Thursday 6th November
Day 72
Today was the day selected for the removal of our Urn No.1. It was chosen at the latest minute due to the very changeable weather conditions this week but we still a great turnout. Joining Bill, Chris and Patrick today were Peter, Jen, Marlene, John Needle, Alison, Paul Kenyon and Linda Harvey (who hadn’t been on site for a while). Unfortunately Ben Dyson from GMAAS was unable to attend due to work commitments but we were able to kept him in touch with out progress by phone.

We also had a visit from Nick Jackson from the Manchester Evening News. Nick had contacted Bill on the off chance of a story about Wigan’s historical heritage (we certainly surprised him with what we had in store for him). Bill give the usual tour of the site – much depleted of course now after the backfilling, but Nick was still impressed with the depth of the ring ditch in Trench 1 (which the Farmer has left for visitors to see). For security reasons, Bill asked Nick not to reveal the location of the site.

While our urn was being prepared for removal, we had enough volunteers to continue with the work on the stony layer in Trench 1d on the northeast side. It was decided to remove the last of the baulk on the southeast side and push back the trench a couple more spade widths. This meant moving the spoil heap once more, a task taken on by Paul. Paul then joined John, Jen and Peter in removing the turfs and topsoil. By Lunch time they were down to the stony layer (conveniently here no mottled clay layer). After lunch, Alison arrived and took over from Peter who had to leave early. Linda also joined in with the trowelling, taking over from John and Paul who went over to help with the urn removal preps. By end of play the stony layer had almost completely been cleared of soil. Although still consolidated stones here, there were certainly signs of it turning in to just a scatter, particularly on the northwest side (similar to the edge in other areas). This is an indication that perhaps we were at last reaching the edge of of the stony layer in this area.

Bill took the opportunity, helped by Marlene, to do some more measurement checks on the large stones in Trenches 1b and 1d.

Meanwhile Chris and Patrick began the preparation work for the removal of the urn. This started with the trowelling away of the last of the material from around the urn, particularly around the back (i.e. northwest side), which had been left to support the urn until it was ready for removal. The intention was to leave some of this material attached, particularly in areas where the clay seemed to be encrusted onto its surface. It was worth noticing that, although the burning layer in areas around the urn was in its usual position below the mottled clay layer, as it approached the urn it seemed to dip down. This was hard to explain as there was no doubt that the pit, in which the urn had been placed, did in deed cut through the burning layer. As the material was removed, cling film was wrapped around the urn. Before proceeding with the operation, a bag of the sandy clay was placed inside with a bubble wrap liner to give internal support. There was a worry that we had not identified the depth of the urn as Bronze Age urns are known to taper to a point (similar Roman amphora). However once we were confident this was not the case and the position of the base had identified, we could proceed with the application of bandages. Once complete, preparations were made for the insertion of metal plates underneath. This was done by first cutting away the trench on the northwest and southeast sides so that spades could be inserted below to hopefully break the block free. There was some difficult with this as the sandy clay at the urn’s base (similar to Urn No.2) was embedded with small cobble stones. However with some effort (particularly with help from Alison, who had joined the team for this part of the procedure) the block came free. This enabled the metal trays to be inserted, first one from the southeast side and then one from the northwest (which eventually replaced the first). Some material fell away during this procedure but was examined for bone or small artefacts. The block was then lifted in to the awaiting block which was lined with kneeling pads, sealed then taken off the site in a wheelbarrow to Chris’s awaiting car. The box was well supported sat of Patrick’s knees on the back seat as it was driven to Chris’s home, ready to be transported to the Bolton Archive facility the next day. This was to join our other urn (No.2) where they will be studied at our own convenience. We will probably need a specialist to conserve them but hopefully this can be achieved so that they can be eventually placed on display.

Wednesday 29th October
Day 71
A better day today though less successful with the turnout. Join Chris were just Peter, Jen and John Needle. 

Chris and Jen continued with the work on our clay lined feature (F4) taking turns removing the fill and cremated bone. They worked on spit 3 which runs across the top of the large concentration of bones. 

Peter and John meanwhile continued removing more turf from the east side Trench 1d to expose more of the stony layer. This needed the removal of the corner of the spoil heap and repositioning of the bridge. Yet more consolidated stones turned up and still quite large flat angular ones.

Tuesday 28th October
Day 70
Despite the cold weather we had a great turnout with nine on site. Joining Chris today were Peter, Steve, Jen, Alison, John Trippier, Dave North and Bill who unexpectedly turned up having managed to escape from grandchild-minding duties (it being half-term). We were also joined by Nicole Tunnicliffe from Bury Archaeological Group after hearing about the Aspull Ring Ditch the recent Gm Federation meeting. 

Nicole joined Alison and Dave in removing more topsoil from the southeast side of the newly exposed section on the northeast side of Trench 1d. This was to expose more of the stony layer which seemed to be continuing in that direction. Meanwhile Steve and Jen continued trowelling the already exposed stony layer on the northwest side of this trench.
Here the stony layer appears to be running out showing the sandy layer underneath.

Peter continued working in the west corner of Trench 1b exposing more of the stony layer. However the section proved to be more interesting showing our red/black line appearing to rise under the mottled layer before disappearing. We have seen this before in the centre of the site indicating where the central mound was higher and had been sheared off by the plough. 

Bill meanwhile, after giving Nicole the usual site tour, took the opportunity to measure in the new expanded area of Trench 1d and 1b, before having to leave after lunch to relieve his probably beleaguered better half.

As yet another dark cloud swept in from the west, it was decided to cover the central area before the rain started. Unfortunately, the wind picked up as we started and it proved quite a challenge to get the cover on. A second attempt after lunch managed to secure the area after the wind had died down.

Chris had noticed that the recent poor weather had started to affect the main central area of the site, in particular one of the ‘token’ burials that had been discovered earlier in the year (i.e. small pits with flecks of cremated bone in the fill). It was decided to cover the whole of this area but before

doing this, Chris asked John to clean the area around the burials for recording. A particular one seemed the best preserved (F21), consisting of a ring of small rounded stones. The dark grey fill between them containing a scatter or cremated bone (white flecks in the image).

In the afternoon Dave, Alison and Nicole manage to complete the cleaning of the stony layer underneath the section exposed before lunch. This revealed more of the large-ish stones in the stony layer.

Thursday 23rd October
Day 69
No rain today but a strong northerly breeze was running along the crest of the hill. Braving the elements with Chris and Patrick today were Steve, Gaby and Cohn.

With some larger stones appearing in the stony layer at the northeast edge of Trench 1d, Cohn and Steve extended a section of the trench on that side to see if this trend continued. Once the topsoil was cleared, sure enough more large(ish) stones appeared.

Chris, having brought the boxes and last of the material required to lift Urn 1, joined Patrick to spend the first part of the morning putting the final plan together for the lift. The trench in front of the urn was enlarged by Steve to allow better access. With Gaby’s help, all the sections were cleaned up and record in 3D so that a better understanding of how the pit, in which the urn was placed, was constructed. It soon became clear that, as suspected, the urn was sits directly onto a layer of pebbles which is likely to complicate the lifting of the urn.

As the bitterly cold freezing northly wind picked up, we decided to leave the site early.

Tuesday 22nd October
Day 68
Bill on holiday this week so Chris charge – joining him were Peter, Patrick, Alison and Gaby.

Rain, drizzle, cold and a strong wind made digging very difficult. Gaby, Peter and Alison continued as best they could to clean the area that had been recently opened in Trench 1d northeast side down as far as Trench 1a.

Chris returned to the clay lined feature (F4), taking another 1cm spit out to get closer to the burial at the bottom of this section. There is now also the suggestion of another set of cremated bones at the other end of this fill.

After lunch Heather and Gordon brought up two friends, Gill and Allan for a tour of the site. As an archaeologist, Gill was particularly interest and made several interesting observations, one in particular certainly made us think i.e. the last time she had seen something like our kerbed feature, it turned out to be the base of a round house (wow that would be something if true).

Saturday 18th October
Day 67
Phil and Penny from the Border Archaeology and Heritage Group joined Chris and Denise for a few hours today, bringing Paul with them, who Chris and Denise knows from their Summer Tilston dig. Joining them from the Society were Gaby and Patrick.

Denise, Gaby and Paul worked on the newly opened area on the northeast side of Trench 1d next to where the spoil heap used to be. They made great progress cleaning the stony layer all the way from the northwest edge to the edge of Trench 1a. This was in preparation for recording by the drone, in readiness for lifting to see if there were any larger ones beneath. They did notice though that the stones here were generally larger than the small ones usually found in the stony layer – but flat, rectangular, not like the large cobbles found on the west side of our kerbed feature.

Penny and Cathy, who initially discoverers of our clay lined feature (F4) some 18 months ago, were asked to begin the next phase of micro-excavation of its remaining contents under the supervision of Chris and Patrick. Paul had never seen anything like this before so was a keen spectator.

After lunch Darren Bentham with partner Gill arrived for a tour of the site with Chris. The site is smaller with all but one of the ditches filled in but still has all its interesting internal features visible for Darren and Gill to see.

Thursday 16th October
Day 66
Joining Bill today were Andrew, Peter, Steve, Paul and John Needle with Patrick joining later in the morning – and Chris returning from his hols.

Bill had realised the day before that we would need extend the northwest side of Trench 1d to match the newly exposed northwest edge of Trench 1b. The team was therefore set once again on pushing back the spoil heap covering this area. They hadn’t got very far though when Nick the farmer could be seen bring his big yellow trowel (JCB) up the field. This was great news as at last we could get the whole of the spoil heap pushed back and maybe some topsoil removed.

Before doing that though, Nick was keen to start backfill our ditch trenches so that he could get a new fence line established. His father Frank had previously provided a wide roll of plastic barrier sheeting and this together with smaller rolls was used to line the bottom of these trenches to protect the walls for future investigation. Once done Nick commenced with the process of backfilling starting with Trench 5 (very sad though to see them disappear). Before starting on the other trenches, Nick took on the task of removing the spoil next to our current trenches which disappeared within minutes and when request removed some of the topsoil for us the next area we wanted to expose. The team was then able to set to, pushing back the northwest edge of Trench 1d making it level with the work done on the northwest edge of Trench 1b. They also took the opportunity to take a couple of spade widths off the northeast edge of the trench. Once the topsoil had been removed the remains of it was trowelled away to uncover the stony layer below. This revealed a distinct edge where the well consolidated stony layer gave way to a more scattered area of stones. This seemed to be respecting the curved alignment of large stones, dropping away to the north of the trench.

As usual Patrick continued working on Urn 1 getting it ready for its removal. The hard ridges he had come across the previous day turned out to be just compacted clay with small stones in. By end of play he had manage to reach the baulk he was leaving in at the back of the vessel for support (this will be gradually removed on the the day of removal). He also started to prepare the front of the urn so that a plate can be inserted under it to support its removal.

Wednesday 15th October
Day 65
Joining Bill today were Andrew, Peter, Roger, Paul and Dave North with Patrick joining before lunch.

We also had a visit from Derek Cartwright and his Horwich Walking Group – a dozen members who were absolutely fascinated by our excavations. Bill gave them the usual site tour which produced some interesting questions, one in particular regarding the burnt layer raising some doubt about our theory of its creation. We have been assuming that it was likely the result of vegetation clearance after a period of neglect. However the question raised was, how had the ancients been able to control the burning to just the central area – was it not more likely that burning material was placed over the designated area as a possible cleansing ritual (certainly a very plausible alternative explanation).

Last weeks work on the northeast edge of the Trench 1d had revealed a large stone seemingly on the curved alignment, with the stony layer continuing in that direction. To check if there were any more large stones in that area, it was decided to take another couple of spade widths from the northeast side and taking it all the way to Trench 1a (this required moving the board crossing Trench 1a and pushing back the spoil a little further). Bill, Dave and Paul took on that task and not long after lunch a new area had been exposed. Andrew, Paul and Roger then continued with the task of trowelling off the remaining plough soil down to the stony layer just below (no mottled clay layer in this area). At the end of play the stony layer had been fully revealed, but alas no more large stones (early doors though as some may be lurking under the stony layer).

It was noted that the stony layer was also continuing (even rising) under the northwest edge of Trench 1b. Peter and Andrew therefore took on the task of taking a couple of spade widths off it in that direction. Pretty soon they were down to the stony layer and Dave took over from Andrew trowelling off the remaining plough soil. In the west corner of the trench Peter noticed some higher stones seemingly resting on top of the mottled clay layer (which in turn lay on top of the general stony layer – all still under the plough soil). Bill noted that these higher stones had the distinctive pale green tinge as seen on other stones uncovered in the adjacent Trench 1c (see Day 30) and was therefore likely to be associated with them. When the new section was finished the stony layer seemed to be continuing but surely not much further. Just one more large stone emerged but seemingly not on the curved alignment (also had the the distinctive pale green tinge seen in the the stones in the west corner). Bill realised we would have to take the northwest side of Trench 1d back to match this trench and therefore made a start on once again pushing back the spoil heap covering this area.

Meanwhile Patrick continued with his work on Urn 1 working this time on the southwest site (where Andrew had been working). Some more flecks of cremated bone came out but not so many so he was able to make good progress. By late afternoon he had been able to get a good distance around the back of the vessel. However strange ridges of hard material began to emerge (not ceramic but certainly hard enough to make his trowel ring).

Thursday 9th October
Day 64
Joining Bill and Patrick today were Andrew, Peter, Steve, Jen and Marlene (who had come just to observe) – with Christine Morton joining later in the morning and Alison joining at lunchtime.

Today we also had a visit from Sam Walsh from UCLan (who we have lined up to do our cremated bone analysis once it has been processed). She has already visited our Bolton facility but it was great to be able to show her our site and get her thoughts on the progress we were making with our remain burials. She was particularly intrigued by our clay lined pit (F4). She mentioned that her initial reaction to the feature was that it was a burning pit with the heat creating the clay lining effect (this isn’t the first time this has been suggested as Kimberley Teale from Archaeological Research Service reported her osteological colleagues had seen a similar prehistoric example). However Sam had to admit that, although strange, the clay lining did not have the characteristics of an in situ burning event. Overall Sam seemed quite happy with what she saw but reiterated that she would like to have all the material from each burial to work on. This was in particular reference to the clay lined feature which still has more than a quarter of is contents remaining in it (Chris is planned to look at this when he returns from his hols).

All the hard work done on Tuesday pushing back the spoil heap allowed the team to continuing de-turffing the northeast side of Trench 1d. This was in the hope of revealing more of the curved alignment of large stones. Once done the team set to trowelling of the remaining topsoil (and in some areas a thin layer of mottled clay) to reveal the stony layer below. Great progress was made with the de-turffing and trowelling – to the effect that by lunch time enough had been removed to encourage the team to continue with the full length of the trench going all the way to Trench 1a. Bill also decided to tackle the spoil heap remaining in the north corner so that the trench could be squared off. In the area where Steve was working, a small cavity appeared similar to the ones seen in Trench 1a. In that trench they seem to be stake holes, but when Patrick examined this one with his endoscope, it didn’t seem to be the case as it was going off at a strange angle. By late afternoon Bill had managed to get the spoil heap in the corner down to the turf layer. With help from Peter this was also removed to reveal more stony layer. The result was quite satisfying with at least on large stone appearing in the stony layer showing on the curved alignment. It looks therefore that we probable have the full extend of this supposed ring cairn (with perhaps focussing on a central burial).

Patrick continued with his work on Urn 1 expanding the area on the northeast side. This revealed the burnt layer seeming to dive down towards the vessel. In the late afternoon Andrew joined him working the vessel’s pit on the opposite site by removing the charcoal rich material. Surprisingly flecks of cremated bone started to appear which slowed his progress down.

Tuesday 7th October
Day 63
Joining Bill and Patrick today were Andrew, Peter and John Needle who brought along his stepson Jason with his stepson William.

Passing storm Amy over the weekend had done little or no damage to the site so we were able to crack on with the work in hand. We still had the stony layer going beyond the northwest end of Trench 1b to look at but the priority was to chase the curved alignment of stones on the northeast side (i.e. in Trench 1d). We still hadn’t had a visit from Nick the farmer to move the spoil back so all hands were set once again to push it back by hand. Then Nick arrived which was great but we had to sympathise as his busy schedule had not allowed him to get up to do the work. In fact a funeral visit that afternoon would once again prevent him for doing anything today. However we were able to update date him on progress and crucially show him Chris’s white marker line indicating where we expected him to relocate his fence line. We also took the opportunity to show him the still in situ burial urn (Urn 1). His comment was that we should try to get it out before winter as it would likely not survive a severe frost.

After Bill had given Jason and William the usual grand tour of the site they were impressed enough to join in with our work in removing the spoil heap and trowel back the soil. We were also able to work on the area on the alignment already clear of spoil, de-turffing it down to the stony layer. By mid afternoon enough spoil had been cleared to enable more area on the alignment to be worked on, again de-turffing it down to the stony layer. This once again produced some signs of large stones but before exposing these, the intension is first to expose as much of the stony layer as possible before investigating these (frustrating as it may be, but necessary for recording purposes).
As usual no finds (apart from some plastic bag fragments stuck on top of the stony layer indicating how close the plough soil was to the stony layer in this area). Peter however did come across a nice piece of charcoal which he bagged for posterity.

