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Sunday 14 October 2018

Last dig of the year

The weather though glorious today was not forecast to be great , so our last dig at Shillington this year  was only to be one day. Anyone who could get there in the week would be helping Derek finish off.
Another very nice house in ample grounds was our dig for today. The usual mix of pottery etc on the way down to 0.6m, including a very nice complete clay pipe bowl. Rarely get complete ones, usually broken pieces with plenty of the pipe stems (did I ever mention one of  my Great Great Great Grandfathers was a clay pipe maker in Paddington in the 1860's)  This has the design of crossed keys ( see photo), this is a papal & a masonic badge but more probably sold at a pub called the crossed keys at some stage. It's probably 19th century.
We got two probable post holes at 0.5m & 0.6m though nothing in the fill could date them for definite, though pottery near the second one (which was mostly in the side of the pit) was early Medieval (1250-1350 ish). We had a few nice sherds of this fabric, also photo'd here, Derek is taking this years finds up to Paul Blinkhorn (formerly of Time Team fame) for analysis next week so it will be interesting to get  his expert opinion.
Sadly the weather forecast for Sunday was dire so it was agreed we'd knock it on the head. It's been a good digging season and I look forward to more next year.








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