The dig – steady progress

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.