2018 EXCAVATIONS

Building on the successes of last summer’s excavations around Thornton le Street, we were granted permission to dig a number of trenches in and around the scheduled remains of the mill site, the causeway, the field adjacent to Cod Beck, and smaller test pits near to the medieval church, which local schoolchildren worked on. The main focus for the fortnight was to investigate the make-up of the causeway, and to determine once and for all if the causeway was built on the site of an earlier roman road.

We also opened a large trench at the still-enigmatic ‘moated site’ a few kilometres away. The moat trench was very steep and we worked around large tree stumps.  We eventually reached the water table.  At the bottom of the moat, which was under water we found lots of animal bone (stained black), pieces of slag and pot.

The BigDig main trench was sectioned through the causeway and proved to be more complicated than expected. We found evidence of earlier surfaces, Victorian drainage but no evidence of a roman road.

We worked with local primary schools the first week of the dig; providing opportunities for the children to dig test pits in the grounds of the parish church, and to wash and process their finds in the village hall, and sample project biscuits!

We opened smaller trenches and test pits in areas of interest in the field adjacent to Cod Beck.

We are pleased to share our Thornton le Street – Archaeological Community Excavation – Year 1 Interim Report (Lo-Res) (1) and also a copy of the magnitude geophysics report