curving around the walls, sometimes in banks of 3 or 4 set horizontally above each other. Not very attractive; I wonder how efficient it was…