In the afternoon we were privileged by a visit from Ben Dyson from GMAAS. He was keen to see our progress particularly on the curved alignment of large stones and also to discuss the removal of our first urn (Urn 1). Ben had given a talk to the Society at last weeks monthly meeting on the excavations of a Bronze Age barrow near Clitheroe. There they had found nine cremation burials, four of which were urned. His experience of lifting them was therefore invaluable to our plans for our urns removal. Ben explained that at Clitheroe they had carefully excavated around them gradually working their way down the sides applying supporting bandages as they went. Once the urn became clear it could be carefully lifted and transferred into a transportation box.

Bill, Patrick and Ben sat down to discuss our urns removal. He noted that ours was looking quite fragile with cracks showing in the vessel wall in exposed areas. He added though that he thought there was no reason we couldn’t carry out the same procedure with the bandages, perhaps leaving any encrusted clay around the outside to add support. As we had removed most of the material from the interior, he thought that we should perhaps add a small bag of sand to give extra internal support before lifting. Patrick said he would work on removing the charcoal rich material from around the outside which he would retain it for future analysis. This would take some time so he suggested leaving a small baulk at the back as support for the vessel until the day of removal. Ben though that was a good idea but suggested (echoing Nick’s comment) that it would be best to remove the urn before the frosts arrive.

Ben was then shown the rest of the burials still on site telling him our plans for them (i.e. the clay lined feature which will have its remain bone material removed, and the burial under our second urn which will be left in situ till next year). Before leaving Ben expressed his high regard for the work we have been carrying out, adding that he would be only too happy to help in anyway he can, as we continue our excavations on this highly unusual and nationally significant site.

Wednesday 1st October
Day 62
Heavy rain overnight put todays visit in doubt and, with fine drizzle refusing to clear, the poor turn wasn’t a surprise – just Bill and Chris braving the elements. However there was promise of the weather clearing later in the morning – and, being the type of site that drains well, we were confident we could do some useful work.

First though, Chris was able to carry out another drone survey, recording progress so far,.

Bill worked on the area Dave had started the day before i.e. the section on the corner of Trench 1a on the southeast end of the curved alignment. He was able to finish trowelling off the mottled clay layer to reveal the stony layer below (next to see if there are any large stones underneath).

Chris worked on the other end of the curved alignment trowelling off the rest of the soil from the stony layer in the newly exposed area. This revealed some large-ish stones but not (as yet) any of the large stones we’ve been getting on the curved alignment.

Tuesday 30th September
Day 61
Joining Bill and Chris today were Andrew, Steve, Paul, Dave North, John Needle and Jon Shelley.

It was obvious from last weeks work (finding more large stones on the circular alignment) that we needed to open up more on the northeast side of this trench. Arriving this morning we were able speak to Nick the farmer who had said he would come up later with his digger to move back the spoil heap for us. While we waited we took the opportunity to de-turf a couple spade widths from the northeast edge of the trench which we had previously freed from the spoil. After waiting an hour our two it was obvious Nick wasn’t going to show (probably some other priority to deal with). We therefore got stuck in ourselves and by lunch time had managed to push back the spoil heap enough to open another area on the alignment. We were able to cut a 1m deep by 1.5m wide section, but this failed to reveal any more large stones – just a small area devoid of stones and then the usual stony layer. There is hope though that the alignment continues under the stony layer.

Meanwhile Chris, Jon and Steve worked on the newly exposed area on the northeast edge of the trench (next to F22). They trowelled down to reveal the stony layer which appears to be the usual small stones (not the large-ish cobbles found in the northwest quadrant of the circle).

Steve, before joining Chris and Jon, he spent some time finishing off the the area he had been working on the previous week (on the west side of this trench next to Trench 1c). Removing some of the overlying stony layer, he revealed a couple large stones. These seemed to be on another curved alignment which may represent an earlier or later kerbed monument perhaps a ring cairn).

Andrew continued his work on the trench connecting Trench 1c to 1e. He had previously opened a section on the northwest side looking to see if the large stones, initially seen in the this trench, continued. It didn’t seem to, so, for completeness, he decided to open a section on the southeast side. John helped him with the de-turffing and by afternoon they had reached the stony layer. Some large-ish stones were revealed but nothing like the large ones initial seen in this trench.

In the afternoon Bill helped Dave to de-turf a half metre by 1.2m long section on the corner of Trench 1a which is on the south end of the curved alignment. Once de-turffed Dave was able to trowel through a thin layer of mottled clay to reach the stony layer below.

Thursday 25rd September
Day 60
Joining Bill and Chris today were Andrew, Peter, Colin, John Needle and Paul with Alison joining later in the morning.

Alison continued with the cleaning of the stones on the northwest edge of the trench (Trench 1b NW side) which is outside the kerbed feature. Meanwhile Colin joined Bill in taking back the spoil heap on the northeast side. By lunch time they had pushed it back far enough to start removing the turf from the original ground level. John joined Colin with this operation. There is no mottled clay layer in this area, the stony layer lying just under the plough soil, and sure enough the stony surface started to appear. Colin continued trowelling off the top spoil and surprisingly revealed, not the stony layer but two large stones more or less on the curved alignment (obviously more spoil heap removal needed to see if the stones continue).

Andrew continued working on the extension in the trench connecting Trench 1b (1c) with 1e. He began by removing the stony layer on the southwest side of the extension but did not reveal anything below it, but removing some of the stones on the other side did suggest maybe more stones below. Cleaning up the section though did reveal really nice evidence of the burning layer lying under the mottle clay.

Chris, Paul and Peter continued working on the area around the suspected cist (F22). Peter started to cut a section through the red stain line detected on Tuesday. This revealed the stain line divining down at an angle towards the feature.
Before leaving Chris was able to carry out another drone survey and also mark out with white spray paint the perimeter of our reduced excavation area. This will guide Nick the farmer to where to put his new fence up.

Tuesday 23rd September
Day 59
Big change in the weather with clear skies resulted in a great turnout with nine on site today. Joining Bill, Chris and Patrick were Andrew, Peter, Steve, John Trippier, John Needle and Paul Kenyon. We also had a visit from Ian Miller from the GMAAS, bringing along Sam Rowe, who had recently taken over from Sue Stallibass at Historic England. Bill first gave them the obligatory site tour taking them around the ditch trenches before introducing them the our work in the central area and our spectacular finds. This produced a number of wows from both Ian and Sam. When Chris and Patrick joined in, we were able to discuss the plans for the future of the site and what they could do to helps us. Ian had already given us a link to the Royal Archaeological Institute where we could apply for a grant to fund the post-excavation analysis of our cremated bone assemblage. Sam explained about the possibility of pollen analysis of the burial pit fills and also the chances of the site being scheduled once we had finished our work on it.

Meanwhile work continued on the various areas recently uncovered. While Patrick and John T worked on the removing the last of the mottled clay from the stones along the northwest edge of Trench 1b, Steve worked on cleaning off the stones in the newly exposed area on the west side of the trench (next to Trench 1c). This confirmed the existence of more large stones below the layer of small stones.

Andrew and John worked on the connecting trench between Trench 1c and 1e where some large stone had been revealed. By expanding a section of the trench towards the northwest it was hoped to see whether there were more large stone or if they were just randomly placed. After turfs, topsoil and thick layer of mottle clay had been removed, the usual stony layer immerged (these would need to be removed to see if there were larges stones below).

Chris and Peter worked on the area around the suspected cist feature (F22). Cleaning the sandy clay surface on the southeast side of it, Chis notices a reddish stain line seemingly circulating around the feature. It was difficult to understand what this could represent but one explanation could be that its the edge of the pit dug to accommodate the stones of the cist feature.

Work last week on the northern end of the kerb feature had revealed more stones more or less on the alignment but not necessarily its continuation. Was this end of it (as seemed to be on the southern end) or was it just a gap. The answer to this lay under the spoil heap on the northeast side of the trench. The plan had been for this to be for this to be moved when Nick the farmer came to backfill our ditch trenches. This was so that he could put up a new fence around our site on a smaller circumference to let the horses back into the field. The recent wet weather however had given new growth in the existing pasture and so the pressure for this work had gone, but also meant our spoil heap remained. We therefore decided to grasped the nettled and remove as much of it as we could ourselves by hand. Bill and John N got stuck in and when Paul arrived they were able to make good progress. By lunch time they had pushed the spoil back by almost a metre and by the end of the day they had reached down to the original ground level.

Wednesday 17th September
Day 58
Not sure today was going to happen as heavy rain overnight hadn’t completely cleared with some drizzle still lingering. However the forecast said it would clear later in the morning and, as we had covered our working area, there was a good chance we could do some useful work on it. However only Bill, Chris, Peter and Patrick (who joined at lunch time) were prepared to brave the elements.

Despite the wet conditions, Peter made much progress cleaning the stones inside the north part of the kerbed feature, while Chris worked on the area around the possible cist feature (now labelled F22). When Patrick arrived, he worked on the northern end of the kerbed feature, looking for its continuation. There were some largish stones revealed here but disappointingly not necessarily on the curved alignment. It was noticeable though that the stones in this northern section of the kerbed feature were mostly rounded cobbles instead of the usual sharp cornered stones generally found in the central area of the site.

Bill meanwhile continued working on the other side of the trench (Trench 1b NW side). He was able to remove the rest of the backfill from the previously dug Trench 1c and the topsoil from the adjacent baulk down to the mottled clay layer. He was happy to note that the stones had not been removed from the bottom of Trench 1c. After lunch he continued to remove the mottled clay which revealed an prominent circular patch of burning. This corresponded to a similar area of burning uncovered when Trench 1c was first excavated – see Days 29 and 30 in 2023 (the trench was referred to as 1b S2 at that time). It was noted that this burning was lying on a layer of dark soil separating it from the underlying stones. After recording this layer, Bill removed the burning layer to reveal the stones below (early days but there does appear to be more large stones).

Tuesday 16th September
Day 57
Bill back from his hols, was intrigued by the latest discovery of a possible 2nd cist. Joining him and Chris in dodgy weather conditions were Peter, Steve and new starter Paul Kenyon from Wigan Local History and Heritage Society. Patrick joined at lunchtime and Alison came just after Lunch.

There had been a lot of rain over he last few days and therefore a lot of standing water. However the area to be worked on (i.e. the area with in the curved feature) was fairly dry and a little mopping up made it suitable to be worked on. Chris, Steve, Peter and Patrick (when he arrived) worked on this area removing the remains of the topsoil and mottled clay lying on top of the stones (significant to note on the north side the was little or no mottled clay, the stones lying directly under the topsoil).

Bill and Paul meanwhile started to remove more of the backfill from Trench 1c and de-turf a 75cm section from the adjacent bank (on the west corner of the extended Trench 1b). This was to reveal the extent of the large stones which appear to be running under the bank.

All morning the team had been abled to cope with the regular showers but after lunch (not long after Alison arrived) the heavens opened. Even though the shower was short lived, the ground had become impossible to work on, so It was decided to abandoned any further work for the day. Before leaving however, the area being worked on inside the curved feature was covered over in a hope to keep it relatively dry for possible next day’s visit.

As we were leaving, Nick the farmer’s dad Frank, arrived (on his overland buggy), accompanied by and elderly gentleman (?Charles) and a young lady (?Sarah) who Frank said was a historian. Frank had earlier mentioned that he would like to put horse back in the field and therefore wanted to reinstate the fence. This would be on a smaller circuit meaning our outer trenches would have to be backfilled (we’d had 4 years full access, so a good run for our money). It was a good opportunity therefore for us to show Frank the areas we would like to remain open for work to continue into next year. While Chris took Frank around the site to show him what we would like to keep, Bill gave Charles and Sarah our usual site tour. It was noted that the wet weather was revealing some stratification in the ditch fills particularly in Trench 1 and also in Trench 7.

Thursday 11th September
Day 56
Joining Chris today were Patrick, Colin, Peter, Steve and John Trippier

With Thunder Storms forecast Steve and Colin made a start on removing the last section of turf before everyone joined in to clear off the newly exposed mottled layer. A collection of larger stones was uncovered, one of which had a flint adjacent to it (it is possible that one edge had been worked).
With lightning flashing around, it was decided to abandon the site before we could define all the area (work to be continued). However before leaving Chris managed a drone survey showing the extent of the turf cleared from the interior of the curved feature.

Tuesday 9th September
Day 55
Joining Chris today were Peter, John Needle, Jen, Dave North, Alison and Roger.

With the weather looking ok for the day, we continued removing the turf and mottled layer inside the curved feature. Whilst John cleared the area in the north western segment, Peter cleared the area in the south eastern segment. Meanwhile Alison continued with her work of the small stones just outside the south east side of the curved feature.We are starting to see a difference in the areas inside the curved feature. To the north west there are large stones, often rounded – to the south east the area seems to be just sand with little activity once the layer of small stones has been removed.

Dave and Roger were asked to work on the area immediately south of the central sandy clay mound (adjacent to Sondage S1 in Trench 3c) that had been de-turfed and cleaned earlier in the season. They were tasked with were tasked with removing the mottled layer down to the burnt layer. After clearing a 2m square, a whitish sandy clay patch appeared running across the area in contrast to the reddish material of the burnt layer.

Jen worked in the centre of Trench 3a just northwest of pit in Feature 12 on an area that had been cleared of the stony layer in previous weeks.  She exposed some stones that seem to be sat on the sandy layer. It is not clear yet what is going on here, but we need to clear it to understand this area so that we can continue to investigate the pit in Feature 12.

Once the days de-turfing was complete, Chris returned to the possible cist feature that sat at the centre of the circle of kerb stones. The base of the feature was now clear to examine, revealing it to be a collection of smaller stones and may have some depth. It also seems possible that there’s another smaller cist lying adjacent just to the south of it.

Thursday 4th September
Day 54
Joining Chris today were Peter, Colin, John Trippier, Rachael and Alison.

Only a few hours available today as we were hit with a heavy shower at lunchtime which made the site too wet to work on. However John was able to spot a small shallow pit showing in the section next to the token burial area (just northwest of Feature F12) and half sectioned it removing the fill. There was a hint of cremated bone but not enough to collect. Like the other small shallow pits in this area stones were enclosing the pit.

Peter, Colin and Chris continued to de-turf the central area of the curved feature including widening Trench 1d on the southwest side. The circular feature is now looking remarkably like a traditional cairn with large kerb stones defining its extent. The next step will be to remove the turfs around what might be the focal point of the feature to understand this better. Chris meanwhile cleaned up and defined the already exposed focal point, which happened to be the very southeast end of Trench 1d previously excavated. Excitingly Chris realised that the arrangement of the stones could well represent a small cist. An interesting white stone (not quartz) sat at the north end of this area. It is possible that it has been packed into a vertical position. Before leaving Chris was also able to carry out a drone survey.

Tuesday 2nd September
Day 53
Joining Chris today were John Needle, Gaby, Peter, Steve, Roger and Alison.

This week’s plan was to join together the narrow trench (Trench 1d) which was opened up to explore the northwest area with the larger adjacent trench (Trench 1b) showing further segments of curved stones. Chris, John and Peter removed a square meter of turf (hard work) whilst Gaby continued to define the stones. As it was Gaby’s last day with us this season, she was given the task of cleaning the area along the line of the curve. Disappointingly, only one more final large stone was uncovered. It’s possible that the rest of the line was at a higher level and has been removed by ploughing.

Steve was tasked with removing the layer of small stones in the short extension joining Trench 1b with Trench 1e. Although at the end of this short trench there is a collection of large stones, nothing more was found. This section will now need to be opened up around the large stones.

Alison and Roger arrived at lunch time and cleaned up an area just outside the start of the curve, exposing a possible collection of small stones.

Saturday 30th August
Day 52
Members of the Border Archaeology and Heritage Group, Phil and Penny, joined Chris and Denise for a few hours – bringing a couple of colleagues, Paul and Helen, they had met on other digs who wanted to see the site.

Chris took Paul and Helen on a full tour of the site including ditches and the central burials whilst Penny had a go at clearing the mottled layer outside the curved feature. After a quick lunch Helen had an hour to clean round the token burial area whilst Phil and Paul took a couple of turfs out along the course of the curve kerb stones finding another one.

Thursday 28th August
Day 51
Bill back for one day then off on his hols for two weeks. Joining him were Chris, Andrew, Rachael, Gaby and Peter. The dodgy weather forecast had put some people off but we managed to get a full day’s excavating before the rains came.

Andrew spent the morning showing Rachael and Gaby (archaeological students) the rudiments of dumpy level surveying. Once familiar with the equipment and the process, Bill asked them to take readings from the excavated ditch on the outside of the ditch in Trench 3 (Trench 3d). They then took more readings from the section going through Feature F14 and the area around the suspected cist.

