Second Mill Discovered at Arley

At last, we have begun work on the supposed second mill site at Arley.  Last Sunday and Monday (23rd and 24th August) a few Society members went to the site to look for the ‘new’ mill which appears on the Balcarres estate map (reported in Newsletter No.1).  Most of Sunday was spent clearing away undergrowth, and trying to identify existing features.  The stone lined mill race, which fed the logwood grinding mill further down the valley, was clearly defined, and also a second race branching off to the river on the other side of the path.  We also established a grid and some small trial holes were begun with promising signs of building activity.

Foundations

On the map (which dates from around 1830) the mill is clearly shown straddling the mill race, so on Monday it was decided to dig two trenches on either side of the channel.  The first trench immediately filled with water and, although digging a drainage ditch helped to keep the water level down, all our efforts to find anything in the slurry, came to naught (despite reaching a depth of 70cm).  The second trench however, (an extension to one of Sunday’s trail holes) proved more successful.  The ground is a lot dryer on the side between the race and the river, and at a depth of about 40cm, we came across a brick lined floor and large stone foundations.  Fighting the tree root system prevented us from extending the trench, but we are convinced that this must be mill indicated on the early map. The trench has been left open and hopefully, later in September, we will arrange another visit to establish the extent and perhaps the age of this old  (possibly even medieval) building.

Time Team

I hope you have all been watching the latest escapades of the intrepid TV trowellers, Tony Robinson and Co, who have been broadcasting live over the weekend from their latest site, a massive Roman villa, in the Cotswolds.  Here are some of the pictures from their web site.

This geophys plan shows the main range of buildings.  The site, one of the biggest ever found, was originally discovered in 1976 by the landowner. But it was an amateur archaeologist, on a pleasure flight in a helicopter, who in 1995, set the ball rolling with his aerial photos of the site.  He contacted the Time Team and the rest is history.  

This is the plunge pool. From an examination of the debris, it is thought that this room had a white domed ceiling. Around it near the edges is a shading line that was intended to trick the eye into thinking that part of the ceiling was recessed.  Any body wanting a copy of the site diary (plus pictures), see me at the meeting.

The red coloured brooch from the rubble of the pool reads UTEREFELIX - ‘be happy’

Next Meeting

The next meeting of the Society will be on Wednesday 3rd September at the history shop at 7.30 pm as usual.  This month’s speaker is the ever popular Martin Charlesworth, whose talk is entitled ‘The Persians, The Greeks, The Romans and the Britains’.

Hope to see you at the meeting - B.A.