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kinecroft diary

 

The Kinecroft is one of the two large open areas within the earthen ramparts of the old Saxon and medieval town. 'Kine' is an archaic name for cattle or oxen, indicating this area may have been used for grazing livestock for much of its history.

 

In 2008 we discovered that in the medieval period the now open parkland once contained a series of buildings built adjacent to a street that ran across the width of the Kinecroft. The buildings date to the 12th century AD, (a period of growth within the town following the Norman Conquest in 1066). This year the trench is located closer to the Saxon defences, to attempt to discover more of medieval Wallingford hidden secrets beneath the grass.

 

Entries by Gavin Speed and the Kinecroft team

 

23rd July

The final, final, day of digging, the remaining features were fully recorded just in time before the trench is backfilled and levelled. Pictures below explain it all...

 

   
the kinecrofters carefully record the remaining layers and features

the famous 4 who hand dug the rampart trench extension. The total soil removed was around 10 cubic metres, pretty good going, fuelled almost solely by shortbread and tea.

   
another small slot was excavated in the trench extension. This proved very useful. The rampart section appeared to show a large internal ditch and small bank set behind the main large rampart bank. The small additional slot confirmed this, and also revealed other features that help tie in the buildings and street in the main part of the trench. all will be revealed in due course! The red & white poles indicate each edge of the ditch (4m width) last minute section drawing and soil sampling
trench backfilling underway by Jim Baxter (with new assistant) the final compacting and levelling of the trench = the end of another very successful excavation in the Kinecroft!

 

 

 

 

22nd July 

 

The final full day of the dig, the troops were ready for it with much final digging and recording...

 

F1 archaeology...GO! a nice looking rampart section 

the trench nearing completion. The hollow way is just to the south of the photo, the structure is visible as postholes in the centre, and pits to the rear/south-end of the trench

 

 

 

 

 

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Exhibition shovelling from Chris

 

 
   

  

 
 
 

 

 

19th July

 

Today was a very busy day with lots of visitors to the Kinecroft trench, 100's of people visited between the showers, and many children took part in the family archaeology day, some piccies below. Digging did continue with more pits revealed in the south-end of the trench. Further info, piccies, and tug-of-war images of the Archaeologists vs Wallingford Town in the The Wallingford Herald!

 

a busy day awaits  a singing archaeology tour 
attempting take off  Q & A with Matt & Gavin 
the family archaeology day was a major success, click here for more information and pictures John's entry for the day is: "Our deep section is now complete. The weather has not been kind today, several sharp showers to stop any work. Ingrid (my wife) visited the site today and a fair with traction engines and steam rollers got going with..." click here to keep reading

 

18th July

Following our rather soggu day off we continued working through the features, the rampart section continues on through much hard mattocking, whilst elsewhere features are being recorded...

 

 

synchronised shovelling leads to...  ...a quick power nap 
  Richard and John plan in their pit. John's thoughts are "Richard and I bailed out yesterdays rain, did a bit more tidying up and finished the drawing, Once we got going it went... " more here

 

 

"The digging continued down in the Kinecroft today with the back layer of the trench being taken up, new features being excavated and the boys continuing with the extension of the trench in to the ramparts. The rest of the week will see us finishing the digging and recording while leaving Gavin to work out what the features in our trench actually mean, hehe."

Fiona B (Uni. of Leicester)

 

 

16th July

 

two men in a hole. recording a large pit to the rear of the structure 

futher postholes revealed 

 

 

 
   

 

 

 

15th July

 

Fueled by tea and biscuits the team continued motoring through the many pits and postholes of the structure in the centre of the trench. Elsewhere the large pit at the south-end of the trench is nearing completion. Work continues on the edge of the rampart. This area of the trench is an extremely rare opportunity to investigate Saxon Burh defences, and it is producing some rather interesting finds. This should also help to place the Kinecroft building into context within the Saxon Burh. Full details of this will be revealed over the next few days.

 

 
Lee displays his (Late Saxon?) finds from the rampart

Geologist Lucy takes some samples 

 

 
   
   
   
   

 

 

 

14th July

Work continues with a school visit from Fir Tree Junior School. Pictures below...

 

 

   
 

the question what do archaeologists do? produces some interesting answers

   
helping the archaeologists take levels  to record the features sieving for finds 
   
   

 

 

13th July

Work continues revealing more of the plan of the structure, whilst the extension into the edge of the defences continues apace through rain and shine. We're not just interested in the medieval past, an interesting feature includes an early 20th century pit containing numerous interesting finds, see the many pics below!

