2nd July 2006
Well I never thought I would want some
rain. The ground is baked hard but a small team of MSFAT volunteers are
working hard each weekend and beginning to make some progress on the new
features we have discovered this year. The walls of Building 4 are
beginning to emerge from the soil. The chalk foundations are showing a
not so regular building plan as we first thought, with tumbles of flint
nodules probably resulting from its demolition confusing matters.
![Trowelling New Trench 3 [BV06-0706-001]](BV06_Images/BV06-0706-001.JPG)
A line of post holes is running across
the southern end of the courtyard, while what appeared to be a large pit
is actually quite shallow and has a very large posthole at one end of it
- Could this be a Saxon SFB?
Trial trenches near the top of the
hill 50m NW of the Villa have revealed more Roman features, comprising a
ditch, from which a part complete pot was recovered, and a flint
metalled area. We will be investigating this further in the coming
weeks.
![Large Posthole in Possible SFB [BV06-0706-002]](BV06_Images/BV06-0706-002.JPG)
![The Pot From The Roman Ditch [BV06-0706-003]](BV06_Images/BV06-0706-003.JPG)
28th May 2006
The 2006 season is well underway. Topsoil
stripping revealed a new building (Building 4) on the west side of the
courtyard. Building 4 is approximately 25 x 14 metres in size and comprises
a large room at the front of the building with three smaller rooms behind.
There is also a single wing room at the south end.
We are currently working on the area
between the west courtyard wall and Building 4, where there appears to be a
remnant of a metalled surface, and within the courtyard are a number of
large rubbish pits.
![Topsoil Stripping the New Trench. [BV06-0506-001]](BV06_Images/BV06-0506-001.JPG)
![Trowelling Between the Courtyard Wall and Building 4. [BV06-0506-002]](BV06_Images/BV06-0506-002.JPG)