Before we get to the updates, we want to let you know that as part of Heritage Open days we will be offering a site tour and object handling tomorrow at 10:30, 11:30 and 12:30. We will also be joined by the Tyneside Metal Detecting Association, so come on down if you can.
As the sun sets on another week and we meet the half-way point of the excavation, we are left with more questions than answers.
Having finally stripped off the topsoil across site, we’ve first came down to a densely packed, ashy deposit, which may indicate the route of a path running Northwest to Southeast across Drewetts’ Park.
Image: An ariel Photograph of Drewetts’ Park (1935 ) where a path from Church Bank to the Jarrow Village can be seen in the left of the frame (britainfromabove.org.uk).
Based on the amount of China plates and bottles of ‘Bobs’ Sauce’ we have recovered from this layer; it seems likely that this context may be late Victorian to early Edwardian in origin.
Images: The JAM Sauce collection.
However, we have also found a lot of material which likely dates to the Second World War. During the War, Drewett’s park contained Barrage Balloons, a form of anti-aircraft device, as well as temporary structures to house the soldiers stationed to protect and maintain the area. This important period in Jarrows’ history is reflected in the archaeology.
Image: Eyelets of a leather boot.
Image: Toothbrush belonging to R.L.G Burnett M.P – either military Police or a Member of Parliament.
Excitingly, we think we may have unearthed the foundations for one of these temporary structures. Earlier this week we uncovered the corner of a large square or rectangular pit containing slag, burnt brick and burnt stone, all of which has been fired at an incredibly high temperature, but doesn’t appear to have been burnt within the pit itself. The current theory is that this might be waste from industrial smelting which has been used to provide a foundation for a structure, allowing for adequate drainage, much like hardcore is used to create the foundation of temporary huts and structures today. We have opened a smaller Test Pit (Test Pit 2), to further investigate this possible structure. We were able to do all of this and more before we were rained off site accompanied by peals of thunder (well maybe just peal singular).
Image: The foundations of a possible World War Two temporary structure composed of compact burnt stone, brick and slag.
Image: Excavating Test Pit 2 and hand planning Trench 1.
As of today, we can say that we may have reached a new archaeological context in our main trench. We have come down to an even more densely packed deposit which we believe to be another layer of made-ground. Now, we do appreciate how unexciting that sounds, but this deposit seems to lack the ashy, iron-slag, teapot and Bovril jar inclusions we’ve become familiar with and instead seems to be rich in crushed brick, flint pebbles and flecks of clay. This might be an indication that the deposit was made before mass industry in the area which produced ash and slag, and that we are starting to get back to more historical deposits. It’s early days yet though but we all have our fingers crossed that we are inching towards the Anglo-Saxons.
Image: Finally, some decent stratigraphy!