Barbara Barrett

Headline News- GG unearth an archaeologists dream..... or was it just a dream?!

What an exciting evening it turned out to be.. but lets first rewind.....

We met up at one of our favourite tasks, St Botolphs Church garden with our task hosts for the evening Val and Rik supported by Sue and Peter who provide many of the tools and who are the primary volunteers to neighbouring Heene Cemetery.

After a whats app shout earlier today ( thank you ! ) 7 of us turned out tonight in anticipation of making a pallet compost fence. However with a bit more preparation needed for this, the task took, another, and most surprising turn of events!
The main focus tonight ,apart from Paul pruning his tree (take a look at the photos) was clearing, shovelling and leveling the compost area ready to make the aforementioned pallet fence.

Tonight was fun ! with lively banter and chattering and with a fair bit of 'encouragement' or in other words 'work harder' we all pitched efforts to sift and sort and shift the soil and ditch the debris.

With just 15 minutes to go we unearthed a big surprise... Our spades hit concrete and the questions, together with our imagination went wild !

Was it an ancient burial site ? Was it a pot of gold ? Or maybe a single grave? Was it an old mill stone ?

Duncan went to his phone for answers Sarah to her Dad and Sue to her local archaeologist friend. There were theories, speculation and excitement pouring out of us. Had we, finally, made a landmark discovery? and who would get the breaking news first ? Would it be the Herald or Paul Holden ?!!

Sarah's Dad burst our bubble first. he said its likely it was the base for a flag or similar. Duncan did some great research and came up with evidence of an old mills stone and John added that maybe it was horse powered. This made my heart sing and I was a true believer until Sue emailed feedback from her archaeologist friend who said its most likely to be footings for a notice board ! Lol

Oh how the mighty fall...

However we do love a bit of excitement at GG and today was exciting !

Have a great week

Julia xx