Welcome to Staveley Hall

Here you will find the latest information on the progress of the dig, with photos of finds and narrative. 

Previous days news can be found here.

Tuesday 22nd August - Day 8

Trench 8: Planning has finished and digging started in earnest. The fills of three drains have been excavated, with pottery, clay pipe and glass suggesting use in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries – consistent with the active use of this part of the hall building.

Excavation of a substantial wall trench revealed that only the bottom course of the foundations remained, resting on the clay natural. This wall is probably part of the main external wall of the 1604 hall, and this suggests that the interior of the building may have been raised up above the modern ground level, with a step down to external yard areas.

Trenches 10 and 11: The medieval ditch in Trench 10 is almost completely excavated, and shows a similar profile to the ditch excavated last year in Trench 1 – V-shaped and about one metre deep into the natural. Finds from the ditch confirm an early medieval date – 11^th or 12^th century - Dom and Paul pulled out a shell-tempered rim with possible knurled decoration.

The same ditch appears to run through Trench 11, with more early pottery found by Dave today. Here the southern edge of the feature has been truncated by a later trench which appears to be a construction cut related to the hall and backfilled with layers of mortar, rubble and coal. The depth of the construction cut is unusual compared to the others on the site (about 1.5 metres into the natural sandstone) – perhaps it indicates that this part of the hall was cellared or half-cellared.

Trench 12: Trench 12 is a new trench opened up between the church and the bowling green to the rear of the hall. We re hoping to intersect any medieval features running through this area. Work here is at an early stage, but the volunteers are already encountering deposits probably relating to nineteenth-century garden features – paths, edging stones and cinder deposits.

Picture 1: Dom in the medieval ditch, Trench 10

Picture 2: A deep construction trench, Trench 11 – cellarage?

Picture 3: Dave digging the medieval ditch, Trench 11

Picture 5: Pat digging a curving drain, Trench 8

Picture 6: Finds from the drain fills

Pictures 7 and 8: Digging through the floor fills inside the hall building

Additional Picture to go with Paragraph 3 – Close up of pottery.