Ivan Clowsley

I was so excited to be involved in this Dig: Anglo Saxons who doesn’t love them. Unfortunately though, I couldn’t make day one, due to a prior engagement I had to attend. I travelled over on Friday afternoon to Norfolk and checked into the local Premier Inn who were hosting the Time Team crowd for the weekend. I met up with them after they’d finished digging for the day. It was especially good to meet up with Blinky again after we’d spent several years doing the Dig Village project down in Dunster, Somerset. Also Jackie McKinley was there who I’d met once before on Time Team at Newmarket just up the road. A lot of beer was drunk that first night and I paid for it with a poor nights sleep.

Local villagers and volunteers signing up to dig.

Saturday morning arrived and I was up early for a full English, I was going to need it if I was to be digging all day. I was a little nervous as we set off for Winfarthing with Penny and Dani. I hadn’t done much test pitting for several years but I’m sure it would soon come back to me. The nerve centre was St Mary’s Church where some of the locals were waiting for us, armed with tea and cake and full of enthusiasm. After Dani did a briefing to the volunteers I set off with my ‘newbies’ : a lovely family Mom, Grandma and lots of little ones. David the Church Warden and local landowner showed us to his field near the Beck ( stream) which was inhabited by some very nosey Chickens. I worked out the best spot for our test pit away from any made up ground. I then explained to my new team how we went about digging and recording our test pit. It was all rather chaotic but great fun. The kids were very enthusiastic and so were the chickens, I had to chase them out of the test pit several times. Then the heavens opened and we got drenched I hadn’t bought my rain coat with me. Time for lunch, ‘my family’ we’re leaving, so I needed new diggers and now I’d get to see the main site. But, as it turned out, I had no time for site seeing. I had my lunch and then headed back to the village. There were lots of test pits but I had no time for touring those either. I had a new couple of eager diggers, a husband and wife team, for the afternoon who were keen but had never dug a test pit before. I needed to explain how to dig and record a test pit again. My multi tasking skills put to the test but rewarding I have to say. Dani appeared mid afternoon with some Time Team club winners and they had a chance to try out their new Time Team trowels. We were surrounded by our feathered friends again, persistent little devils, looking for juicy worms. We had a laugh and I think the club winners had a good time. It was 4 O’clock and time to pack up for the day. I was cold, wet and tired but we headed up to the main site where a fire was being lit and Sam Newton was going to do a turn on the Lyre. We however headed back to the hotel to warm up, get washed and showered and try and beat the rush for evening meals. The Lyre music will have to wait until the episode is aired. With there being two sites and the trenches spread out we wouldn’t really get a handle on what’s happening on site until we see the programme with the rest of the viewers.

Kids and Chicken archaeology.

Dani taking the club winners on a tour of the trenches.

Sunday morning and some more new diggers had arrived excited to be involved with their favourite Tv programme and doing archaeology for the first time. More explaining, assigning jobs and getting a system going some chaos couldn’t dig anymore due to their health but there’s a job for all abilities. About 40cm down we unearthed a large piece of bone we left it in situ and I went looking for advice. I found Carenza and she came over to confirm it was cattle bone. We also found a medieval pot sherd, we were out of the top soil now and getting to the interesting stuff. Steve and Mark, camera and sound men, turned up and we shot a scene about how we were getting on and talking about what we thought was a piece of Thetford ware we’d found. This confirmed Anglo Saxon activity in this part of the village, fantastic. All tremendously exciting and my new diggers were ‘chuffed’. Just before lunch I was told I’d be leaving the test pit to go and dig on the main site. I gave the guys a quick pep talk and left them to it.

Filming in the local church a Time Team Patreon member who came to volunteer on the dig.

A large new trench had been opened, the JCB had taken the top soil off and we were on a chalky layer. We needed to give it some definition by hoeing the surface. What’s this? Derek and Lawrence getting their hands dirty, it was all hands to the pumps. After we’d done this you could definitely make out features. Were they robbed out walls or ditches. What looked like pits were also visible and post holes. We wouldn’t have time to fully excavate them so some slots would be put in to investigate. The word ritual was mentioned and did the nearby spring have any relevance? It was a real hive of activity. We ran out of time though, Cotswold Archaeology would be back tomorrow to record before the backfilling started. Sunday night and more beer, but our mission was accomplished, we had a great night talking to Stewart and Blinky. It was a Dig Village reunion with Penny and Mark there too. The end to a very rewarding Time Team dig and mini series. A big thank you to the villagers of Winfarthing for making us feel welcome and to all the volunteers.

In 2022 we made three new episodes we went back to Broughton, to Halston Hall and Winfarthing, wow 2022, what a year it’s been.

Photo by Jon Beaver the digger Driver