Dig Diary - Day One
After a hard day digging (and talking) I have finally sat down to rest and to make the first exciting entry into the 'Hall or nothing' Dig diary.
The day started off as a typical British summer day - It was overcast and wet. As I roused myself from my sleep I began to think that I was hallucinating, Frank Robinson in my bedroom?! But as I came round I began to realise he was on the radio, doing a breakfast slot interview, and hadn't actually snook into my house to make sure I got out of bed!
I had agreed (was forced) to go in a hour early at 9.00 to help set things up, the weather was still miserable and I began to wonder if it would keep the other diggers at bay. I didn't need to worry, I was met at the hall by 3 diggers that had been on site since 8.40am, they said they were enthusiastic, the rest of us said they were just mad.
Time passed really quickly and soon Alan Perry had signed us in and Steve from ARCUS had taken us on our walk round and the sound of trowels scraping had filled the air. As it was the first day everyone was really enthusiastic, we all lined ourselves up along trench 8 and started cleaning the trench. Nick Roscoe came to set up the webcam, and we all soon realised that it was behind us so anyone who would have been watching would have got the nice view of a line of backsides. Thanks for that Nick.
Soon it was tea break time; we all went down to our 'site office', in the stables complex. And compared to the office last year it was like a palace, we had a proper sink and lots of new technology to play with - well we had a kettle. No cups or tea or coffee but for anyone on a detox we had hot water. But soon a night in shining armour came to our rescue - Dennis the caretaker from the hall, who brought us cups and tea and coffee - our hero!
After a caffeine injection we were all raring and ready to go again! The sun came out and it was lovely and warm. Again trowels and chatting and laughter filled the air. Most of the volunteers had met on last year's dig. One 'dig virgin' was Dominic, who had travelled from foreign lands, an Irish lad who was studying at Edinburgh Uni, and had come to stop with friends especially for the dig! He fitted right in and made himself at home (he never stopped talking - I know some might say that’s the pot calling the kettle black !), his enthusiasm never wained - he even carried on digging through the tea break!! We also had a lovely lady and her daughter who had come from Derby, initially she came with a metal detector but she soon grabbed a trowel and joined the action, and became hooked! So it just shows publicity really does work!!
But it wasn't all play we did have a couple of nice finds, Linda found a musket ball, Dominic found a lead loom weight, and we had the usual bones and pottery, including a piece that looks like it could come from the Frechen Koln jug - The one we found last year with the face of a bearded man that looked suspiciously like Frank Robinson. In the last hour the digger unturned some medieval pottery which was very nice, and a nice end to the day.
Now my knees ache, my back aches, my fingers ache and funnily enough my jaw aches......can’t imagine why!
Till tomorrow.......
Rachael Siddle (Staveley History Society)
