Wednesday 23 April 2014

23 April 2014, Barnsley Pals Project, Day 9

The sun was back today, which was a massive relief to everyone, especially Graham who has been camping on the site! We seized our chance and Graham and Concrete Chris cleaned off the last bits of the final ablution block base, which didn't take long at all.


The rest of the team concentrated on finishing off more geophysical survey grids, again, aided by the lovely weather!


When the cleaning of the third base was compete it was time to take photographs for the archive and you can really see some of the features cut into the structure.


For example, the row of post holes is really obvious and pretty much complete compared to the other bases that we cleaned:


There are still intriguing features though, like this little collection of features, which may have been for wooden steps leading into the ablution block. They appear to have been pressed into the concrete as it was setting.


Now the remaining task is to draw the features, each block will have to be drawn at a scale of 1:20, which will then be digitized back in the office and included in the final report. This will be the lasting archive of this site work and it as important as the actual archaeological digging.


However, there still are surprises, like these imprints in the concrete of corrugated iron sheets, most likely used as the structure's walls and held up with wooden beams, that created the post holes.


You can just make out on this one, two lines of iron sheeting. These were only spotted by the drawing team and demonstrates that some things can be missed first time around!


Then later in the afternoon, the Total Station Theodolite was brought out, now nicknamed the Doomsday Device, and was used in setting out more grids for the geophysical survey.


It didn't take long before a few more rows of flags were laid out ready to be surveyed!


And finally today we also had a visit from the Barnsley Chronicle's photographer, who told us he would make us famous! The feature should be in the next edition! 

The end date is getting closer now and things are picking up pace a little, but we should still be finished in time. Thanks for reading!

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