AN OCCASIONAL PROGRESS REPORT
of the 2008 Excavation
by Jeremy Cooper

The views expressed are Jeremy's own and the information is his own understanding - he has been known to get things wrong!

Not much to report archaeologically today, although much work was done both on site and in the finds area.

Just a couple of on-site items - and then some exciting news, with dates for your diary!!

This fine toad (photographed in Fred's gentle hand) made an appearance in one of the pools around the pilae. He was deposited safely in the shade on the spoil heap, proud, no doubt, of his context number.

Ruth found a largish metal object just as the day was ending. Possibly a wall tie. Possibly an early artificial hip joint belonging to that well known local character Lucius the Limp.

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY!

OPEN DAY
Sunday July 12th 2009
At a summit conference after the dig today it was decided that Whitehall Villa will have an Open Day on Sunday July 12th 2009. It will aim to provide much the same sort of half-day out as the 2003 Open Day (the last one) with Roman re-enactors, various fun activities, and food and drink (see here). It will be billed as "The Last Chance to See the Bath House" (BH1) before it'sinfilled. And, of course, a first chance to see BH2.

Nick will be looking for people to take on specific responsibilities in planning and organising the day, and in running it - this will not necessarily mean having to join a committee! Although it may seem a long way away, it would be good if people could show their interest in being actively involved as soon as possible. So please let Nick know when you see him, or by email: nick@whitehallvilla.co.uk

THE UNVEILING OF THE INTERPRETATION BOARDS
Friday 11th July (2008) at 12 noon

You may already know that Nick Adams has entered into a Higher Level Environmental Stewardship agreement with Natural England. This scheme helps "owners of historic sites to enhance and protect the natural and historic environment and provide public access".

As part of this, Natural England has agreed to pay for two A0 size interpretation boards, one at the top of the site right by the fence, and one to the North of the bath house. The design, layouts and photographs were provided by yours truly. The board by the bath house includes a magnificent archaelogical illustration by Dr. John Hodgson (see his website here) of how the site might have appeared at the height of it's Romano-British occupation.

The boards will be installed this week but kept under wraps to be unveiled at a ceremony at 12 noon on Friday 11th July - the last day of this year's dig. There will be representatives of local government and other local dignitaries present as well as the illustrator John Hodgson and officers of Natural England. The local press and TV have been invited.

So if you have worked on the Whitehall dig at any time, come along to the ceremony and see if you can spot any sprelling mistakes on the boards.

End of the Parish Notices.

There will no blog for tomorrow as I'm not going up to the site. I'm on stage performing Noel Coward numbers (click here) for the evenings of Wednesday to Saturday, so the blog for Wednesday will appear on Thursday morning, for Thursday on Friday morning, and for Friday over the weekend - that's the plan anyway, but I may too too tired my dears.

Next week back to normal!

Gillian preparing a planning board.


Peter and Peter planning pilae.

Jenny planning the courtyard pavement.

Robin cleaning off a nice bit of imbrex.

Barbara modelling the new supervisor's must-have: a Mud Diggers Anonymous shoulder bag.

Glenn worked all on his own cleaning the stoke house of BH1. With remission he should be finished just before it's infilled.

NO BLOG FOR TODAY

They tell me it was HOT on site yesterday...

Today it was a lot cooler with a pleasant breeze to boot. Loads of people - the most so far this year. So the finds area was well packed (see the photos on the right).

I left the site at about 2.30pm, so anything really exciting that has happened since then will get reported in tomorrow's blog.

Greetings and congratulations to Jenny who was absent-with-leave today so she could attend her graduation ceremony and collect her Archaeology Degree certificate. There'll be no stopping her now.

High Life!

Nick brought his chunky tractor down to the site so various lucky people could have an overview of things. As you can see on the right, there's a cage to fit to it now so that the ascent is less hair-raising.

Beryl had a lift too, with me, and here are a couple of shots of what she saw - amongst other things:

Click on the photo for larger view of the area

Click on the photo for larger view of the area

And here's the view from above the West end of BH1.

You can see the courtyard paved area in the foreground (with the ranging rods) and the lower slope and BH2 beyond, where the peole are.

And here are couple of shots of BH1:

Click on the photo for larger view of the area

Click on the photo for larger view of the area

Meanwhile, back at ground level, Fred has found a trowel...

Tomorrow will see the great retro T-shirt fashion parade at 12.45. Don't miss it!

La Cage aux Folles? They look happy!

A rare plan view of Tony, Steve and Nick.

Beryl trying to raise some money to pay for her tractor ride: T-shirt anyone, sweat-shirt, fleece, jerkin, a place in the Olympic canoeing team?

The spoil heap has been partially removed.

An early blog today as I left the site at 2pm. No Friday tour report today - sorry.

First a catch-up on yesterday when Herculean efforts were made to shift heavy masonry.

Only the echo remains (or is just Fred's joints popping back into place?).

In a similarly legendary tone, a void was discovered today in BH2.

Now, nothing excites archaeologists more than a lump of nothing where you weren't expecting it! Think of Carter peeping through the hole into King Tut's tomb and glimpsing the wonders beyond... Now forget that, because Steve's prod with a bit of bamboo revealed nothing. Further excavation found this to be a gap underneath another very big bit of masonry. Such is life.

Ian Luck spent his annual day on site today accompanied by Pip Lowe.

Ian was glad it was Friday because he enjoys listening to Steve during the site tour.

The interpretation boards are up!

Nick has asked everyone to be patient and wait until the grand unveiling next Friday to see what's on them (although the bubble wrap on the "top" board is not exactly opaque!)

We have a modest memento of the occasion for everyone who has worked on site - you'll be handed yours on Friday if you are there.

Jeremy announced at lunchtime that this website will also be re-launched next Friday - all the same content, but with a fresh look. Here's a preview of the new-look site... also under wraps.

And finally...

This is the find of the day. Gillian trod on it when walking where the spoil heap was until yesterday. She thought she'd trodden on a dead hedgehog, but found otherwise when she dug it out. So it's been sitting under the spoil heap for years.

That's the end of week 3 three then. One more week to go!

Have a relaxing weekend.

One of us must have seen where it went!

Gillian dug out the brush in this area.