That was how Jackie Ashcroft from Riccall summarised her visit to our Open Day last Saturday and that was echoed by many other visitors.
Trench 4 - Fire ash pit and walls She went on ‘I thought I would just pop in for 10 minutes to see a small village dig but have finished up staying over an hour. It’s so professional and there is so much to see’.
Jackie was one of over 100 visitors who enjoyed guided tours of the dig site and browsed the ever growing display of finds with explanations being provided by Finds Manager, Sue Newton.
The tour started in Trench number 4 where visitors saw the 3 robbed out walls of a building and a fire ash pit. Its significance is that it has enabled us to take scale measurements and plot the location of all the structures we want to excavate which appear on the 1850 Ordnance Survey map but not on the 1793 enclosure award map.
Jackie was one of over 100 visitors who enjoyed guided tours of the dig site and browsed the ever growing display of finds with explanations being provided by Finds Manager, Sue Newton.
The tour started in Trench number 4 where visitors saw the 3 robbed out walls of a building and a fire ash pit. Its significance is that it has enabled us to take scale measurements and plot the location of all the structures we want to excavate which appear on the 1850 Ordnance Survey map but not on the 1793 enclosure award map.
Earlier, the excavators were very excited when they found a highly decorated tobacco pipe bowl, with one side decorated with a scantily dressed man, possibly Hercules, and the other side with a fully rigged 3 masted warship, complete with gun ports. This has been identified as an Admiral’s pipe bowl and dated to around 1820. As clay pipes tend to have a short lifespan this gives us a good indication of the date of the building, as being somewhere between 1793 and 1820.
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Close ups of the Admiral's Clay Pipe Bowl.
Trench 3 - Fire Ash Pit finds However, pride of place on the tour was saved until the last stop, Trench number 3. This was first excavated in 2013 and has been extended to reveal a wonderful example of a rutted medieval roadway. As one visitor said, ‘you don’t need a Time Team visualisation to see those ruts’. We will write more about this feature in another news story later.
Meanwhile the volunteer excavators carried on their work of drawing and recording the site and discovering more things. This site is proving to be a treasure trove as artefacts have been unearthed throughout the project period from the time the Selby monks held the manor of Fryston to the parkland development in the late 19th century. Later on Sunday afternoon, early medieval pottery was found in Trench number 4 for the first time as we started to reach earlier levels whilst in Trench number 1 we found a ditch… which might not excite many people until you add that it appeared to have a medieval vessel in the bottom.
Meanwhile the volunteer excavators carried on their work of drawing and recording the site and discovering more things. This site is proving to be a treasure trove as artefacts have been unearthed throughout the project period from the time the Selby monks held the manor of Fryston to the parkland development in the late 19th century. Later on Sunday afternoon, early medieval pottery was found in Trench number 4 for the first time as we started to reach earlier levels whilst in Trench number 1 we found a ditch… which might not excite many people until you add that it appeared to have a medieval vessel in the bottom.
 Mark with his possible Saxon Hoard |  Trench 2 - planners at work recording what we have found prior to removal |  Mark in his ditch! |
The next thought is, of course, ‘is it a buried Saxon hoard?’ Sadly on this occasion the answer is NO. The vessel was broken and if it had contained a hoard someone had been there before us.
There is still time to register to take part and ‘have a go’ on our website and learn to either Excavate or Manage Finds in early August before the last Open Day on Saturday August 8th.
There is still time to register to take part and ‘have a go’ on our website and learn to either Excavate or Manage Finds in early August before the last Open Day on Saturday August 8th.
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