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This week has been one of contrasts. We have experienced all that a British
summer can offer –rain, wind and brilliant sun. We have donned waterproofs
in the drizzle and carried on until the increasing rain closed the trenches;
we have huddled under the shelter of trees until it dripped through onto us,
then packed close together under gazebos, tents and in the various portable
offices on site in the hope it will pass and we can get back to work.
Valiant Friends of Woking Palace have served warming teas & coffees to keep
the spirits up! We have scrapped mud from our tools and hung out our gloves
to drip and then dry. /p>
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Towards the end of the five days of digging the skies cleared and sent us
scrambling for hats and sun cream so we could continue uncovering the story
of Woking Palace and catch up on lost time. Although some parts of the
southern-most trenches are still waterlogged the archaeology has been
examined in all areas opened this year and the story of this enigmatic site
is being slowly teased out.
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In addition to those digging, directing and processing finds, the team
from Reading University has been on site carrying out further scientific
investigations.
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As always the vital work of recording the site has continued, be it
written accounts in site note books or photographic recording rectified by
computer programmes. Throughout the week the finds processing team have
dealt with a monumental amount of material which has been sorted, weighed,
washed , marked and recorded. They continued to work when those in the
trenches had to admit defeat and head home. Among the interesting finds are
tiles, carved chalk from early buildings, pottery from the 13th to 16th
centuries and a large quantity of bones including deer antlers.
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In the trenches allocated for Community Archaeology, each day has seen a
new group of members of the public gradually reveal brick structures that
seem to be related to the Tudor and later periods of the site. The first
feature to be uncovered seems to be a drain made of reused brick which may
be from the period of farming after the demolition of the Tudor Palace. On
the final day of the week massive brick features began to emerge. These
will be investigated further next week.
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In the trenches close to the former gatehouse the relationship of walls
is becoming clearer. They pre-date the creation of the Tudor Palace and
show several phases of the earlier history and on into Tudor times. In the
trenches to the south and west of the vaulted stone building it has not been
possible to carry out a lot of digging because of flooding in the trenches
but even here it is possible to begin to see signs of the older buildings
on the site and to uncover more of the kitchen rubbish deposits from the
13th and early 14th centuries.
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