 

 

 

the structure plan is beginning to emerge, seen here as dark soil impressions in the natural sand and gravel soil the troops hard at work 
can you tell what it is yet? an early 20th century pit, cutting the subsoil and sealed by the topsoil, this contained numerous intresting finds...
....a 'kissproof' midget U.S.A. (lipstick holder?) more info here ...complete glass vessels... 
...and a beer bottle top from Morland, Abingdon (hopefully not left over from a student) tired diggers = another successful day's work

 

 

 

12th July

It's been a busy weekend with many local interested people visiting to see the academic, student, and volunteer archaeologists hard at work. Many interesting finds are being revealed that are adding more to our understanding of who lived within the Kinecroft in the 11th – 13th centuries A.D.

 

Fueled by tea and biscuits (though bourbons are in disappointingly short supply) we're all working hard to resolve the mysteries of the kinecroft...

 

 

Richard explains all to an enthralled audience

an interesting iron object - what could this be? 

   
   

Richard and John continue to excavate layers  

in the 'backyard' area of the building...

(click here for John's diary, today he says: "At the north end a section to the west through the original site boundary may show eventually a support trackway to the Kinecroft earthworks. Very interested in this development...") 

...finds include these three medieval coins

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The trench on the 12th July  
   

 

9th July

Work continues to reveal more of the building plan. It is still uncertain at present but it appears to be much smaller and less well-defined than the building that lies immediately adjacent to the east (in the 2008 trench). Finds indicate a contemporary structure, dating to the 11th - 13th centuries A.D.

 

A beamslot and posthole lie parallel to a worn track (hollow way), this may form part of a timber structure. (& Jordan hides from the camera again)

overview of the trench, with much digging and planning ongoing. the white tags indicate the many other features still to be investigated

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trench overview video clip  

 

 

8th July

 

Stef, Fiona, and Jordan recording features live on BBC Oxford

 

 

 

     

further press coverage on BBC radio Oxford

 

"After the excitement of the early arrival of the radio and television crews recording and exploring has continued. Many people are at the stage of recording, while others are extending the trench. This is to see if the roadway goes to the ramparts and to follow features that were really close to the edge of the trench.  More members of TWAHS were at hand to help at the trench today and everybody were in good spirits. More pottery is coming from the trench and the boys are enjoying getting larger pieces from the possible midden at the south end of the trench. All in all a good day and looking forward to tomorrow"

Geri C (Uni. of Leicester)

 

an extension to the trench is being excavated on the west side, close to the Saxon town defences. will we find further traces of buildings here? within the trench many beamslots and postholes have been revealed and are now being carefully excavated and recorded

 

     

7th July

 

 

  

bit of a wet day with many soggy diggers, but worked contined apace, to the south end of the trench layers containing many finds are being revealed

 

“so far nothing, but hopefully at some point, it will become something!”

"We began the day with optimism after the many wonderful features excavated yesterday, and the exciting finds lurking within them, however the rain quickly sapped the excitement leading to quite a few disgruntled archaeologists. Despite this we muddled on and the day was quite productive; the boys played with their gadgets and unearthed a number of small finds, such as coins and other treasures and the rest of us got on with the hard work of excavating the features, something which we intend to continue with tomorrow!"

Stef V. (Uni. Of Leicester)

 

 

 

5th & 6th July 

 

 

     

The first couple of days involved trowelling, cleaning, and tidying the trench to reveal a series of archaeological features.These were then drawn on a scale plan (see Fiona planning above left). A number of postholes (above right) and linear beamslots appear to indicate another possible structure(s), lying parallel  and close to a hollow way (a worn track). It seems different in character and form to the building from 2008, over the next three weeks we hope to fully define its form and function.

 

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early days in the Kinecroft trench

 

 

 

"The work moved on well today. Finished trowelling back the trench and compiled the majority of the trench plans before long and a metal detector sweep was undertaken of the area bringing up some interesting finds which were duly sent off for analysis. We are now ready to excavate the highlighted features over the next few days and will hopefully reveal a structure of some kind".

Chris S. (student, Uni of Exeter)

 

An alternative perspective on the excavation in the Kinecroft is provided by John Eaton, a local volenteer archaeologist and TWAHS member. John offers his own view on things in his site diary, it begins as follows:

 

"Reported for duty to say yes at the Museum at the appointed time.  Judy said, "The Kinecroft Dig.  Go with Gavin, that is him over there." I was quite please with this, as it is close to the town.  I found after a while last year that the walk up to and back to the Castle Meadows at least four times a day for three weeks rather tedious and, there was nowhere to shelter from the rain.  I was pleasantly surprised that the Kinecroft had been mechanically dug to a useful depth.  The compacted stoney soil is  very hard to cut through.  The supposed track across the Kinecroft was clearly visible at the north end of the plot and I was pleased to be involved in putting a section through it.  During this time it dawned on me..." click here to continue reading!

 

2nd July

The trench is open and ready to go! The excavation begins 5th July.

 

 

 

The 2008 trench, and the probable location of the 2009 trench (shaded blue)

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School trench

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