September 2006

September 2006

As mentioned in my last diary, we started to take away the topsoil in the area over the Mesolithic platform. This is the area that had the original feather pits cut into it at a later date.

As we worked we discovered a large ditch or drip gully surrounding the Mesolithic structures. Cut into this feature were another two feather pits aligned north and south.

One of the pits appears to have its contents intact as it "gives' slightly when you press on it. The other one is very hard, so has probably had its contents removed in antiquity just like the other 20 pits we have found.

Having cleared the topsoil over the Mesolithic platform we started working on a new area as the weather was very hot and this new area is always wet because of the springs that flow out of it. It is much easier to dig in wet ground in hot weather than when it is cold, and it is so much more pleasurable to get wet and muddy on a hot summers day. We soon discovered a wide, smooth edged ditch lined with green clay.

Ancient Drains

After more excavation, we found that two ancient drains running under the clay platform were actually joined. We discovered that one of the drains had been purposefully blocked with stones and lumps of clay. When we cleared it back we found that the water had been forced to flow into the large wet ditch that we had just excavated.

Right: A great day for playing in mud!

The Tea Party

This autumn we are going to start working on the stone features underneath the hovel floor I talked about in my other diaries. So we decided to have one last tea party on the lime ash floor of the old cottage before we stripped it off to see what was underneath. Everyone brought something appropriate such as cucumber sandwiches and scones and jam and clotted cream.

While we ate we talked about the people who used to live in the cottage and how the railway that came through this valley in 1850 destroyed their lives. The reason for this was that the railway track cut through the mill pool and in effect made the mill useless. So the mill workers that lived in this cottage lost not just their jobs, but their homes too.
We know from public records that one of the mill workers died in the poorhouse in Chacewater the next village just a year later in 1851.

We get annoyed today when new motorways are planned in the countryside, but we tend to forget what it was like for the vast tracts of the British countryside that was ripped up to make our railway network. And how this must have affected the lives of the poor in the countryside like our mill worker here at Saveock.