Colin and Chris meanwhile worked on the newly exposed area on the NW side of Trench 1b. On the NE side Chris’s trowelling was uncovering more stones around the large stone which seems to be following the curved alignment. On the SW side Colin was still removing the mottled clay layer (something Chis wasn’t seeing in his area). Colin was coming across more large stones (some even recumbent suggesting a possible structure). There was certainly a difference between the two areas but for what reason remains a mystery.

At lunchtime Chris carried out another drone survey picking up the curved alignment of large stones.

In the afternoon Rachael joined in with the work in Trench 1b with Andrew taking over from Chris. Gaby continued with her work in Trench 1d, particularly in the area of the projected curved alignment of large stones to see if they continued. Bill helped by widening this area as much as he could without disturbing the adjacent spoil heap. After Gaby had removed all the small stones, no large stones emerged. There was a change though in the nature of stones, the ones beyond the projected line being much smaller than the ones inside the curve.

Bill worked on the other end of the curved alignment in Trench 1b where the large stones seem to peter out. Bill removed all the small stones in this area revealing a mottled sandy clay but no large stones.

Peter continued with his work on Feature F12 taking down the sandy clay layer looking for a possible cut line (assuming the embedded stones below was the fill of an early pit. When no cut line emerged after removing sandy clay layer, Peter was coming to the conclusion there wasn’t an earlier pit, the embedded stones being a feature of the sandy clay in that area (could even be natural). He did come across another group of embedded stones which seemed to be a different feature. This area was certainly becoming more complicated so when Chris came across to help, he started trowelling down the area immediately NW of this new feature. This was in the area where a previous features had been recorded (F10 and F15) i.e. a small pits with flecks of cremated bone in the fill. Chris collected more flecks as he worked through the layer.

Tuesday 26th August
Day 50
Decent turn out today despite the threat of rain, which fortunately only lasted 20 minutes or so. No Bill today but joining Chris were Patrick, Peter, Gabby and new member Sophie Bostock. Sophie had visited a couple of months ago which persuaded her to join the group so she could volunteer.

The day started out with a drone survey of the trenches to record the work that was completed last week. Patrick finished off removing the latest layer of bones from Urn No.1. Chris and Patrick then decided that it was probably best to leave the remaining cremated bone round the edge of the urn to give it more stability. After discussing the lifting process, Patrick started to excavate close to the front of the urn to explore the limit of the pit that contains it, to see if there was any archaeology beneath it and how the urn pit related to the burning layer.

Gabby continued the work she started last week in the narrow slot (Trench 1d) next to the area of large stones. She has now re-exposed all the stones at the North West end of the slot and started to see if there are any underlying large ones.

Peter continued to explore the possibility that Feature 12 (the stone capped pit that had a large quantity of bone at the bottom) may in fact be part of multiple overlapping pits. He explored the area round the edge of the pit trying to identify further cuts.

Chris temporarily left off the work he had been doing on the possible token burials close to Feature F12, to work with new starter Sophie on the newly exposed area of large stones in the NW end of Trench 1b. By removing the more of the small stone layer, new large stones appeared which seem once again to follow the previously seen curving alignment of large stones.

Thursday 21st August
Day 49
Joining Bill, Chris and Patrick today were Andrew, Rachael, Gaby, Francesca and Christine Morton.

Previous day’s work revealed the large stones, on the NW side of Trench 1b, to be continuing in that general direction. It was decided therefore to extend the trench once more by 1m. The task was undertaken by Andrew, Rachael, Christine and Francesca and by lunchtime they had removed all the turf and almost all the soil from the underlying layer. This revealed a definite split – on the SW side there was clear evidence of the usual mottle clay layer. On the NE side however there was nothing but the stony layer lying directly under the topsoil. This was consistent with the result from the adjacent Trench 1d which also showed no signs of the mottled layer. Aggressive trowelling in the afternoon revealed the stony layer across the whole of the newly exposed area. Again there were some hints of larger stones below and the curved alignment does appear to be continuing although turning more sharply to the NE.

Gaby continued with her work in Trench 1d working her way in a NW direction removing the smaller stones to see if there were larger ones underneath. In the afternoon she had reached the point were the medium sized ones seemed to end and just small stones remained (any significance with the curved alignment has yet to be seen).

Bill asked Steve to have another look at Trench 1e. This trench had revealed no signs of the stony layer although being right on the edge of the SW end of Trench 1c which was full of it. Bill thought it would be interesting to see the interface between the deep layer of mottled clay in Trench 1e and the stony layer in Trench 1c. Steve quickly reached the bottom of the mottled clay in Trench 1e revealing no stones (apart from one large cobble in the mottled clay). This revealed good evidence of the burnt layer, something that hadn’t been seen before in this trench. He then worked his way towards the stony layer in Trench 1c. When he reached it, the burnt layer was again evident going over the stony layer. Within the stony layer on the SW side, there appeared to be some large stones, so in the afternoon Steve worked on removing the overlying stony layer to see the extent of these stone. Bill meanwhile worked on the other end of the trench to see if there were any large stones there as well. This proved not to be the case, the large stones seemed to be an isolated group (unless there are more going across the trench under the turf).

Peter and Chris continued working on the area around the burial pit found under the two large slabs (F12). Peter removed the remaining stones from the stony layer on the NW side and trowelled down through the sandy clay but revealing little indication of the earlier pit. Meanwhile Chris half sectioned the newly discovered small pit with flecks of cremated bone in it (F21) which could be token burials. He also noticed another possible small pit with flecks in just a few cm’s away next to were Peter was working (to be examined next time).

Patrick as usual continued his micro-excavation of Urn No.1, completing his 6th spit. We’re now at a point were we can consider its removal.

Thursday 20th August
Day 48
Chris back today, joining him were Bill, Andrew, Jen, Peter, Colin, and Gaby with Patrick and Alison joining later.

Last weeks activity had revealed an unexpectedly large area of large stones underneath the stony layer on the NW side of Trench 1b. It was obvious we needed to continue extending the Trench in the NW direction to see how far this field of stones went. We therefore marked out an extension 2m wide, just less than a metre in the NW direction on the NE side (making it 6.5m from the baseline datum which goes through Peg 3 and 3a). This also cut into the NE side of the trench by about 0.5m and 1.5m wide. This was to see if the curved alignment continued (this would leave a small baulk on that side retaining a good example of the burnt layer in the section). Bill, Andrew, John and Jen got stuck in straight away removing the turf and topsoil. By lunchtime they had got down to the stony layer having encountered very little if any mottled clay layer. Chris at that point carried out a drone survey after Bill had added another datum peg (Peg 10b) on the NE edge of Trench 1b. Having had this level recorded, the team pressed on removing the rest of the soil and stony layer to reveal more large stones below (Jen was replaced by Alison when she arrived) – and it seems the large stones still continue, maybe even following the curved alignment (but this is getting less clear).

Jen meanwhile worked on the area just on the NW edge of the area devoid of stones, removing the rest of the small stones from the larger ones underneath. The reason for the area devoid of stones is still a mystery – it lay under the mottled layer so must have been there in ancient times (probing suggests nothing under its soft sandy clay). It seems hard to deny the purposeful structure of the adjacent curved alignment of large stones.

Bill asked Gaby to continue the work in the adjacent Trench 1d carrying on were Steve left off. This was to remove the smaller stones in the stony layer to see if there were any large ones underneath. Apart from the odd one, there didn’t appear to be any real large stones in this area (although there was quite a depth of medium sized ones).

Last week Isabel had started a cut in the SW edge of Trench 1c with the intention of following the stony layer to see how far it went on that side (having failed to finding any evidence of it in Trench 1e). Colin continued with this cut and by lunchtime had got the turf and topsoil off down to the mottled clay layer, all the way to Trench 1e. He had to leave early so Bill and John took over, removing quite a depth of mottled clay to reveal the stony layer below. This showed that the stones continued almost all the was way, stopping just short of Trench 1e’s edge.

Peter continued his work on the burial pit which had been found under the two large slabs (F12). Chris joined him, helping him to remove the stony layer from the NW edge of the pit to see if the edge of an original pit could be found (which seemingly must exist with a stony layer lying under the layer of sandy clay). Chris first asked him to square off the SW rim at the top of the pit where the upper layer including the burnt layer was still in place. By afternoon much of the stony layer had been removed leave just a few larger ones. However the hot dry weather we’ve recently been having, baking the sandy clay into a uniform colour, was making it difficult to see any evidence of an original cut. Chris though was able to spot a darker patch on the edge of the cut and, examining the fill, found it to contain flecks of cremated bone making it similar to other patches in the same vicinity (these patches seemingly forming an alignment). Bill had been sceptical about the importance of these patches, but Chris was insistent of their significance. Information he had come across recently had indicated that even these small patches were being understood as burials (i.e. token burials) – even some that have no flecks in them (Bill wondered how these could be distinguished from irregular depressions in the sandy clay). Nevertheless, as with all the other similar features on the site, it was given a label – F21.

Patrick as usual continued his micro-excavation of Urn No.1. He was now up to spit No.6 and was able to half section it which revealed more of the internal wall.

Thursday 14th August
Day 47
Better turnout today – Andrew, Jen, Rachael, Steve and Isabel joined Bill – with Patrick, Alison and John Trippier arriving later in the morning.

Straight away Jen, Isabel and Rachael got stuck in to removing the rest of the small stones from Trench 1b to reveal more and more of the large stones beneath. By lunch time they had removed most of the remaining stony layer to reveal a whole area of large stones, some even on the curved alignment (although not necessarily as convincing as the previous ones).
Rachael produced a decent size piece of flint (or perhaps chert) in the area she was working in. Half of the piece was still covered in its cortex and there were no signs that it had been worked but a nice piece anyway.

With Chris not being available, Bill thought to give the Society’s own drone an airing (hoping he could remember how to use it – we have been relying on Chris’ over recent years). At lunch time Bill decided to have a go and after a hesitant start (and with the expectant crowd watching in anticipation) he managed to get it into the air. The resultant images weren’t too bad (perhaps not as good a Chris’) but would do for the time being.

Before lunch Bill had worked on Trench 1e. The previous day Colin had failed to find the stony layer at the NW end of the trench so Bill dug a pit at the other end. Again no stones turned up having reached the sandy layer at roughly the same depth.

This was perplexing being so close to Trench 1c, so after lunch, while Jen finished off in Trench 1b, Bill asked Isabel to extend a cut from Trench 1c towards the SW. This was to follow the stony layer previously uncovered in this trench until it petered out (which it must at some point before reaching Trench 1e). With Bill’s help, she was able to open up a half metre cut and soon got down to the stony layer. There she discovered as well as the stony layer, another large stone below it at the entrance to the cut.

With her work finished in Trench 1b, Rachael went to where Andrew was micro-excavating his new feature F20. Very small flecks of cremated bone where coming out of it and Andrew suggested she half section what was left of the nearby feature F14 to see if there were more flecks in it.

When Alison arrived, Bill asked if she would half section another of the stake holes in the exposed area between Trenches 1a and 3a NE. This was to see if there was any consistency between it and the previously half sectioned one. It turned out to be very similar, the excavation revealing another tapered shaft containing what appeared to be organic material. Bill once again bagged it for possible future analysis (this time there were also flecks of charcoal in it).
Also Alison noticed what she thought were flecks of charcoal in the underlying soft sandy clay in the area around the bottom of the stake hole. If true this would help prove this layer was manmade – however we’ve had false alarms before with the black flecks turning out to be shale. This time though they seemed to be quite definitely charcoal – Bill bagged a good piece of it for possible analysis.

Steve meanwhile had been given the task of extending a cut at the SE end of Trench 1d. Previous work in this trench had shown the stony layer extending someway to the NW. We might have thought we had finished with it but with the large stone emerging in nearby Trench 1b, we had to see if they continued in that trench too. Our spoil heap being next to it though was restricting its extension. However arrangements have been made for Nick the farmer to move it away from the trench. In the meantime though there was an opportunity to exploit a one metre gap on the SE side. By afternoon Steve and Bill had got down to the stony layer. Steve had previously removed some of the smaller stones in the original trench which revealed a depth of stones but no obvious large ones.

Patrick as usual continued the micro-excavation of Urn No.1. By mid afternoon he had completed spit No.5 and thought that perhaps one more spit would render the Urn ready for removal.

Wednesday 13th August
Day 46
Perhaps due to the continuing hot weather, not a great turnout today with only five on site. Joining Bill were Andrew, Jen, Colin with his 11 year old daughter Olivia with Patrick joining later in the morning. To give respite from the heat it was decided to put the gazebo up – not having been used since last year and being left in the field all winter, it was in a sorry state. However with a few repairs it did its job.

Jen took young Olivia under her wing and showed how to be an archaeologist working in Trench 1b on the NE corner while Bill worked on the opposite corner. Having removed the overlying mottled clay layer, Chris had been able to come at the weekend to record the result with his drone. This meant we could continue removing the small stones to see if there were any larger ones underneath. Before staring though Bill recorded the NW edge of the trench next to the backfilled Trench 1c which was displaying a nice section of burnt layer. Strangely though ending before reaching across to the other side of the trench.

Bill, Jen and Olivia then began removing the small stones from the stony layer looking for larger ones underneath – and sure enough larger stones began to appear. It turned out to be one of those days when every so often someone would cry ‘here’s another one’. By the end on the day a good few had been exposed.

A particular large stone next to Trench 1c that Bill was working on, had an unusually thick layer of soil on it that the smaller stones had sat on. As he trowelled off the soil, a layer of matted root like material came off the top of the stone. At first it was though that some vegetation had reached down to that level and had been stopped by the stone. However there were no signs of vegetation going through the soil layer lying above it. There was a definite layer of soil separating the stony layer from the large stone beneath, something we hadn’t necessarily seen or perhaps noted before. There had been a general assumption that the stony layer and the larger stones we from the same phase but this was clear evidence that this may not be the case. There is the distinct possibility that the larger stones had been in place long enough for something like moss to grow before the stony layer was placed on top (it would therefore be interesting to get carbon date for the matted root material).

Colin carried on working on the newly opened Trench 1e to the west side of the central area looking for the extent of the stony layer in that direction. Bill asked him to concentrate on the NW end digging down through he mottled clay layer. By afternoon he had reached 60cm down without reaching any stones and using the auger revealed the underlying substrate to be a gritty sandy clay. The section seemed to show two layers of mottled clay but that could be just where it had dried out from the previous week’s dig.

Patrick continued working on Urn No.1 taking out the next quarter of spit 5 until the the weather got the best of him and he was forced to retire. Meanwhile Andrew continued with his work on the cut in Trench 3a going through features F13 and F14. Previously he had trowelled the surface between the cut and Trench 1a but without seeing any sign of a feature in the soft sandy clay. He therefore today concentrated on micro-excavating the feature he’d seen in the section with a fleck of cremated bone in it (Bill labelled it F21 with it’s on bone box B21).

Thursday 7th August
Day 45
Joining Bill today were Peter, Jen, Colin and Gaby with Patrick joining before lunch.

We were now managing to get an idea of the extent of the stony layer on the NW side of the monument (having dug Trench 1d). However we still don’t exactly know how far it goes towards the west, particularly with reference to the Ring Ditch entrance. Bill therefore marked out a half metre wide by two metre long trench on the west side (labelled Trench 1e). Colin was given the task of removing the turf and top soil down to the mottled clay layer (if it was there). Before lunch he had achieved his task revealing the mottled clay layer along the full length of the trench. Bill therefore asked him to extent the trench another metre in the NW direction. As there were not surprises (apart from a possible drain cut at the NW end) Colin began trowelling through the mottled clay layer exposing more of the possible drain cut.

Meanwhile Jen, Gaby and Bill got stuck in removing the mottled clay layer from the newly exposed area in the Trench 1b. By the end of the day they managed to clean off the surface of the stony layer. This was still quite intense right up to the end of the trench, even rising up slightly on the SW side. There were also signs of some underlying large stones. However if there was a continuation of the curved alignment of large stones it was not obvious.

Later Bill continued where Steve had been working the day before in Trench 3a on the SW side. There was a suggestion that there maybe larger stones lying at depth. After removing many of the upper layer of stones, a lower layer of large stones did emerge but disappointingly nothing more than that (strange though that there should be such a depth of stones here – one flat stone in particular lying almost upright).

Peter continued working on the Feature F12 removing the stony layer to see if the edge of an earlier ditch could be detected. Nothing became obvious but in the section the recent wet weather was showing up the possible evidence he was looking for.

Patrick continued his work on Urn No.1 taking a half section from a new spit (5th). This revealed some more of the internal wall on the south side. However Patrick was keen to keep a layer material on the rest of the internal wall to help retain its integratory. As he works further down, larger pieces of cremated bone are starting to emerge. One piece in particular has attracted some interest as it seemed to have two cut marks on it. Patrick was sure these hadn’t be caused during the extraction of the piece as they were obviously not recent cuts (background grid in the image below btw is 5mm). It is intriguing to know what they could represent. The fact that there are two cuts next to each other tends not to suggest an attack. Could they be from defleshing of the corpse? (why do it that though if the body was to be cremated?).

