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The Swaledale Project:  Hagg Farm Site 103 Dig Blog June 10th - 21st  2013. This dig is in association with Archaeology Services Durham University (ASDU) lead by Tony Liddell. SWAAG wishes to thank Brenda and David for allowing us to work on this interesting site.

This Blog is going to be kept in chronological order, so click these links to go to a particular day... June:      10th    11th    12th    13th    14th            17th    18th    19th    20th    21st This page will be updated each evening

The approximate two main trench locations for the 2013 excavation are outlined in white. Sunday June 9th Tent erected. Hagg Farm Lidar. HF=Hagg Farm, WH = West Hagg and 103 is the dig site. © Environment Agency copyright 2013. All rights reserved. Hagg Farm Lidar. HF=Hagg Farm, WH = West Hagg and 103 is the dig site. Hagg Farm appears to have been built on the 'bone shaped' glacial landslip material, whilst the glacial mound and the wood by site 103 appears to be the product of a much earlier landslide that is less well defined. © Environment Agency copyright 2013. All rights reserved.

Day 1  June 10th 1910h.  Top of Page A splendid turnout for the first day of this 10 day excavation. My thanks go to: Anna and Simon, Olga, Ann, Doug, Flora and Graham, Mike, Peter, Philip, Rob, Tim, Hugh, Lesley, Dustin and Kate, Hillary and Shirley.

Day 1 is always hard on the back removing the turf. Trench 7 in the centre is being de-turfed  whilst the larger trench 6 in the background is being marked out. Trench 6 in the background is being de-turfed whilst trowelling the topsoil in trench 7 is underway. Trench 7 Trench 7 Trench 7 at end of day. Trench 6 before lunch.   Trench 6 de-turfed. Trench 6 at end of day. This trench is 11x1 metre trench across a 'double platform', running from trench 1 to near trench 7. It will become part of trench7. Days end off to the pub!

Day 2  June 11th 1920h  Top of Page Another good day on site. My thanks go to: Anna and Simon, Olga, Doug, Flora and Graham, Mike, Peter, Philip, Rob, Tim, Lesley, Dustin and Kate, Hillary and Howard. Today we starting finding both iron and ceramic finds including a small metal tanged blade and a small collection of Romano-British pottery sherds. I intend adding images of the first weeks finds at the weekend.

Beginning to clean the new 11x1m trench that will link into trench 7. Trench 7 cleaned for digital recording before extending it. Linking the 11X1m trench into tench 7 End of day showing trench 7 with a 1x1m extension into the the 2012 trench 4 to show the line of the enclosure wall. Trench 7 looking south towards the 2012 trench 1. Trench 6 cleaning down to the subsoil ready for digital recording. Trench 6 cleaned to subsoil. Trench 6 at end of day with what appears to be a flagged surface appearing. End of day last off site!

Day 3  June 12th 1848h    Top of Page Despite the poor weather particularly in the morning we soldiered on and had another good day. My thanks go today to: Anna and Simon, Olga, Flora and Graham,  Philip, Dustin and Kate, Justin, Martin, Ann and John. Again we had both iron and ceramic finds. No images from the morning period due to the rain but it dried up in the afternoon and even saw a little of the sun.

Well it was bound to happen Philip pinched my camera and the tables were turned! The long test trench from the 2012 Trench 1 to trench 7 was cleaned down to the next context. Tony Liddell (ASDU) lending a hand in trench 7 when Anna and Simon left to journey home. Graham opened up part of the 2012 trench 4 to reveal the ?enclosure wall foundation stones which now continue in trench 7. In trench 6 we started lifting the stone tumble off the ? paved area. End of day showing the wall in trench 7 gradually curving south. There appears to be a cobbled surface in front of the wall. Romano-British pottery sherds we found here too. The trench 7 wall appears to run southwards towards middle of the two spoil heaps in the background. End of day in trench 6 shows a largely natural sandstone surface although the stones at the front left may have been placed there. Some Romano-British pottery was found on top of this paved surface under significant amount of subsoil.

Day 4  June 13th 1835h   Top of Page A second successive damp start to the day but the afternoon was nice. My thanks today  goto: Olga, Lesley, Flora and Graham,  Doug, Dustin and Kate, Martin, John. Mike and Will.

Trench 6 Doug removing the last soil before taking photographs. Trench 6 looking east. Trench 6 looking west. Trench 6 extension with the topsoil removed. Trench 7 foreground and Trench 6 in the background. This and the next 7 images shows work carried out in Trench 7.

Day 5  June 14th 1920h    Top of Page Another piece of Roman glass was found today close to a nice sherd of black burnishedware. My thanks today goto: Philip, Olga, Emma, Flora and Graham,  Dustin and Kate, Mike, Hugh and Tim.

