Day 11

What an eventful day today was, even though we didn’t do any digging.

We arrived on site this morning looking forward to opening some new trenches and whilst we were setting up the wind began to increase.

Hannah, the WA Supervisor, went off and checked the site for potential Health & Safety hazards such as loose branches that might fall from the trees. She immediately ordered all WA staff to put their hard hats on and went through their H&S procedures and updated their Risk Assessment. The whole thing was like a military procedure with Hannah giving orders and her team jumping to attention.

We moved our camp closer to the entrance to wait and see if the winds would die down whilst the archaeologists did their paperwork and updated their archive.

Ted, one of the Harthill volunteers had just cycled up to the site when we heard a crack and a branch fell to the floor about 50 foot away. Hannah ordered everybody off the site, so we retreated to the safety of the cricket club.

Whilst I had a team of archaeologists at my disposal, I asked Hannah if anyone would be interested in coming for a quick tour around the village with me. To my surprise, my invitation was far more appealing than their paperwork and they all came, with the exception of Hannah who had even more paperwork to deal with now because of the fallen branch.

I took them up to Church Quarry, past Glebe Farm, around the church and around the Ponds before making our way back to the cricket field in time for lunch and more paperwork!

I left them there as there was nothing more that I could do today, so I was back home for 1.30pm. I suppose I’ll have to watch the opening ceremony of the World Cup now. ;-)