Wednesday 6th August
Day 44
Really good turnout today with a total of eleven on site. Joining Bill and Patrick were Andrew, Peter, Jon, Jen, Steve, Isabel, Gaby and John Needle with Dave Goulden arriving just before lunch. (Still no Chris this week having committed to help on a site he previously worked on in Cheshire.)

With the possibility of more large stones in Trench 1b beyond its NW edge, it was decided to extend the trench yet again by another half metre. Jon, John, Jen and Isabel took on the task and soon had the turfs off and top soil down to the mottled layer. This was done so quickly that Bill asked them to extend the trench again by another half metre. Meanwhile Steve was asked to remove any small stones left on the larger stones next to the curved alignment of large stones. By lunch time the whole newly exposed area had been trowelled down to a clean mottled clay layer. There was nothing of note visible in the surface of the mottled clay layer apart from possible ploughing ruts, so after recording it, Bill asked them to start removing the mottled clay layer. This was to reveal the underlying stony layer, checking for any burning above the stones in the usual arrangement as they go. Sure enough on the NW edge of Trench 1c, the burnt layer was quite visible in the section, with the usual thin red layer just above it (not so obvious on the other side though). By the end of play the team had made some headway into the mottled clay layer leaving the rest to be completed the following day.

Andrew and Gaby continued working on the cut in Trench 3a going through features F13 and F14, widening it and cleaning the section ready for recording. When finished Bill set up a datum string and Gaby helped him draw the section (adding to his existing drawing of this section). Whilst cleaning the section Andrew spotted a small fleck of cremated bone in it about half way between F13 and F14. He thought he could see a feature the fleck was embedded in so he decided to trowel down surface to check if it could be seen going into the baulk (work to be finished next time).

Steve, having finished removing the small stones from the area on the NE side of the curved alignment of large stones, move on to Trench 3a on the SW side. This was to remove small stones from the stony layer next to the pit Jen had excavated. This was to see if there were any large stones below. Early days but there did seem to be some going deeper into the soft sandy clay underlying the stony layer. Steve was joined later by Gaby.

Meanwhile Peter continued working on the burial pit which lay under the two large slabs (F12). It seemed obvious that the original pit was larger than the cut through the stony layer. It was decided therefore to remove the stony layer on the NW side to see if the edge of the original pit could be detected.

Patrick continued his meticulous work on Urn No.1 finishing off his 4th spit.

Thursday 31st July
Day 43
Joining Bill and Patrick today were Andrew, Peter, Gaby, Rachael, Steve, Jon and Alison.

Bill asked Jon to carry on where John N left off the day before, working in Trench 1c cleaning off the stony layer, while Bill got stuck in on removing the rest of the mottled clay layer from the newly exposed section in the adjacent Trench 1b. Once done Jon continued further down into Trench 1b removing the stony layer (which had been previously recorded) to check if there were any more large stones below. When Alison arrived she took over from Bill cleaning off the mottled clay from the newly exposed stony layer in front of the ‘area devoid of stones’. There were more large stones and hints of more but this won’t be know until the small stones are removed. All the time Gaby had been continuing her work cleaning the stony layer between the newly exposed area and the large stones on the curved alignment. This revealed some more large stones. Steve meanwhile worked on the area of the large stones with the curved alignment removing the rest of the small stones covering the larger ones. The alignment may continue beyond the current trench so this will need to be extended next time out.

Andrew continued his work on extending the cut in Trench 3a which goes through features F13 and F14. He was help today by Rachael and later by Gaby when some flecks of cremated bone turned up in the area of feature F14. Although producing a small amount of cremated bone and labelled a feature, F14 never developed into anything more than just a brown patch with with flecks of bone in it.

Peter meanwhile finished working on the corner between Trench 3a and 3c, cleaning the section in Trench 3a to show the extent of the embedded stones and whitish sandy clay. Peter then went back to working on the burial under the two stone slabs (F12). The recent wet weather had emphasised the colour change in the overlying soft sandy clay on the SW side of the pit. By trowel down the surface he was able to the colour change in the top of the layer. This suggestive of a recut in the soft sandy clay but for what reason is unclear.

Patrick continued working on Urn No.1 expanding his 4th spit to a full half section. Examining the vessel on its NE side, it was baffling to see the burnt layer seemingly extending right up to the urn. There is good evidence of a pit the the NW side of it – it seems therefore that the urn must have been placed on one side of the pit.

Wednesday 30th July
Day 42
Another good turnout out, joining Bill and Patrick were Andrew, Peter, Gaby, Colin, Christine Morton, John Needle and John Ashcroft.

No Chris again to today but he was able to get on site on Saturday to do a large drone survey form which Bill could plan out the details of the large stone recently discovered in Trench 1b. Also Patrick and Dan were able to get to the Bolton Archive centre on Friday to do more cremated bone washing (the previous Friday had seen Chris and Patrick go through the procedure for washing Chris had drawn up to see how it work and what improvements to it could be made). With the amount of bone needed to be cleaned, the intention is in the coming months, to scale up the operation and invite other volunteers to help with the process.

To explore the relationship between the newly exposed large stones in Trench 1b and the adjacent Trench 1c, it was decided to remove the remaining baulk between them. Colin and John quickly took up the task of de-turffing and the baulk was soon ready to have the remaining top soil removed down to the mottled clay layer. John N (helped by John A) was also tasked with removing the backfill from Trench 1c to reveal the large stone seen before in this trench when first excavated. This also revealed the suggestion of another large stone disappearing under the newly exposed mottled clay. Christine and Gaby meanwhile worked on the other side of the baulk studiously cleaning the stony layer newly exposed in this area. After it had been exposed, the mottled clay layer was carefully trowel to check for any features but there were none so the layer was recorded any ready for removal. In the afternoon, work started on the mottle clay’s removal and by end of play the underlying stones were starting to emerge, including the large hinted at earlier in the day.

Peter continued to investigate the corner between Trench 3a and 3c just to the south of the central sandy clay mound. He started by looking at the small circular patch of dark brown material which he half sectioned. This turned out to be quite shallow and a small sherd of Victorian pottery in the bottom of it confirmed it to be quite a modern cut. Peter then continued towelling down the surface until the stones and whitish clay, which could be seen in the section, was revealed on the surface. This also revealed the limit of the embedded stones – there were stones beyond this but tended to be more random.

Patrick continued working on Urn No.1 removing the remaining half section of his third spit. He’s finding that, although some large pieces are emerging, they are so fragile that they are falling apart very easily. Later in the afternoon, he was able to quarter section his fourth spit revealing the internal wall of the vessel. Reassuringly this seemed to be in good condition which bodes well for when when we come to lifting the urn.

Meanwhile Andrew continued working on the perceived inner edge of the discovered ditch in Trench 10. To confirm t was the inner edge, he took out the soft sandy clay fill revealing the profile of the edge in the harder, more compacted sandy clay. Bill also asked him to extend the trench where the stony layer had been revealed on the south side. This was to check how far it went as it wasn’t seen in the newly exposed extended Trench 10. He did reveal more stones but seemed less dense and the feature seemed to be petering out. Bill later asked him to have a look at the section cut through Features 13 and 14 in Trench 3a on the NE side. Bill had already drawn this section but, as the trench had been extended, it would be good to reflect this in his drawing.

Wednesday 23rd July
Day 41
Much better day today and a different team ready to go. No Chris but joining Bill and Patrick were Andrew, Peter, Alison, Jon, George and John Trippier.

A big effort today was made in cleaning off the rest of the mottled in Trench 1a and 1b, while Patrick continued with his work on Urn No.1 (F1) where he managed half section his third spit before it became to windy to proceed.

Andrew and George spent most of the day working in Trench 10 but before they moved on to it they got stuck in to remove the remnants of the small spoil heap NW of Trench 1b. In Trench 10 they concentrated on looking for the inner edge of the Ring Ditch having failed the day before. It took some time as there seem to be quite a depth of subsoil but eventually, with the help of the auger, they managed to get some indication of its position. Opening up this area revealed the subtle colour change in the sandy soil but Andrew said he could feel the difference with his trowel.

Before moving on to Trench 10, Andrew was asked to mark out a half metre by one and a half metre section on the NW side of Trench 1a. This was to check whether the line of stones in the trench continued to curve around. Once done, Andrew and Bill got stuck in to remove the turfs and plough soil and soon got down to the mottled clay layer. When Alison arrived she took over removing the mottled clay layer to reveal the stony layer below. Peter meanwhile worked in the adjacent Trench 1b starting in the north corner removing the remaining mottled layer material. This revealed a dip in the stony layer which the burnt layer seemed to follow. He worked back till the whole area was clear of the mottled layer.

Bill asked Jon to remove the remnants of a small isolated baulk in Trench 1b before moving onto the area next to it on the NW side. Although sealed under the mottled and burnt layers, we’ve always referred to this area as being devoid of stones. He cleaned this down to the sandy clay layer and then moved on to cleaning the stones at the entrance to Trench 1c. When John T arrived, he was tasked with cleaning off the remain material from where the small baulk had been to reveal more of the stony layer.
We are now getting a general overall picture of this area but still not making much sense.

Later in the afternoon Bill asked Peter to look at the corner between Trench 3a and 3c just to the south of the central sandy clay mound. This whole area had been previously trowelled down to the mottled clay layer to see if there were any more burials in this section. None turned up but in the corner, the line of the burnt layer could just about be seen coming through to the surface as it rose to follow the profile of the central sandy clay mound. Bill now wanted this corner removed so that the limit of the embedded stones could be seen (the stones show in Trench 1c section but not so much on the other side in Trench 3a). Taking just a two or three centimetres off the surface, Peter was able to reveal the clear line of the burnt layer crossing from Trench 3a and 3c but a small circular patch of dark brown material seemed to be interfering with its path.

Tuesday 22nd July
Day 40
Despite the forecast we had a decent turnout – joining Bill and Chris were Andrew, Peter, Colin, Ben and Dan Taylor (joining for the first time this year) – and Patrick made an appearance in the afternoon after the rain had stopped. The weather forecast was for light drizzle and we wouldn’t normally have bothered but Bill had other commitments later in the week and Chris was also having limited availability.

The forecast was wrong as we had proper rain on and off all morning. Despite this, the team cracked on with the work in hand. We needed to explore the line of large stones disappearing into the NW side of Trench 1b. However to do this, a small spoil heap had first to be cut back, a job undertaken by Chris and Ben. While this was being done, a half metre section, just over two metres wide, was marked out by Andrew on the NW side of the trench (we had to be careful not to go to close to the previously dug Trench 1d as this was our only access around the north side of our trenches). Colin and Dan then got stuck in removing the turf and and then the top soil. Meanwhile between showers, Peter trowelled off the remaining mottled layer in the NE side of the trench revealing the underlying stony layer. By lunch time Colin and Dan had reached the mottled layer in the newly exposed section and Chris was happy for them to continue removing this layer. This revealed the stony layer below and showed that the large stone we had seen disappearing into the side of the trench, was larger than expected, but there was no obvious large stone beyond it. However as the stony layer was cleaned, we were seeing a distinctive rise in the stony layer on this NW side of the trench.

Our wet conditions today were in stark contrast to the baking hot weather we been having over recent weeks and Bill had been concerned about our clay-lined feature (F4). It had been showing signs of deterioration due to it drying out and the surrounding sandy clay was showing signs of cracking, some of which were leading towards the feature. The protection we had been giving the feature meant that the feature and surrounding area, was still dry, so Bill removed the protection to allow the rain to give it a good wetting. This had the side effect of revealing the colour change we’d seen before, around the edge of the feature. What this represents is unclear – perhaps this was and earlier cut for the feature back filled before the clay lining was introduced but the section cut through showed it to be quite shallow feature).

When conditions allowed Andrew and Ben continued with the work in the newly extended Trench 10, looking for the location of the Ring Ditch on the east side. Removing the remaining plough soil revealed a layer of brown subsoil but no colour change indicating an edge to the ditch. Andrew reverted to using the auger which showed that we still seemed to be in ditch fill even at the extreme eastern side of the trench. The trench was extended another half metre and then another half metre which eventually gave signs with the auger that we had reached the ditch edge. Trowelling off the thin layer of subsoil eventually revealed the colour change we had been looking for i.e. a bright orange against the brown of the subsoil. If this is the natural ground surface though, it is different from the ground surface in our other trenches such as nearby Trenches 1 and 3. When plotted this edge was just under a metre further out than predicted, making the overall picture of the Ring Ditch a little less oval shaped. Andrew and Ben continued to look for a colour change on the inner edge of the ditch (supervised by Patrick) but without any luck.
Despite this we were quite please with our progress on a day that was far from an ideal digging day.

Saturday 19th July
Day 39
A last-minute change of plan meant that our friends from BHAG (Penny and Cathy) came up to Aspull instead of Chris and Denise joining them down in Cheshire (as they often do on a Saturday).

It was decided to work on the newly opened area in Trench 1b where the large aligned stones had just been revealed earlier in the week. Cathy, Penny and Chris removed most of the remaining mottled layer, exposing the small stone layer. After Penny and Cathy had left, Chris carried on cleaning the area on the other side of the large stones which showed patches of charcoal (which is as expected on top of the stony layer but we have not come across much of it in this area of Trench 1b).

Thursday 17th July
Day 38
Joining Bill and Chris today were Andrew, Peter, Steve, Rachael, Gaby and John Needle with Alison joining before lunch.

With the discovery of large stones in the NE corner of Trench1b, it was decided to extend the trench to investigate these more. There was some debate about whether we should go NW and follow the stones that were clearly continuing in that direction, or whether we should go NE where it was unclear about the continuation of the stones in that direction. It was decided in the end to go in both directions, taking a metre off in the NE direction and half a metre in the NW direction (carefully marked out by Andrew with the help of Rachael and Gaby). After removing the turfs the task of trowelling the plough soil off down to the mottle clay layer was given to Steve, John, Chris and Alison when she arrived just before lunch. The mottled clay layer was soon uncovered and did not revealing any surprises, but was still dutily recorded by Chris on his iPhone. The task of removing the mottled layer now began, uncovering the stony layer below. However it soon became clear that there was another large stone poking through the stony layer on the NW side of the trench, and again on the curved alignment of the suspected kerb feature. This was quite exciting as it seemed to confirm some form of intentional structure, whether it connects with the line of stones in Trench 1a however has yet to be seen.

Having decided that nothing more could be gained from investigating the stony layer at the SE end of Trench 3a and also the stony layer in Trench 1d, we could turn our attention to any other unresolved issue on the site. There was still the question about whether there was a second entrance on the east side of the Ring Ditch. Our coring survey last year seemed to indicate there wasn’t, but only by trenching would we be able to confirm this (a second entrance here would go a long way confirming the monument was in fact a repurposed henge). A one metre wide trench was therefore marked out on an easterly base line going through Peg 3a and Peg 20. It extending from Trench 10 eight metres out from Peg 20 and Peter joined Andrew, Rachael and Gaby in the de-turfing exercise. Bill later joined them removing the deep layer of plough soil and by the end of the day, the underlying subsoil began to emerge. At that stage though it was impossible to see any colour change which would indicate the location of the ditch.

Wednesday 16th July
Day 37
Chris back today and joining him were Bill, Patrick, Andrew, Peter, Jon and Gaby.

Andrew continued with his work on Trench 10, Bill asking him to extend the cut he had made last week on the south side of the trench by a couple of spade widths. This was to see if the extent the stony layer could be determined. With this in mind Andrew also cut a metre wide section on the opposite side of the trench. With Bill’s help the sections were de-turffed and Andrew was soon able to trowel through the overlying plough soil (filling the deep pit previously dug in this trench as he went). At the end of the day Andrew was able to show that the stony layer continued on either side of the the trench (but only further work would determine its extent).

Peter, having removed all the bone material from the ‘two stone slabs’ burial (F12), continued to investigate the pit itself. He was surprised to find that the pit (with some of the filling stones still in it) on the SW side seemed to be going under the overlying sandy clay layer.
How could this be as the pit had obviously been cut through this layer. The only possible explanation was that this was a recut which indicates that there were two burial events separated by the depositing of the sandy clay layer. This seemed to be backed up by Peter’s observation of possibly two different deposits of cremated bone material, the upper SE side being finer than the much larger pieces on the lower NW side. He did not detect anything separating the two, but if this was a cloth or leather bag, it would not have survived anyway. Cleaning up the adjacent section wall also revealed a possible earlier cut on both sides of the excavated pit.

Patrick continued with his micro-excavation of Urn No.1 (F1) taking off another spit. He now has a removed about two spits, each 1cm deep, from the urn.

Jon and Gaby were asked to work on the the NE corner of Trench 1b where some large stones were poking through (see Day27). They were asked to remove the overlying stony layer to see how big the these stones were and if there were anymore. It turned out that the stones were quite large and more were emerging under the stony layer (revealing an area similar to the one discovered in Trench 1b in 2023). Significantly though (unlike the previous discoveries of large stones) some of these stones seemed to be in an alignment following a curved path like the kerb around some possible feature (even possibly lining up with the line of stones recently uncovered in Trench 1a). This would be the first true structure discovered on the site (however if it is a kerb, it seems to be facing away from the main monument area).

