• The walls, and<br />staircase, for Henry VIII
  • Beside the river<br />with a view of Broadmead

Woking Palace Archaeological Project 2010

Week 2 – Second week of excavations

The community archaeology trench continued in full swing with participants arriving for their half day sessions to investigate the substantial walls of a Tudor building, which might well have been that of the King’s own apartments.

One of the areas investigated is likely to be the site of an important staircase within this building.

Work also continued on the probable Tudor building fronting the River Wey, which has been traditionally ascribed as the Queen’s Apartments, later converted to a Long Gallery by Elizabeth I.

To the west of the vaulted building excavation continued in areas which contained pre-Tudor kitchen deposits as well as wall foundations that have yet to be dated. The interpretation of these areas is to be developed further during the third week of excavations.

The Artefacts and Archives Research Group (AARG) of the Surrey Archaeological Society is responsible for the initial processing of finds from the site. This work is carried out in an area adjacent to the site HQ just outside the moated area. Among this year’s finds are many further fragments of the blue and white Valencian tiles particularly associated with Woking Palace and a fragment of an earlier decorated tile.

Unusual object - and what of this fragment from the past? The object is clearly from a representation of a horse with a saddle. In the picture the neck of the horse is to the left and the tail to the right. The object is quite small and appears to be hollow, having a small aperture in the middle of the saddle with the tail as a possible spout. We would be interested to learn of any similar artefacts that people have come across elsewhere.

Quaternary Scientific from the University of Reading are carrying out environmental studies across many aspects of the site, including use of the flotation and sieving equipment to isolate appropriate material.

The deposits in one of the probable pre-Tudor kitchen areas contain many bones from a wide variety of animals and birds.

Queen's apartments?

Queen's apartments?

Looking towards the river

Looking towards the river

ystery object. A toy horse?

Mystery object. A toy horse?

Bird and animal bones

Bird and animal bones

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