We made good progress today but without any major new finds. We have however a found a source for the pieces of stone drip course that I mentioned yesterday. They are the same as the drip course on the top of the pillars in the high red brick wall facing the Ponds between the present house and the road by the Greyhound. This wall was probably built around 1884 when Honeywood 1 was demolished. It seems the stone belonged to the revival of interest in Elizabethan and Jacobean buildings in the late 19th and early 20th century. Or did they? Two curious anomalies remain. Most of the stone in the pillars is still in place although very badly weathered so the pieces we found can’t have been in the standing pillars. They could however be leftovers from a batch of pre-cut stone for the pillars. The excavated pieces have also been burnt in a haphazard way that suggests they were not attached to a building at the time. Tonight, I find myself wondering if they were reused in the pillars from an earlier source – possibly Honeywood 1. This needs further thought and we may not get a certain answer.
 
Work continues tomorrow if the weather permits. I am busy in the evening so there may not be a blog post tomorrow.

We have continued excavating the path foundation and have come across a group of interesting finds including the whitewashed cement capping of a brick wall which must have been somewhere around the garden. There were also several pieces of oolitic limestone including one shaped like a keystone from the top of a small window or niche. There were also three pieces which appear to be from a drip course. This is a horizontal projection from a wall which is designed to throw off any rainwater running down it. The moulding on it is unusual and my snap reaction is that it comes from the 17th century. A lot of oolitic limestone has turned up in the Honeywood garden. I think the stone is probably from Portland on the Dorset coast which is rather odd. Portland stone was very fashionable in the 17th and 18th century, but it was expensive. It has never been found in the early structure of Honeywood and I would not expect to find it there: the house was not grand enough. Two pieces of stone from the garden have carving which matches the finals on the Water Tower in West Street. It is possible that Honeywood was occupied by masons working on the Carshalton House buildings, but I am not aware of the drip course being used there.

Not much to report today.

​We continued excavation of the foundations of the garden path without any noteworthy discoveries. The heat is slowing us down and it’s really necessary to pack up early when the trench comes out of the shade. Hopefully there will be more to report tomorrow.