Thursday 10th July
Day 36
Still no Chris but joining Bill and Patrick today were Peter, Andrew, Rachael, Colin and Gaby. In the afternoon we had a visit from Kim Teale from the Archaeological Research Services (ARS – the group who fund the CARD programme from which we have had two free radiocarbon dates from and one still in the pipe line).

Rachael and Gaby joined Alison with her work on trowelling the whole of the stony surface in Trench 1a and its connection with Trench 1b. We’re now at a stage when we can remove the line of large stones but will leave it till after Chris has droned it first.

Colin continued with the work on Trench 1d trying to understand the nature of the stony layer which seems to be continuing. Bill was keen to understand whether this was a layer of stones on top of the soft sandy clay (as the case in the central area of the monument) or a layer of brown sandy clay with the stones embedded in it (a the case in Trench 1c and the SE end of Trench 3a). To check this out Colin cut a section through to the soft sandy clay which quickly proved that this was in fact the former i.e. a layer of stones lying directly on the soft sandy clay. The only thing to do was to extend the trench once more in a hope of finding the end. However after de-turfing another half and trowelling off the soil, the stones continued, albeit more like a scatter similar to the last couple of metres.

Andrew was asked initially asked to take down the very end of the cut in the SE end of Trench 3a (Sondage 3a.S9) to see if he could Identify the bottom of the soft sandy clay (i.e. the supposed natural undisturbed surface). After about 30cm he reached the harder stonier level but as usual the transition was not very convincing. Bill recorded it then asked Andrew to have another look at Trench 10 on the east side of the monument.

As previous mentioned (Day 30) we had detected stones last year (Day 36) when Bill dug a test pit which later became Trench 10. The stones were similar to the ones seen at the NW end of Trench 1c and now also at the SE end of Trench 3a. Bill wanted to re-examine the layer in which the stones were embedded to see its relationship with the mottled clay layer which had been detected going that far to the east. Taking a spade’s width, a metre wide, off the south face of the trench (half a metre from Peg10), he was able to reveal the stones embedded in soft brown sandy clay layer. Cleaning up the section also revealed the mottled clay layer (and significantly the burnt layer) stopping short of the brown sandy clay layer (a very similar arrangement to the SE end of Trench 3a and NW end of Trench 1c).

With the continuing good weather conditions, Patrick took the opportunity to remove more material from Urn No.1 (F1) which he is doing one spit at a time. Peter also continued with his micro-excavation of the burial under the two slabs (F12). By the end of the day he had removed, bagged and labelled all the remaining pieces. These exceptionally large fragments will be the most useful when trying to determine the nature of the person(s) buried here.

When Kim Teale arrived in the afternoon Bill gave her the usual comprehensive tour of the Ring Ditch while Patrick took her over our array of burials. As with all our guests, she was enormously impressed with our efforts, which she promised to relate back to her colleagues at ARS. Kim is in charge of training programmes for geophysics and suggested a possible magnetometry session on our site and also a high resolution LiDAR survey using their drone (which could confirm ridge a furrow previously possibly seen as crop marks in aerial images). Bill said any help they could offer would be most appreciated.

Wednesday 9th July
Day 35
No Chris today but joining Bill and Patrick were, Peter, Jen, Alison, Marlene, Dave North and new starter Gaby Bamford from John Rigby 6th Form College.

Bill ask Marlene and Gaby to trowel the surface of Trench 3a at the SE end. Previously Bill had recorded the section in the this trench which revealed the interface between the mottled clay layer and the layer containing the embedded stones. However it still wasn’t clear the extent of this interface. Cleaning the surface did reveal this (although quite subtly) and also the banding in the mottled clay layer which had been seen in the section.

Jen continued working on the SW side of Trench 3a. Previously Bill had asked her to take down the baulk between Trench1b and Trench3a. He now asked her to trowel down the other side of the pit in Trench 3a and the area beyond so that the hard surface below the soft sandy clay could be exposed. Bill had previously detected a ridge of hard compacted stony clay between Jen’s pit and the pit previously excavated pit in this trench. What this means is anyone’s guess as it’s still not clear if the soft sandy clay on which the stony layer lies, is manmade or not.

John and Dave were asked to extend Trench 1d to see if the end of the stony layer could be found. Another half metre of turf was removed and the remaining soil trowelled out but once again the stony layer emerged, perhaps not as intense but certainly there.

Meanwhile Alison was asked to re-trowel the surface of Trench 1a which had been originally excavated in 2023. This was so that it would match the surface in Trench 1b now that the baulk between two had been removed. A line of large stones emerged which Alison though might be covering a cavity.

Patrick continued with his micro-excavation of Urn No.1 (F1) having first quartered and half section his first 1cm spit, then fully removing it. Again it revealed a lot more soil than charcoal and cremated bone but he made sure all was collected, bagged and labelled for possible later analysis.

Peter continued with his micro-excavation of the the burial under the two slabs (Feature F12). He noticed the there was a distinct difference between the SE side of the burial which had much smaller fragments of cremated bone, to the NW side which increasing seemed to be revealing quite a few large pieces. By the end of the day Peter was able to reveal some very large identifiable pieces.

Saturday 5th July
Day 34
Today we had visits form the Merseyside Archaeological Society (MAS) and the Young Archaeology Club (YAC) also from Merseyside. Both visits were hosted by Patrick, Bill and Chris both being away for the weekend.

Due to issue with limited parking space, it was decided to have the YAC’s visit in the afternoon after the MAS had gone. All members of MAS were suitably impressed with our site and left with high praise for our efforts in excavating and recording this very unusual monument.

The Mersey and Dee Young Archaeologists Club also reported on a fantastic visit. Vanessa Oakden (leader of the group) said Patrick gave an engaging introduction and tour of the site which was enjoyed by both YAC members and their parents. This was their first dig this year and for some members their first dig ever so the opportunity to learn or refresh trowelling skills and do some sieving was great.
Snowy the dog’s company was also enjoyed! To connect with prehistory in a tangible and hands-on way has given the Mersey & Dee YAC a great experience and some lasting memories which she was sure would have a positive impact on their archaeology journey. She gave a big thank you to Patrick and WAS!

Wednesday 2nd July
Day 33
Today Chris and Bill were joined by Patrick, Alison, Steve and Dave North.

Dave and Alison continued the work on the cut in the SE end of Trench 3a (Sondage 3a.S9) making it ready for Bill to record it. Dave worked on taking the SE end down deeper into the soft sandy clay, while Alison worked on the other side cleaning the section, deepening the cut and squaring off the end. Once this was complete Bill, with Alison’s help, recorded the cut by drawing the section.

Steve continued with the work on Trench 1d extending it by more than half a metre but still stones appeared (though more scattered now). Bill asked him to widen the NW end of the trench towards the NE by a couple of spade widths (about 1m wide section) hoping the end would be in that direction but more stones appeared.

Meanwhile Chris continued working in Trench 3d widening the bedrock base – still no sign to indicate if we’re looking at a manmade feature or a natural formation in the fragmenting rock.

Patrick spent sometime preparing the site for the planned visit at the weekend by the Merseyside Archaeological Society and the Young Archaeology Club from Merseyside. This included some gardening, cleaning up relevant sections and reconstructing the sieving frame.

Tuesday 1st July
Day 32
On site today were Bill, Chris, Andrew, Marlene, Susan and Jon with Ben Goodburn joining just before lunch.

Chris and Susan spent some time cleaning our F2 feature i.e. where we had removed Urn No.2 in the block-lift. Susan cleaned off the splashes of Plaster of Paris while Chris removed and bagged the loose soil from the area around the burial. Frustratingly we won’t be doing any more work on this burial until the block is processed. This is because it is important that the two are done in conjunction with each other so that their contexts can be matched.

Marlene and Andrew continued with the work on the SE end of Trench 3a. While Andrew deepened the cut (Sondage 3a.S9), Marlene trowelling the surface of the stony area at the SE end. It is proving difficult to find any edge to the stony area as the stones are embedded and not therefore forming a surface.

Jon meanwhile continued working on the cut in the SW end of Trench 1a (Sondage S3/S4) which he had cleaned a few weeks before (Day 24). At the time he had noticed a small patch of brown in the soft sandy clay side wall and bottom of the cut which he thought might be a feature. Further investigation revealed it to have flecks of black in it which could be charcoal. We have not so far had any evidence in thick band of sandy clay stretching across the whole of the interior of the ring ditch, which forms the mound, that would suggest that it is manmade. Charcoal would be good evidence but, after Jon had half-sectioned the feature, he realised the black flecks were actually pieces of shale. While he was there Bill asked him to cut a section the one of the voids discovered last time. This revealed it to be tapered with some seemingly organic material at the bottom which Bill bagged for possible later analysis. This certain now looks like a stake hole which the section shows to be going through the stony layer but lying under the mottled clay layer. The conclusion is that the stake must have been there at the same time as the stony layer, may have even been burned during the burning event. The resulting stump was then covered over by the mottled clay layer, to be left to rot away to almost nothing over the millennia. Bill retrieved what looked like organic material from the bottom, bagging it for possible future analysis.

Bill worked on Trench 1d extending it by about half a metre trying to find the end of the stones, making the trench just short of 4.5m long. This revealed more stones but getting bigger after the patch of smaller ones.

When Ben arrived Chris asked him to continue the work he had started in Trench 3d clearing the base of the trench. This revealed more of the solid bedrock.

Saturday 28th June
Day 31
Our friends from the BHAG were due on site today, but unfortunately car issues meant they had to turn back. That only left Chris and partner Denise – after lunch Roger arrived with his friend Keisha for a tour.

While waiting Chris decided to tackle the pit in Trench 3d which the BHAG would have been working on. The plan was to explore the base of the pit, instead of going around the edges to see if the pit had a flat floor similar to the rock cut ditch. Luckily, after only trowelling down a couple of centimetres, a floor appeared. This alone is not enough to decide if the pit is natural or man made but gives us the chance now to follow the floor and collect more information about shape and size of the pit.

Denise meanwhile spent the morning finding the small boxes of bones that are around the central area marking the exact location where bones were found. She cleaned and remarked all of the boxes ready for recording with a drone shot.

Thursday 26th June
Day 30
Joining Bill and Chris today were Andrew, Patrick, Rachael, Susan and Colin. After lunch Stephen Cunliffe and his wife Laurie arrived for a visit and Bill gladly gave them the regular site tour.

Quite a blustery day today so it was decided not to work on the cremated bone deposits in F1 and F2. Instead Patrick took the opportunity to collect the material already retrieved (bags of fill and small boxes of bone) from F1. Chris meanwhile recorded the recently cleaned section through the stony ‘cairn’ in at the base of the ditch in Trench 5.

In an attempt to resolve the issue of the stony layer at the SE end of Trench 3a, it was decided to extend it by another half metre or so. Rachael and Andrew was tasked with this, while Susan was asked to extend the cut (Sondage 3a.S9) at the other end so that the change in surface colour, detected the day before, could be investigate in the section.
Extending the trench did not reveal more of the stony layer on the surface, but extending the cut (Sondage 3a.S9) did show quite a depth of stones in the SW section. These where quite small and loosely embedded in the brownish layer lying on top of the orange soft sandy clay. Bill had been assuming this layer to be the subsoil similar to that which had been revealed in Trench 1c in 2023.

With Bill’s help, Susan was able to extend the other side of the cut by another half metre or so, cutting through the surface colour change. This revealed something very interesting – the reddish line was actually the burnt layer rising to the surface from the SE. We must therefore have trowelled through it when clean the surface of this trench. It was also fascinating to see that the mottled clay lying above it, was diving downwards towards the SE in light and dark bands. The stony layer beyond therefore must be lying above it. We now seemed to be getting a better understanding of what is going on here. In fact it now seems very much like the arrangement at the the other end of the monument in Trench1c (excavated in 2023) where the mottled clay layer was also diving under a stony layer at the NW end.

The stones in the stony layer at the SE end of Trench 3a appear to have a variety of colours but Bill was convinced many of the them were similar to the stones uncovered in Trench 1c. Underneath their mottled patina he could detect a distinctive pale green tinge (or maybe blue) just like the ones he reported on in 2023 (Day 41) when Trench 1c was excavated. To try to prove this, he opened up a test pit in the area of Trench 1c (which had subsequently been backfilled). The test pit was cut about 4m from Peg 10a next to where Trench 1c had been dug and retrieved some of the stones from that layer. He compared the stones from each they certainly seemed to be identical suggesting these layers were part of the same construction phase, having been source from the same place. In fact we had detected similar stones last year (Day 36) in Trench 10 on the east side of the monument, lying similarly beyond the mottled clay layer – could it be that the mottled clay mound had been edged by a layering of small stones for some reason (they certainly hadn’t been effected by the burning event).

Meanwhile Colin was given the task of extending Trench1d to see if he could find the extent of the stony layer in that area. By the end of the day he was able to extend the trench to just short of 4m. He found that the stones continued all the way to the end of the trench. However the last metre or so, the stones seemed to be different in appearance i.e. much small and more loosely embedded in the soil, in fact similar to the stony layer discovered in the SE end of Trench 3a and also the NW end of Trench1c. This seemed to be confirming the theory that there was a layering of small stones around the edge of the mottled clay mound and at this point the general stony layer.

Wednesday 25th June
Day 29
No Chris today but joining Bill and Patrick were Peter, Marlene, Alison and Jen Harrison back from her hols.

Jen went straight into the trench she had been working at the start of the year i.e. Trench1b on the SW side. Bill asked if she could take down the baulk between Trench1b and Trench3a to see the relationship between the two adjacent pits. Jen had noticed when digging out the pit in 3a that the material in it was clean sandy clay, whereas the surrounding section was not clean i.e full of brown inclusions. This was also true of the intervening baulk. Bill was interested in this area as he was assuming the base of the pits represented the natural undisturbed ground surface. The localised undulations of these pits suggest some kind of activity on the site before the construction of the Bronze Age mound, perhaps during the Ring Ditch supposed Neolithic period (or even before). Completely removing the baulk showed the pit in Trench 3a to be deeper than the base of the pit in Trench 1b.

Peter had only this one day on site before he went on his hols, but it was agreed he should continue with his removal of the cremated bone from the pit that lay under the two large slabs (Feature F12). It was thought we should take advantage of the weather which was suitably calm enough for the procedure. Osteologist Sam Walsh had seen the burial and, following her advice, it was decided to take the material out in spits 2 to 3 cm deep. As before, large pieces emerged, including another piece of vertebrae and what appeared to be part of the skull around the ear. He noticed that there was a gap between the pack of bones and the sides of the pit suggesting something had held it in position (perhaps a leather bag of box).

Following Ian Miller’s advice, it was decided to remove its contents of Urn No.1 (Feature F1) before lifting it. This would hopefully ease the pressure on the vessel wall and thus reduce the risk of it falling apart. Patrick took the same approach as Peter taking the fill down this time in 1cm spits. He first quartered then half sectioned it which revealed a lot of soil mixed with the charcoal and cremated bone. This was not surprising as the remains of this vessel has been lying just under the plough soil for a long time.

Alison and Marlene continued the work on the SE end of Trench 3a, trying to establish the nature of the stony layer which had turned up there. Bill asked them to clean the surface to see if they could find the extent of it. Alison worked at the very SE end of the trench which was proving difficult as the stone were generally small and loose in the fill so kept coming out. However she still was able to show that the stones continued up to the end of the trench. Marlene meanwhile worked on cleaning the other end, trying to establish the interface between the mottled clay surface and the stony layer. This seemed inconclusive as the stones, when they did appear were random and again kept coming out of the fill. Bill took over from Marlene when she left after lunch and he was able to extend the cleaning further up the trench (towards the centre). Here he noticed a distinct change in the colour of the mottled clay surface defined by a reddish line crossing the trench at an angle. This area is proving to be be more complexed than expected, it is hoped extending the section might resolve the issue.

Tuesday 24th June
Today Bill, Chris, Patrick, Peter and John Trippier convened at the Bolton Archive facility where we took our lifted urn last week and where we intend to carry out its micro-excavation. Ian Trumble who invited us, is also allowing us to carry out the processing of all our cremated bone. We had therefore brought all the cremated bone removed so far including the fill from the burial pits. An inventory of all the material was taken and the method of processing it discussed. In the next few weeks or so we will be making arrangements for a team to go there on a regular bases to carry out the process as well as the micro-excavation of the urn.

Wednesday 18th June
Day 28
Big day today, as we had planned to lift Urn No.2. So it was early start with Chris, Patrick and Marlene Nolan already on site when Bill, Andrew and Steve arrived. Ian Trumble soon followed with his extra equipment before going off to work (to return in the afternoon to witness the lift). Joining us later in the morning were John Trippier, Ben Dyson, Alison and Ben Goodburn. We also had a visit from Dave Goulden from Friends of Astley Hall in Chorley where a Bronze Age burial was excavated in the 1970’s.