Trench 6 extension. Trench 8 started. Philp, Graham and Olga working in trench 7. Kate and Dustin also working in trench 7. Trench 7 Trench 7 Trench 7 End of day in tench 6 extension. Down to  a very sticky clay layer which today's afternoon rain didn't imptove it! Trench 8 lots more to do here. Week 1 Selected finds from this Romano-British Site. There are 5 more excavation days next week. Two local schools will be visiting the dig early next week.

Day 6  June 17th  1910h  Top of Page Good digging weather and an enjoyable day was had by all. My thanks today go to: Olga, John E, Ken, Phil W, John R, Doug, Flora and Graham, Howard, Mike, Philip, Lesley, Dustin and Kate, and Judith. Also present showing the children from Reeth and Gunnerside schools was Peter and Alan.

Peter indicating the features in trench 6 Peter's son has pointed out that Peter is always shown just talking about what's been done. So below is the action from last Monday. So trowelling tomorrow? Watch this space. Tony Liddell (Left) and John in discussion. Trench 6 Dustin and Judith cleaning back some of the tumble in Trench 6. Doug in Trench 6 This 2x2m extension to trench 6 has been a bit of a surprise. We thought we were about to close it down when some of the best pottery to date appeared on top of the yellow clay. Philip and his helpers have been busy breaking fresh ground over in trench 7. Trench 7 Trench 7 Trench 7 following the path of the wall foundation up the hill. Trench 7. As above but from the opposite direction. Trench 7 finally following the path of the wall towards trench 1. We are expecting it to bend to the left. We should know tomorrow when we clean this newly deturfed layer.

Day 7  June 18th    Top of Page Superb weather day. Plenty of work done by members and guests. Those were: Ann and John, Doug, Graham, Justin, Mike, Philip, Lesley, Dustin and Kate, John E, Ken, Phil W, Olga and Emma. Apologies to Arkengarthdale School they came for an hour this afternoon but I forgot to take a photo for the blog!

Grinton in the sun from the dig site. Trench 6 finally complete. Ken and Justin did sterling work in trench 8. I forgot to photograph it at the end of day so look at tomorrow's blog. Phil, Olga and Ann trying to work out what happens to the waal as it goes south. Graham working on the wall foundation at the north western end of trench 7. End of day trench 7 End of day trench 7 End of day trench 7 where's the wall here?

Day 8  June 19th    Top of Page  Superb weather day. Plenty of work done by members and guests. Those were: John, Graham & Flora and their son, Judith, Justin, Philip, Dustin and Kate, John E, Ken, Phil W, Howard, Peter, Hugh, Tim, Jim, Olga and Emma.

Trench 8 first thing this morning Trench 8 end of day. Olga recording trench 6. Lunch Trench 8 just after lunch. Trench 7 first thing this morning looking for a wall Trench 8 End of day. Camera duel with Tony Dustin, Jim and Kate. Emma about to find something not to be sniffed at! !!!

Day 9  June 20th     Top of Page Whilst busy recording our work we still found time to excavated some new areas. The penultimate day saw a good turn-out. I wish to thank: Graham & Flora, Justin, Philip, Mike, Will, Lesley, Shirley, Dustin and Kate, Phil W, Olga and Emma.

Olga positioning a secondary datum for the Total Station. Olga positioning a secondary datum for the Total Station. Positioning the trenches... and surrounding landscape features. Deep down mole/rabbit activity in part of trench 7. Trench 7 Trench 7: Shirley, Lesley and Will following the course of the wall foundation ... around an 'S' bend. Trench 9 Dustin looking at one of the two possible entrances to the main site... and after a bit more work it looks like the apparent entrance may be the result of modern farm machines. Lesley recording Trench 9 Watchful eyes just above the trenches.

Day 10 June 21st    Top of Page The last day of the dig. We finished slightly earlier than planned but that was down to the efficiency of the 'diggers'. They were today: Olga and Emma, Phil W, Graham, Justin, Mike, Philip, and Lesley. In the morning we opened up the last small area of trench following the wall to the south and exposed a small section wall. Tony Emma and Olga completed the last part of the Total Station survey, and we collected the last of our samples. At the end we toured as a group each trench in turn discussing our findings. It was evident that we still need to do a number of small trenches to try and answer a few remaining questions. Our thanks to Tony Liddell who was as professional as ever and a fund of information and perhaps the odd wind-up quip or three!

End of dig images ... Trench 8 Trench 8 Trench 6 Trench 6 Trench 9 Trench 7 Trench 7 Trench 7 Trench 7 Trench 7 The report from ASDU will be available to read as a pdf file later this year. Many thanks to all that participated especially to those from afar it was a pleasure working with you. Stephen

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Jet Jet Galena Galena Iron rod or nail

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