The area around our Urn No.2 needed some preparation for lifting (video cameras being set up etc.). While this was being done, work continued on other areas of the site. Ben G, having finished in Trench5a, moved into Trench5 to clean up the sections of the charcoal-rich cairn making it ready for recording. Steve continued trowelling off remnant of the mottled clay layer from the stony layer in the newly exposed area of Trench1b. He continued his cleaning into the previously exposed area to show the full extent of the stony layer in this trench.

Bill continued working on Trench1d and with the help of Dave Goulden was able to extend it to just over two metres. Dave removed all the mottled layer which was quite thin to reveal the stony layer below with no sign of the burnt layer.

Andrew and Alison continued the work on the SE end of Trench 3a where a stony layer had been revealed. They were able to extend the section by cutting through the layer that the stones were embedded in, down to the lighter soft sandy clay layer below (now labelling this cut as Sondage 3a.S9). It seemed to Bill that this stony layer was similar to the stony layer found at end of Trench 1c (excavated in 2023). In that trench it seemed quite clear that the stony layer was embedded in a subsoil which lay on top of the mottled clay layer, but on top of the soft sandy clay on the other side going towards Trench 5b. Its something we need to check if its the same here.

Work could start in earnest of our Urn No.2 when Ben Dyson arrived on site. First thing to reduce the amount of hardened clay encasing the urn on the north side. Patrick was able to do this by carefully worked on the lighter material down to the apparent cut line of the enclosing pit. It was decided however to leave the hard orange clay protrusion (see Day21) in position. The next thing was to deal with the pieces that had come loose from the urn. Having first recorded their position each piece was removed and placed in a numbered bag. The inside of the urn was then packed with a wadding of bubble wrap having first made sure the base of the urn did not fall in (this was achieved by using an old credit card). Cling film was then wrapped around the block and where necessary gaps were packed once again with bubble wrap wadding. Crepe bandages were then wrapped around the block. This was followed by an acid free plastic tissue material to protect the bandages from the next phase i.e. Plaster of Paris. After protecting the lower burial contain cremated bones, the Plaster of Paris was applied using bandages soaked in it. This was allowed to set before another layer was applied and allowed to set while we waited for Ian to return in the afternoon to help with the lift.
Once the second batch of Plaster of Paris had set we were ready to attempt to lift the block, the idea being that by undercutting around the edges, the block would break free from the underlying surface. A metal plate could then be inserted underneath to support the contents. This however proved to be much more difficult than expected. On the north side, after some persuasion, the block did indeed crack free – but the south side did not. The issue seemed to be with the sandy clay on that side which had small stones embedded in it and also the clay had not completely dried making it not solid. It was only after some wrestling with it that we able to get a plate under to support the contents (in fact two plates were needed in the end). Once completely free the block was lifted onto the transportation box supplied by Ian where it was once again wrapped in cling film. It was then placed in side the box on foam packing. We then were able to take it off site to be taken to the Bolton Museum facility by Chris and Patrick carefully supporting it on his knees (phew!).

Tuesday 17th June
Day 27
Joining Bill and Chris today were Andrew, Patrick, Steve, Alison Winnard, John Needle and John Trippier.

This week we intend to lift at least one of our urns, so first off Chris convened a meeting to discuss the proposed plan of attack so that we can do the lift following day. It was decided to lift Urn No.2 first as it was the most fragile and had suffered the most deterioration. Chris proposed a block-lift which he thought we could achieve as the urn was encased in sandy clay which had set hard in the dry weather. He went through the procedure Ian Trumble had suggest to him including a list of equipment needed (Ian had as already done a block-lift when he worked on Star Carr) . We were still some items short which Ian said he would bring in the morning before he went to work. Ben Dyson from GMAAS had kindly offered to supervise the lift on the day. It was decided therefore not to do any more work on the urns today.

Bill said we still had more work to do on the central area of the monument. Although we had a good idea of the extent of the stony layer in most areas, there were just a couple of corners still undefined i.e. on the west and north sides. He suggested therefore a new trench on the north side of Trench1b starting about a metre or so beyond it heading in a northeast direction. Its width would be restricted though due to the spoil heaps on this side of the trenches. With this agreed, John N helped Bill with the removal of the turfs and some of the spoil which the trench inevitably cut into. This revealed the expected mottled clay layer but also the stony layer on the northeast side of the trench with on covering clay layer. This meant the trench would need to be expanded in the northwest direction (and into more of the spoil heap).

Steve was given the task of trowelling off the mottled clay layer of the newly exposed north corner of nearby Trench1b. Some larger stones appeared on the northeast edge of the trench rising up where there seemed to be a gap in the mottled clay layer. This was confirmed in the section which showed the mottled clay layer undulating severely at that point (possibly due to the plough).

Alison meanwhile continued exploring the patch of charcoal near feature F18 in Trench3a on the southwest side. By cutting a small sondage down the side of it she was able to demonstrate the charcoal did not go any deeper.

Patrick, Andrew and John T continued with the work on the stony area at the SE end of Trench 3a exposing more of the stony layer. There was some debate about its context in relation to the rest of the monument. The first impression was that the stones were embedded in the subsoil previously identified in this area lying on top off the softy sandy clay (similar to the stony layer discovered on the very northeast end of Trench1c). To investigate this, Bill asked them to expand the sondage already cut through it to exposed the section. Early impressions were that this it was the case as the more brightly coloured soft sandy clay could be detected underneath the darker brown of the stone filled layer. However more work will be needed here to confirm this.

Saturday 14th June
Day 26
BHAG had been due to come up to Aspull today, but due to the bad weather had cancelled.  The weather turned out fine, and apart from a sharp 10min downpour. There was still a decent turnout as joining Chris and Patrick were Peter, John Trippier, Roger and his friend Martin.

Chris and Peter carefully examined the area around Urn No.2 looking at the newly discovered darker brown layer containing small stones on the south side. They also cleared a path beneath the lump of hard orange clay so that it could be included in the block lift due to take place next week.

John and Patrick continued to clean the recently opened area at the SE end of Trench 3a where a layer of stones had been found.

After lunch, Roger arrived with his friend Martin, who was given a tour of the site by Chris. Roger meanwhile helped Peter in de-turfing the north corner of Trench1b and trowelling it down to the mottled clay layer.

Before leaving Chris competed drone survey of the interior of the site.

Thursday 12th June
Day 25
Joining Bill and Chris today were Andrew, Peter, Francesca, Rachael and Steve Parry with Patrick and Ben joining later.

Francesca and Rachael joined Andrew working on the stony area at the SE end of Trench 3a. To get an idea of its extent, it was decided to cut a 1.5m wide section 0.5m towards the NW. This revealed more stones, some larger ones.

Steve joined Peter working on the section in the NW corner of Trench1b where Peter had removed the baulk between it and Trench1a. This did not reveal much burning but did show a reddish layer covering the stony layer which was reminiscent of the stony area exposed when this trench was extended towards Trench3a at the very start of last year’s excavations.

When Ben arrived he continued with the task of cleaning out the bottom of Trench 5a. When finished he will move onto the adjacent trench (Trench 5) to prepare the stony mound which lies at the bottom of it, for recording.

At lunchtime we were joined by Ian Trumble who brought up more equipment for our planned urn lifting next week. Ian has block-lifted items in the past so has some experience of the difficulties. He was able to explain some of these which will be invaluable for our attempts. Urn No.2 will be the most difficult due to its condition but it is hoped to be able to lift it still encased in its surrounding sandy clay which has set like concrete. Once out and supported on their respective steel plates, wrapped in their protective padding and bandages, the blocks will be placed in padded boxes, also provided by Ian’s Museum services, ready for transport to the archive centre in Bolton.

In the afternoon Bill carried on with his work on the large flat stone slabs near our suspected cist (F11). This time he worked close to the large cavity which is thought to be the heart of the suspected cist. The inside of the cavity had been covered by a tarp to protect any potential material from contamination and Bill was keen to keep it as he worked near it. As he cleared away the soft brown sandy clay around the large stones, more small stones emerged in and amongst them but no sign of a cavity or stone arrangement that could suggest anything like burial structure. Despite there being no sign of charcoal near the bottom of the pit surprisingly a large piece cremated bone appeared, on its onw in the soft sandy clay. John Needle had discovered some flecks of cremated bone when this area was first uncovered last year (Day 25) lying under a large triangular stone, but that was further to the NW. This new large piece could be more of the same and maybe the overspill from a disturbed burial inside the suspected cist itself.

Wednesday 11th June
Day 24
Joining Bill and Chris today were Andrew, Peter, Isabel, Jon and Roger with Patrick joining before lunch.

Peter and Jon finished working on the newly exposed section in Trench 3a on the NE side (near Peg 3), trowelling off the last of the mottled clay layer to reveal the stony layer below. There were traces of burning but not as intense as further to the southeast in the this area. There were no signs of any burials but they did come across three small voids below the mottled going through the stones into the sandy clay below. Probing showed them to be from 20cm to 40cm deep. They weren’t particularly vertical so thought probably not stake holes and as there were no signs of decayed matter, probably not tree roots either. The only other suggestion was that they were the result of a burrowing animal. Jon then cleaned out the cut in the SW end of Trench 1a (Sondage S3/S4) revealing the unusual sudden step in the compacted stony base (assume to be the natural ground surface). Meanwhile Peter removed the part of the thin baulk separating Trench 1a from 1b. This was in preparation to removing the mottled clay layer which was left in NE corner of Trench 1b when it was originally excavated.

Andrew was tasked with continuing with the investigation of the stony layer embedded in the subsoil located at the SE end of Trench 3a. By deepening the section he could confirm its depth to be about 20 to 30cm.

The Friday before, Chris, Patrick and John Trippier had been invited by Ian Trumble to visit the Bolton Museum archive facility where they have kindly offered to take our urns and cremated remains for processing. Ian was able to show them their environmentally controlled rooms ideally suited for our purposes and equipment we will need for it. Ian was also able to give Chris items we will need for removing the urns such as bandages, binding tape etc. which Chris brought on site. These were stored in waterproof boxes Chris had also acquired (the plan is to attempt to lift at least one of the urns next week – weather permitting). Chris then carried out one of his regular drone surveys.

When Patrick arrived, he continued excavating the small section he had opened up on the SE side of our clay-lined feature (F4). Isabel and Roger meanwhile continued to investigate the large patch of next to the small group of stones (F18) which contained flecks of charcoal. Many more flecks began to emerge which seemed to be spread across an area of over metre with some quite intense patches – and eventually some tiny specks of cremated bone was starting to emerge. Near to where the small patch of small stones had been, a more intense patch of charcoal was revealed with some large pieces in it. This are is now looking quite promising.

Bill carried on with his work on the section on the SW side of the cist feature (f11), this time working more towards the area of to the suspected cist where we found the large cavity. Here large slabs of stone are lying at odd angles suggesting they could have been the remains of a cist extending from the cavity area.

Tuesday 4th June
Day 23
Great turnout today despite the unpredictable weather. Joining Chris and Bill were Andrew, Peter, Steve, Susan Jon Shelley and John Needle with John Trippier, Patrick, Ben and Roger Chapman joining later.

John N was deployed in Trench 3 with Steve in Trench 3d. Steve spent time cleaning off the bedrock at the very SE end of the trench revealing the regular fissions in it. This he suggested my explain the shape edge to the pit in this area. John was tasked with cleaning the section on the NW edge of the ditch revealing the small layer of compacted glacial till lying on top of the bedrock (further to the NW in the this trench the bedrock gives way to a deep layer of soft sandy clay).

Chris continued looking at the area around Urn No.2 but, as the wind was disturbing the cremated bone, he decided to abandon this and recover the feature. When Roger arrived Chris tutored him in trowelling technique working in Trench 1b. When Ben arrived he continued with the task of cleaning out the bottom of Trench 5a bringing it back to the state it was in when it was first excavated. Susan and John T continued with their work on the area around the patch small stone in Trench3a SE side (F18). Carefully removing the stones revealed the feature to be quite shallow and, although some encouraging patterns of orange clay did emerge, there was no sign of any cremated bone to suggest this was a burial feature.

Patrick continued working on the clay-lined pit feature (F4) cutting a new section on the SE side of it. This is so that the nature of the feature’s stone base can be investigated on this side, as it seems to be rising in the interior.

Peter and Jon continued with the work in Trench 3a on the NE side (around Peg 3), trowelling off the mottled clay to reveal the stony layer underneath.

The day was abandoned slightly earlier than planned with approach of heavy rain. Bill just about managed to get his photo of Trench 6/6a in just before it arrived (which he had previously been unable to get due to the sun) – but unfortunately got a soaking exiting the site).

Saturday 31th May
Day 22
This visit was arranged at short notice for our friends from BHAAG in Cheshire who came to join the effort to make the whole site tidy for potential visitors (this being the last time the whole site will be visible before being backfilled at the end of the season). Joining Chris were Denise (Chris’s partner), Don and Gill Wilson and Cathy Harris.

Cathy and Don first worked on cleaning up the pit at the southern end of Trench 3 (Trench 3d).

They then worked in the ditch section of Trench 3 continuing the business of tidy up its sections.

Denise and Gill helped Chris clean up the site in general by picking up loose stones that had become buried in the grass, packing burial pit fill material into new sturdier boxes and a bit of gardening. Chris continued to film the ditch trenches and the main burial features to build up a library of video footage.

Thursday 29th May
Day 21
Seven volunteers on site today (including Bill back from his hols). Joining Chris were Patrick, Peter, Rachael, Steve and Susan with Bill joining in the afternoon.

Steve spent some time finishing off the ditch in Trench 3. This in now looking very good with the bedrock clearly exposed in the sidewalls, especially on the SE side (steps have been left in on the NW side). The bedrock though on the SE side, being laminated and friable, looks to have collapsed – I suppose we will never know whether this happened when the ditch was originally dug out or had always been like that. Now that the full width of the trench has been excavated, the direction of the ditch has been revealed and it seems to be heading more to the west than we had previously assumed.

Peter continued with the work in Trench3a on the NE side, trowelling off the remaining thin layer of mottled clay on the NW side to reveal the underlying stony layer – no surprises yet but there still might be something under the stony layer.

Patrick continued working on the clay-lined feature (F4). The narrow slot he cut into the side of the trench on the NE side had now reached the feature itself. The suspected original pit for the feature, which seemed to be apparent on the surface (seen in April Day 9) could just about be seen in the section. There was also signs of the hole in the side wall coming through from the interior. His slot is now deeper than the feature itself and (unlike the slot on the NW side) the stone base encountered in the interior could be seen protruding outside. Susan continued with the work on the nearby patch of small stones embedded in the mottle clay layer (F18). Still no cremated bone but many flecks of charcoal – in fact the whole area to the NW of the feature seemed to have flecks of charcoal embedded in the mottled clay layer.
The clay layer is quite deep here so the charcoal cannot be attributed to the burning layer which lies at the bottom on this layer.

Chris continued working on the area around Urn No.2 (F2) slowly getting closer to the urn itself (Bill managed to retrieve the loose piece that had fallen inside the urn). As mentioned before, the layering is becoming very complicated – the only feasible explanation is that there has been a series of deposits, the urn being the last. On the south side of the urn, a lump of hard orange clay is reminiscent of the orange clay lining of feature F4. Beneath this lump, and the bright clay encasing the urn, there appears to be a darker layer containing small stones (the towel is pointing north btw).

Rachael meanwhile continued with the work on the SE end of Trench 3a exposing more of the stony layer embedded in the subsoil. She was also able to extend the cut down the SW side of the trench revealing some depth to this stony layer (a similar patch was revealed in Trench 1c on the NW side going towards Trench 5.

Wednesday 28th May
Day 20
Another good turnout – joining Chris today were Patrick, Susan, Peter, Jon and John Needle with David North and John Ashcroft joining at lunch time.

At last the dry weather has broken with intense rain over the weekend but this has caused its own problem. It was therefore slow start as we waited for the last of the rain to clear and the main excavation area to dry out. After removing the covers from Urn No.2, it was clear that the high wind had caused the urn to suffer a small collapse, with a sherd from the base of it falling inside.

Jon and Peter continued to remove the mottled layer on the newly exposed area at the NE side of Trench 3a. The curvature of the stony layer has become very distinctive and seems to be matching the slight embankment on the east side of the central sandy clay mound.

Later, when the conditions were dryer, work began cleaning the area to the west side of feature F4 and Urn No.1 (F1) which includes the patch of small stones embedded in the mottled clay layer (F18).

John N meanwhile continued cleaning out the bottom of the ditch in Trench 3. When John Ashcroft and Dave North arrived, John was given the task of carefully removing the 2cm layer of top soil from the SE end of Trench 3a to expose more stones. Dave meanwhile joined John N in the Trench 3 ditch and continued to expose the bedrock.

Patrick began a new excavation on the clay-lined pit feature (F4), cutting a new section from the side of the trench on the NE side. This was to investigate the possibility of a pit which could apparently be seen on the surface around the feature on that side. It was also to try and see if we could learn more about the base of the clay lining and explore the nature of the hole in the side wall.

Thursday 22th May
Day 19
A good turnout today – joining Chris were Steve, Susan, Isabel, Rachael, Peter, Patrick and John Trippier. We also welcomed three recent new starters, Alison and Jon who started the previous Week, and Roger Chapman who also had previously visited when Ben Dyson was on site. The dry weather continues but there is a forecast of rain next week.

Racheal and Alison worked with John Trippier cleaning and exploring the areas of interest in the newly exposed area to the west of Urn No.1 and feature F4 (southwest side of Trench 3a). John T and Alison explored a circular patch of stones and the area around them (designated F18). There are flecks of charcoal around the edge of this area, but as yet, no sign of any cremated bone (more work to be done here). Racheal defined an oval area containing flecks of charcoal and a small amount of cremated bone before half sectioning it. This area proved to be shallow so maybe only the bottom of a feature (now designated F19).

Steve and Isabel continued to clean the ditch in Trench 3. Working on the unexcavated southwest side of the trench, a new grey clay layer was exposed at the bottom of the ditch under a block of ditch fill that had not been worked on before. They carefully worked their way to the bedrock wall of the ditch on the other side of which is the ‘pit’ (Trench 3d) that our colleagues from the Border Heritage Group have been digging on Saturdays.

Roger and Patrick joined Peter removing the mottled clay layer from all the newly de-turfed area at the northeast side of Trench 3a, exposing the stony layer below the burning layer. On the northeast edge of this area, working across at a level, the stones disappear. It’s not a feature though, or an edge, as the stony layer is sloping down (as can been seen in the section).

Chris and Susan continued to work on the preparation for the block lifting of Urn No.2. We now have two sides of the block at level 5cm below the rim of the urn (the urn is inverted). Next week we need to tackle the two other sides, which have the layer of bones to deal with, which will complete the bulk of the preparation for the lifting.

Chris conducted a drone survey of the entire site (first of the year, as the central area has been the focus of interest this year) to show the clean ditches.

Tuesday 20th May
Day 18
Only four on site today, with on his hols (again) Chris was in charge. Joining him were Colin, Steve and Susan Rimmer from the Merseyside Arch Soc.

Work continuing tidying up the site including cleaning out two years’ worth of weathering in the ditch trenches. A bit of gardening required as well. After completing the initial clean up on the ditch in Trench 5, Colin and Steve moved over to Trench 3 to begin working there.

Chris and Susan continued to slowly, but steadily, work around Urn No.2 to prepare the area for lifting which is planned for next month.  The intention is to work around the outside of the urn, which is clearly in poor condition, so that we can lift the block of material its encased in. As always, the task becomes more complex as the work progresses. In now looks like we have a burial (possibly the contents of the urn) running under the urn in a fine grey sand. However, there is a harder layer above it that has charcoal in it as well as some cremated bone, with another firmer layer above that with no bone in, but some charcoal. However this upper layer seems to be the one which has Urn No.2 encased in it (very strange).

Thursday 15th May
Day 17
Good turnout today, joining Bill and Chris were Steve, Colin, Isabel, Francesca and new volunteer Jon Shelley (another volunteer from the Merseyside Arch. Soc.) – with Ben Goodburn and John Trippier arriving later in the morning.

We were also blessed with a visit form Ian Miller from GMAAS who was once again very impressed with our work. After having discussed our plans with him, he agreed they seemed to be the right ones. There was certainly a sufficient case for the removal of the burials as they could not be protected from future plough damage (something Historic England might might be concerned about once they became aware of the site’s importance). Only thing different Ian suggested, would be that we should excavate Urn No.1 in situ, well most of it anyway. That would relieve most of the pressure on the vessel wall and therefore more likely that we would be able to extract it in one piece. He also mentioned that he knew somebody at Historic England that dealt with environmental sampling, who would be able to give advice on what to do with all the fill from the burials pits we had accumulated.

While we were showing Ian around, work continued on the site. Peter worked on the newly exposed mottled clay layer on the NE side of Trench 3a, helped by new starter Jon. Squaring up the section revealed that the mottled clay was extremely thin in this area so that the underlying stony layer soon came through. This though suddenly changed at the SE side of this area, the mottled clay becoming immediately thicker which was evident in the section cut along its SE edge.

Steve finished off clearing the bottom of Trench 7 and was able to show some bedrock in the side wall on the east side. Steve then went on to work on cleaning up Trench 5, joining Ben who was already working in Trench 5a. Isabel and and Francesca worked in the original Trench 3, clearing out the vegetation and soil that had washed in on its NW side. Here the bedrock ends suddenly revealing a thick layer of soft sandy clay lying on top of a compacted stony layer. All our ditch trenches are now looking quite respectable, ready for all the coming visitors expected for this, perhaps our final year when they will be exposed for the last time.

John Trippier meanwhile continued expanding the section at the SE end of Trench 3a towards the original Trench 3. This showed that the patch of small stones uncovered at the very end of the trench could be seen in the section and therefore extends beyond the trench. John speculated about it being a possible path running around the outside of the central area (a similar patch had been found in Trench 1c on the NW side). However, as with the other stones, these where lying just under the plough soil and seem to be embedded in the subsoil, so likely to be much younger than the other features of our monument.

After Ian had left Chris continued his work on the area around Urn No.2 (F2). Ian had agreed that it may be possible to block lift the urn encased in the hardened clay. With that in mind Chris got to work cutting through the clay on either side of the urn. The overall feature though is getting very complicated – it is obvious the cremated bone lies in a secondary cut which seemed to be running under the urn. However the urn itself seems to be in the primary cut which doesn’t make sense (hopefully this issue will be resolved as Chris gets closer to the urn).

Bill meanwhile continued working on the area to the SW side of the cist feature (F11). He managed to draw the section as far has the depth of his excavations (this to be added to as more of the feature is revealed).

Before leaving for the day Bill made a start on excavating and bagging the material of the pit which could be seen surrounding Urn No.1 on the NW side. As he was doing this he noticed that in the surrounding sandy clay was showing signs of cracking as a result of the hot sun together with the persistent drying wind. This was also true of the clay around the clay-lined pit feature (F4) which had been uncovered for Ian’s visit. He therefore gave both features a good watering before replacing the covers in the hope it would stop any further potential damage.

Tuesday 13th May
Day 16
Joining Bill and Chris today were Andrew, Steve and Colin with Ben Goodburn joining just before lunch.

Colin and Andrew started right away stripping back more turf from the northeast side of Trench 3a. Once the was done they trowelled the surface to reveal the mottled clay layer. Here the mottled clay layer is quite thin and pretty soon the underlying stones soon started to poke through.

Steve continued his work on the ditch terminus in Trench 7 removing the remaining material that had washed in. Chris said when this trench was first excavated, bedrock had appeared in the south side terminal wall which he was hoping Steve would be able to establish again. By the end of the day the terminus was looking it had in the early days of 2023 when the base of it was first revealed (particularly Day8). This includes the fissure on the east side cutting into the south wall and bedrock on this wall but only for about 20cm up.

Saturday 10th May
Day 15
Today was planned for the Border Heritage Group but circumstances meant that they couldn’t attend. However we took the opportunity to use the day for volunteers who can’t normally join us during the week. So joining Bill Chris, Andrew and John Trippier today were Chris’s partner Denise German and new to the site Vanessa Oakden. Later in the day we were joined by new starters James Fildes and Alison Winnard.

As we are now at the beginning of the process of removing the burial material, we also took the opportunity to invite Society members to see the site for themselves whilst the burials are still in situ. All through the day therefore we had a stream of visitors and Bill and Chris took turns in showing them around the site (visitors included Christine Barbour-Moore, Tim and Jan McVoy, Darren Bentham, Christine Bennett, Eddie Estlin, Rob and Judith Lawson). All were suitably impressed with the site and our work there, many commenting that only when you get on site do you appreciate its scale.

Whilst the visitors were being shown around work continued with the new starters Vanessa, Alison and James trowelling the newly exposed mottle clay surface on the northeast side of Trench 3a. Chris continued excavating the pit next to Urn No.2 (F2) and came across a large piece of charcoal which had some structure to it (to be excavated next time).

Andrew was tasked with having a closer look at the section cut adjacent to our burial feature (F12). Collections of small stones were appearing in the side wall of this cut on the SE side and Andrew was able to show they were appearing in both sides of the cut (difficult to see in the photo). The stones are a similar size to the ones found in the pit of the burial. It is therefore possible that the pit is much large than we originally thought with the stones going right under the cremated bone cache.

John Trippier meanwhile continued investigating the SE end of Trench 3a where a patch small stone where showing just below the plough soil. By excavating the SW side of the trench John seemed to be able to establish that the mottled clay layer terminated at that point. Therefore the small stones must be in the subsoil.

Thursday 8th May
Day 14
No Bill today so Chris was in charge. Joining him were Colin, Steve, Rachael and Francesca.

Chris wanted to conduct a full drone survey of all the recently opened areas in one shot at lunchtime. Rachel and Francesca therefore were tasked with light trowelling all the open areas on the northeast side of Trench 3a, whilst Chris, Colin and Steve cleaned back all the newly opened areas on the southwest side of Trench 3a. The recent lack of any rain meant that the surfaces have been baked hard making this task quite difficult.

When the new areas were clean, Chris allocated the team to tidy up the main burial features. Colin cleaned the clay lined pit burial (F4), Steve cleaned Urn No.1 (F1) and the area around it while Chris cleaned Urn No.2 (F2) and the newly discovered collection of cremated bone. Rachael and Francesca meanwhile cleaned around the burial pit that lay under the flat stones (F12).

At lunch time with his drone, Chris flew a gridded pattern taking 76 overhead shots which were processed at home to produce an orthometric image of the site, including a full 3D model. These drone images are proving invaluable for Bill’s plan drawings of the site.

After lunch Chris showed Rachael how to record the Urns and Burial Features in 3D using the LiDAR and Photogrammetry software on his iPhone, whilst Colin begun to do more de-turfing on the NE edge the edge of Trench 3a.

Later in the afternoon Steve continued to define and investigate the pile of stones recently discovered in Trench 7.

Wednesday 7th May
Day 13
Joining Bill and Chris today were Peter and Christine Morton. In the afternoon we were fortunate to have a visit from Sam Walsh from UCLAN accompanied by John Trippier. Sam is an osteologist who worked on the bone material from the Dig Ventures site at Morecambe. We had invited her to our site to give her thoughts on the bones still in situ and the best way to remove them. We also wanted to know the possibility of her being able to do the analysis work on them once they have be removed and processed.

In the morning the site was made ready for Sam’s visit, but leaving the covers on the burials to help prevent them drying out in the hot sun. Peter and Christine worked on taking another slice of topsoil form the NE side of Trench 3a and Bill carried on working on the area to the SW side of feature F11 (our suspected cist). After removing some smaller stone he came across another large stone further down. To get an idea of its size he opened up the pit so he could go deeper. The soft sandy clay here was darker than we find generally in the other areas. Eventually he reached the bottom of the large stone but the soft sandy clay continued down.

When Sam arrived she was given the obligatory site tour and was impressed, as is everybody, with it’s size particularly the ditch trenches. She was also impressed with our work on the central mound with its various layers and the burials we have discovered. She agreed with the plan we have putting together for the removal of the urns and how they would be treated after removal (we are currently arranging with Wigan Museum who have offered a facility for their micro-excavation). She was also happy with the the treatment of the bones fragments i.e. they are to be washed and dried by us (thanks to Ian Trumble, Bolton Museum this time have offered a facility for this process). We were also glad to hear that she will most likely be available in the Autumn to do the analysis work on them. It now seems we have a sound programme in place for the removal, processing and reporting of the human remains we have discovered.

Finishing off the day John spent some time trowelling the SE end of Trench 3a near to where it approaches the original Trench3. Here a patch of small stones were emerging in the subsoil and a this stage it was unclear if they were embedded in the mottled clay layer.

Thursday 1st May
Day 12
Joining Bill and Chris on site today were Andrew, Peter Cooke, John Trippier and new starter Rachael Tynan with Ben Goodburn joining later.

John and Rachael worked on the far west side of Trench 3a trowelling off the remains of the topsoil to reveal the underlying mottled clay. Apart from the small patch of stones, the only feature revealed here in mottled clay layer were plough ruts.

Andrew and Peter were asked to de-turf a strip on the NE side of Trench 3a. When this was completed Peter cleaned out the section next to the burial pit F12 while Andrew was asked to continue where Martin had left off in Trench 7. He was later helped by Rachael and the two of them reveal another strange thing at the bottom of the trench. In section there seemed to be a pile of stones which could be a feature of some kind.

Ben continued in Trench 6-6a which is now more or less complete. Chris meanwhile continued working on the pit to the SE of our second urn (F2) revealing more of the cremated bone including some large pieces and a strange area of orange clay.

Bill completed his first attempt of a section through our so called cist F11. He then began to excavated the area to the SW side which reveal another fossil stone example.

Wednesday 30th April
Day 11
We started with just a few today but by lunch time we had a decent turnout. Joining Bill and Chris were Andrew and Dave North with Ben Goodburn and Martin Trumble joining before lunch.

Dave and Andrew worked on the newly de-turfed area between Trench 3a SE and Trench 3c, trowelling off the remains of the topsoil to reveal the underlying mottled clay. Bill was interested to see if the edge of the central sandy mound could be revealed in its NE corner. Instead of the edge (which could clearly be seen in the section) as small pit emerged which just had topsoil in it.

Following Ben Dyson’s suggestions, Chris started to excavate the pit which our second urn seemed to be sitting in. This revealed more cremated bone amongst a large patch of charcoal.

Ben continued working on Trench 6-6a while Martin was given the task of clearing out Trench 7. Before work could start on our supposed cist area, it was agreed the area needed to be properly recorded. With this in mind Chris carried out a survey with the LiDAR function on his phone and Bill attempted a section drawing across it on the SW – NE axis. To capture stone not quite on the section line he attempted a technique using a suspended drawing frame over the target area.

Thursday 24th April
Day 10
Eight volunteers on site today – joining Chris and Bill were Andrew, Colin, Peter, Steve Parry and John Needle with Ben Goodburn joining just before lunch.

After Ben Dyson’s visit the previous day, there was a discussion about how to proceed. Chris said he would get some bandages for the work on the urns (and plastic strips which he’d seen used on Youtube). Regarding F12, it was decided to go for the second of Ben’s options i.e. wait for a visit from Malin before removing any of the material from it.

Work continued on expanding the de-turfed area on the SW side of F4 carried out by Chris, Peter, Steve and Andrew. Later rowelling of this area revealed what seemed like modern ploughing ruts in the mottled clay layer.

Bill helped by Peter recorded the complicated section running down the NE side of F4 which he had prepared the day before.

Colin and John worked on removing the rest of the topsoil from the area on the NE side of F4. The mottled clay layer is only about 4cm think in this area, so Bill made them aware of this when trowelling down to it. Later Colin and Steve worked on expanding this de-turfed area all the way to Trench 3c while Andrew finished excavating the test pit under the removed stones (F17).

When Ben arrived he continued working in Trench 6-6a and by the end of the day had completely finished exposing the bedrock floor ready for Bill to record.

Wednesday 23rd April
Day 9
There were just six volunteers on site today – joining Chris and Bill were Christine and Andrew with John Trippier and Peter joining just before lunch. In the afternoon we were joined by Ben Dyson from the Greater Manchester Archaeological Advisory Service and new member George Chapman.

We have been anticipating Ben’s visit for some time as we need his guidance on how to proceed with the removal of our two cremation urns and advice about what to do with our other burials. In preparation for Ben’s visit, we began by removing all the covers and cleaning around the vessels. Chris worked on our first urn (F1) while Andrew worked on the our second urn (F2). Chris was keen to show how the pit the urn was place in could be seen in the section on the west side but not on the east side as the burnt and mottled layers seemed to be going right up to and indeed underneath the urn. Andrew also worked to expose the flat bottomed pit our second urn (F2) seemed to be sitting in.

Bill meanwhile worked on the clay-lined pit feature (F4) cleaning the edges up so that the profile could be clearly seen. He trowelled area around the outside of the the feature bringing out the blackish edge which lines the outside of the orange wall of the feature. He also noticed another black line running a few centimetres away from the feature on the NE side. He speculated whether could represent the original pit which was then refilled to form the shape of the feature before it was lined with the clay. Bill also took some time cleaning the section running down the NE side of the clay-lined pit feature (F4) ready for recording. This section, originally looked at last year, was turning out to be very complicated with a deep undulating layer of mottled clay, the higher layer being dark and the lower undulating layer lighter with a whitish tinge. This is as opposed to the opposite side of this trench which demonstrates the standard arrangement of red and black line lying under a relatively thin layer of mottled clay. The transition section (on the NW side of F1) shows that the the red line continues but the black line doesn’t (only to reappear in the section alongside F4.

Christine was given the task of trowelling the newly de-turfed area to the SW of the clay-lined pit feature (F4). When John arrived he joined Christine concentrating on the SE side where the group of stones (F18) had been revealed. When Peter arrived he uncovered the burial pit he had been working on (F12) ready for Ben’s inspection.

Ben arrived at 2.00 in the afternoon and after the introductions, got stuck in to getting himself familiar once again with the site he’d briefly visited last year. This included seeing our recently cleaned up south ditch terminus in Trench 6-6a. Being amazed with its proportions he was, as we are, that this is not typical Bronze Age.

He then went through each of our four burials which have yet to be processed (F1, F2, F4 and F12) talking us through the various options for the removal of the material. He finished of with a look at our suspected cist and, like us, was quite excited about what it could reveal. Chris said he would write a full report on Ben’s thoughts and suggestions and once approved would circulate them around the committee. In the meantime here is a summary:

F1 – excavate the material out of the pit on the NW side. Use a bandage to support the urn as we gradually work our way down. Excavated lower than the pot itself so as to catch any evidence of what it is resting on. Mark the vessels orientation before lifting. The lab at Salford would be only be available till July but he suggested the excavation of the pot’s interior could be done in anybody’s garage or outhouse. This had the advantage of not having to travel to Salford and could be done by an enthusiastic member of our Society in their own time.

F2 – the pit again should be excavated first. As the pot becomes exposed, we should try to support it with bandages (which may not work but worth a try). Any material in side the urn should be kept separate from the material from the pit.

F4 – There had already been more than half of cremated bone and charcoal removed from this feature. There was therefore a general thought that we had gone as far as we could with this feature and should now re-bury it for future generations to investigate. Bill said though that there was still some things we didn’t understand about it such as its depth and how it was supported (thought to be on a large stone). He also thought it important to have a section drawing of it, which could only be done by, at the very least, excavating down the opposite side to that already excavated. Ben agreed and suggested that a careful excavation could be achieved to leave a good portion (i.e. more that half) left in situ.

F12 – Again a good proportion of the cremated bone had already been removed from this burial pit. Ben said there were two options with the removal of the rest of the exposed material. One would be to continue removing the bone perhaps segregating it into sections – the other would be to wait for a visit from Malin, the osteologist from York, who would be able give us her opinion on how to proceed.

Before we left for the day Andrew was asked to remove material from the face of the section to the NW of F4. This had dried out and was about to fall in. Once removed the section revealed how deep the mottled clay layer was in this area and even displaying a second layer of burning.

Thursday 17th April
Day 8
A good turnout today and the weather was also quite pleasant. Joining Chris were Isobel, Ben, Peter, John Trippier, Colin, Christine Morton.

The overall aim of the day was to clean the recently de-turfed areas and continue to expand them. Chris, John and Issy continued to work on the SW side of the clay-lined pit feature (F4) exposing more of the surface of the mottled layer. It is starting to look very interesting now, with large areas of clay, burning and stones showing. Chris and John worked around the area of stones and burning which has become quite confusing and uneven. Issy worked on the area closer to F4. This is a ‘work in progress’ and further de-turfing to the SW will be required. Colin worked on removing the remaining top soil in the area on the NE side of our first urn (F1). Helped by Christine, he then, began to expose the top of the mottled layer. This side looks more like the rest of the site with little burning. Later they began working on the remaining turfs on this side. It is hoped to get a closer look at the NE side of our first urn which has proved difficult to see.

Peter continued to work carefully on the capped pit with the large collection of bones (F12). He managed to clear out the fill from the NW end of the pit and showed that the dense collection of bone does not go as far as the end. There is also evidence of the darker ‘packing’ stones showing here. Later he cleaned the open SE end of the pit to get a clear view of the floor of the pit. It looks similar to the stone layer we found outside the pit.

Ben continued his work in Trench 6/6a which is the terminus of the Ring Ditch on the south side of the entrance. He has nearly completely removed the winter slippage showing a new view of the ditch section. We can now see the floor of the terminus which appears to be unbroken bedrock.

Tuesday 15th April
Day 7
Just four on site today – joining Chris were Isabel, Patrick and Ben.

Chris and Izzy opened up more area to the SW side of the clay-lined pit feature (F4) and then proceeded to clean the surface of the mottled layer. There seem to be interesting patches of burning and stones in this area.  This task will be continued later in the week.

Patrick continued to carefully excavate the area in front of the clay-lined pit feature (F4) so that he could see more clearly the complicated section in front of it. Although there is still a little more work to do, a double red/black burning line could clearly be seen that seemed to touch the side of the clay lined pit. This task will be completed this week.

Ben continued to clean out the ditch terminus in Trench 6 / 6a exposing more of the flat bedrock floor and removing all the debris that had fallen in over the winter.

Saturday 12th April
Day 6
This day was added at short notice to enable our friends from Border Archaeology and Heritage Group (BAHG) in Cheshire to joined us. It also gave the opportunity for some of our regular members to attend. Joining Chris today were Ben, Patrick, John Trippier with Bill joining later – and from the BAHG Phil Cox, Penny, Cathy and Denise German.

The BAHG continued their work on the strange anomaly in Trench 3d outside the main ditch trying to determine if the feature was manmade or natural.

There had been some collapse over winter of the loose material in the side wall of the trench. A decision was made therefore to remove this and more of the loose rock fill inside the feature to see if we could get any more information. With nothing further forthcoming, this feature still remains a mystery.

John worked on a newly exposed area to the SW of the clay-lined pit feature (F4). Last time out Chris had detected a small group of stones in the SE corner embedded in the mottled clay layer. There was also the suggestion of burning and fleck of cremated bone in the area and John was able to open up more of the area, but wasn’t able to detect if the stones were lying in a pit or not (more work to be done – it was labelled F18 just in case).

Chris continued working on the NE side of our first urn (F1) looking for its wall on that side. His work created quite a hole on that side but so far failed to find the wall. This is very strange as the usual stratigraphy, i.e. burnt layer, could still be seen in the section going under the rim of the pot.

Patrick continued with his work on the area to the NW of the clay-lined pit feature (F4), working his way towards it cutting through the soft sandy clay. This revealed very little, however in the section the burning layer could just about be seen rising up under the mottled clay layer.

Ben continued to work in Trench 6 / 6a defining the edges and floor of the ditch. When Bill arrived, he and Chris had a discussion about what he and Ben had discovered. In the original Trench 6 ditch wall there seemed to be a layer of sticky clay which had previously detected when original trench had been dug. Ben Dyson, on his visit to the site had suggested that it was possible that this had been deliberately pressed into the side wall of the ditch either for decretive purposes or to make it watertight (the latter seems unlikely as the ring ditch is located on a sloping hillside). It was great to be be able to see bedrock in Trench 6a as very little if any had been detected before (although it had been in the original Trench 6). Chris was curious to see how far it went towards the terminal side of the ditch (when this had been done in Trenches 5 and 5a, the square ends had been exposed). Bill was unsure whether this would be the case in this trench as he thought the ditch profile had already been established when the fill had been excavated out in previous years. This had revealed a shallow semi-bowl shape with a change of slope about 40cms from the bottom (similar to the arrangement seen in the other terminus, Trench 7). The only way to find out if Chris was right would be to chase the bedrock but that would destroy the profile already established (Bill conceded though that this would have to been done eventual).

Thursday 10th April
Day 5
Bill was unavailable today so Chris was in charge. Joining him were Ben, Steve, Patrick, Colin, Peter and Francesca Usher.

Another decent turn out on a hot sunny day. Colin and Steve continued the work de-turfing the areas either side of out 2 major features in Trench 3a on the SE side, i.e. our first urn (F1) and the clay-lined pit feature (F4). The work next to the urn is to allow us to continue to explore the area around it in preparation for its lifting. In the afternoon Steve moved to the area Chris had opened in the morning SE of the F4 where burning and flecks of cremated bone had been detected. When Chris later cleaned this area he also found a collection of stones at a high level.

Patrick continued his work on the area NW of the clay-lined pit feature (F4). After trowelling through the mottled layer, he began to open up the area by cutting through the underlying soft sandy clay. Starting on the NW side, he worked his way towards F4 in order to create a section down the side of the feature to better understand how it was created.

Peter continued to work on his cremation burial (F12) exposing the full extent of the pit containing the cremated bones. By the end of the day he had found the edge of the cut of the pit and was able to show that the bones ran almost all the way to the end of the pit, which a surprise as a large amount of bone had already been removed from it. It seems very likely that the bones must have been inserted into the pit in a container (maybe a leather bag) which has now rotted away. The bag seems to have been packed in with dark stones preserving the shape of the bag. Chris recorded the feature in 3D and photographed it throughout the day to gather as much detail as possible on this very exciting find.

Francesca finished of the work Bill had started on the area around F12 cleaning away all the debris that had fallen in over the winter.

Ben continued his work in Trench 6 / 6a which is one of the termini of the ring ditch. He was joining these two adjacent trenches together as well as clearing out the debris from the winter collapse. He’d almost completed removing the baulk from between the two when he started to expose bedrock in the ditch wall. Chris joined him in the afternoon for a while and was able to continue following the stone floor up the side of the ditch for several centimetres on either side of the remaining baulk.

Tuesday 8th April
Day 4
Just seven out today – joining Bill and Chris were Patrick, Andrew, Isabel, Colin and Ben. Continuing with the theme of de-turfing areas to exposed the mottled layer (in hope of identifying more burials), Colin was tasked with de-turfing the area immediately to the NE side of our first urn (this would eventually link up with Trench 3c leaving a small island for reference). Similarly Isabel was given the task of de-turfing the area immediately to the SW of the clay-lined pit feature (F4).

Chris meanwhile continued investigating the area around the NE side of our first urn in the hope of getting a glimpse of the urn wall on that side. Patrick continued with trowelling down the mottled clay layer immediately to the NW side of the clay-lined pit feature (F4).

Since the discovery of the burial under the two large flat stones (F12), there has always been a thought that there may be more under the large flats stones uncovered in Trench 1b at the end of Season 2. When these were first exposed, the ones that were looked at were found to be just resting on the soft sandy clay so it was assumed the others were too. It was decided therefore that with this new information, we should take another look at these stones just in case our initial assumption was wrong. A group of three stones were selected for removal (shown at the bottom on the photo in there original formation) and the area immediately underneath excavated. Andrew was tasked with this and initial trowelling showed some promising dark patches in the soft sandy clay (it was labelled F17). However when the area was halve- and then quarter-sectioned, nothing of significance came to light.

Bill meanwhile took some time cleaning the section wall of Trench 3a on the NE side so that this could be recorded. He was keen to do this as it will soon disappear when the rest of this area (between 3a and 1b) is excavated, having already been taken down to the mottled layer. The section also includes two features containing cremated bone deposits – F13 and F14 (F13 having contained a large cache – over two kilograms – see last year’s Day 63). When he was happy with the cleaning he recruited Andrew to help him with creating the section drawing.

Ben continued with his work in Trench 6 and made steady progress. By the end of the day had almost completely cleared the baulk between 6 and 6a.

Wednesday 3rd April
Day 3
Good turnout today with a total of nine on site. Joining Bill, Chris and Patrick were Andrew Wilcock, Jen Harrison, Peter Cooke, Ben Goodburn, Christine Morten and new starter Isabel Vaudrey .Chris continued working the area around our first urn (F1) particularly on the NE side. However he found it difficult to get close to the the wall of the urn on that side as the surrounding clay seemed to be encrusted onto it and he was worried that removing it may damage the urn.Patrick meanwhile continued his work on the area NW of the clay-lined pit feature (F4) trowelling the mottled clay down to check for any other features. (The clay-lined pit feature was previously know as the octagonal feature but now it seems to have lost its original distinctive shape). Isabel, our new recruit from the Bolton Arch. Soc., worked on the trench area just on the NW side of our first urn. This was to expose the section to see if we could detect the transition from the NE side of the trench (where the stratigraphy was clear) to the SW side where the stratigraphy was less clear. This didn’t reveal any change so the next thing would be to re-excavate the section near the octagon feature which Colin had looked at last year.

Jen and Andrew continued working on the area between Trench1b on the SW side and Trench3a. Andrew continued removing the rest of the turf and topsoil started by Bill on Tuesday on the baulk between Trenches 3a and 1b, while Jen, after removing the covers, was tasked with removing the stones from the stony layer. The intention is to joining the two test pits (one in Trench 3a dug by Jen and one in Trench 1b dug by John Trippier and Bill at the end of last year). Jen noticed that the pit John and Bill had dug still had dark material in it so continued excavating it. This revealed some stones – she also found stones on the SW side at the bottom embedded in the harder clay. It seems therefore that we still haven’t found the natural in this trench.

Christine started trowelling down the area exposed by Colin on Tuesday between Trenches 3a and 1a/1b. The idea was to expose the mottled layer to check for any more features. A hard patch on the SW side of the baulk gave the impression of a feature (but the wind and sunny conditions was causing the clay to rapidly dry out so it was difficult to be certain). Andrew took over the task when Christine left.

Peter continued to look at the burial feature in Trench 3a on the NE side (F12 – which lay under the two flat stones). Although a lot of cremated bone material had already been remove, the was still quite a lot remaining in situ (including some large pieces) and Chris thought he could detect evidence of a possible retaining bag (it was true that the bone seemed to be concentrated into one small area). After careful brushing Peter could detect blackened stones seemingly surrounding the bone (Bill had also noticed these when he first came across the feature last year – Day49). Whether these were the result of burning or some other process was unclear.

Ben meanwhile was give the task of removing the last of the baulk between Trench 6 and 6a. He was hampered by a colony of wasps who were nesting in the south wall of the baulk. Bill joined him later partially clearing the base of the trench to expose the bedrock in a hope to help drainage for when it rained again (this trench being the only one susceptible to flooding).

Tuesday 1st April
Day 2
On site today with Bill were Chris Drabble, Colin Russell, Steve Parry and John Needle.

Chris had been able to bring along surplus equipment from the Border Heritage Group who had finished there long running project in Cheshire. This included much needed buckets and a good number of iron spikes which are very handy for securing the fencing around our open trenches. With this in mind Chris, Steve and Colin spend some time fixing the fencing around the trenches.

Meanwhile John set to work on Trench 1 finishing off the work done last week in clearing the collapse. He was joined later by Steve and by the end of the day they had completely cleared the bottom revealing a large area reasonably flat bedrock floor (even showing a small fault running across it). Instead of cutting away the section to produce the usual vertical wall, they left a small batter or slope to help to prevent further collapse. Last week Bill had noticed a clear layer lying about 30cm above the floor presenting a possible secondary (or tertiary fill). At the interface there appeared to be a rich deposit of charcoal and Bill to the opportunity to take a sample. He also took a sample from a layer slightly higher on the northeast side of the trench. However closer examination of this suggested that it was shale.

One of the objectives suggested for this year’s programme of work, was to de-turf large areas to check for further burials. This would be just to reveal the mottled clay layer which is where the burial seemed to be showing. With this in mind Colin was set to de-turfing the area between Trench 1a/1b and Trench 3a. It was realise this would destroy our Peg 3 so before he started, Bill replaced it with one of the large iron spikes. Bill also started de-turfing the extended baulk on the far SW side of Trench 3a where there had been a small collapse.

Chris spent some time examining our first urn (F1) which had survived very well over the winter months (in fact all the moss which had gathered on it over the previous had totally disappeared). He took the opportunity to expand the cut on the southwest side to see if he could discover how deep the urn was. This revealed it to be just a few centimetres further down but strangely there appeared to be a stone at its base. In the side section, he could also see the extent of the charcoal-rich pit which had been cut into the mottled clay layer for the urn had been deposited in (this seemed to present a double layer suggesting a possible recut). The extent of the pit could also be seen on the surface curving around the northwest side of the urn. Strangely though, this does not continue all the way around. Chris therefore also had a look at the section on the northeast side. This revealed the usual section, recognisable in other areas of the site i.e. the mottle clay layer on top of a thin line of a burnt lying on soft sandy clay (but no sign of the pit). Strange to note that the burning layer has yet to be detected on the southwest side of this area of Trench 3a.

Wednesday 26th March
Day 1
Good weather has meant an early start again this year. Just a small team though to remove the covers and inspect for any damage over the winter months. On site today with Bill were Andrew Wilcock, Peter Cooke, John Needle and Patrick Maloney.

Everything looks fine and we are currently working on a programme of excavations for the coming months. This will include lifting the two urns and removing the rest of the cremated remains that have been discovered so far.  These remains will need to be analysed and John Trippier has already been in touch with osteologists who may be able to help with this. It will however be at a cost, and it is likely that we will need external funding for this. Another priority will be investigating what we think is the remains a possible cist burial. It lies under the sandy clay mound and therefore must be the oldest feature so far found. As seen last year, it was shown to have a cavity which, at the time, was immediately covered so that any dating remains would be protected. We also have other areas to look at, especially where there might be more burials and this will need more topsoil removal.  

Whilst on site we took the opportunity to clean out Trench 1 which had suffered another collapse (with the number of visitors expected this year we need to make the site as presentable as possible). Clearing the spoil revealed a significant charcoal rich layer which had only been hinted at before.
This certainly shows a significant secondary filling phase – one associated with a burning event (but much later than the burning event on the central mound).