Cobbles, Walls and Tiles galore!

This week, besides uncovering the lovely finds from the infilled cellar, our volunteers have been patiently and steadily working away elsewhere on the site to expose more of the structural features of the buildings that once lined St John Street. As we move into the last day of excavation with our lovely team, we'll be photographing, drawing and filling out the paperwork that will become the lasting record of these features.

The inner face of the cellar wall, No. 6

The picture above shows the very nicely built sandstone block wall that formed the west facing wall of the cellar of No. 6. In the centre of the photograph you can see a patch of red sand covered by concrete, encasing an electricity cable that cuts through the wall. It was laid during the building of the Market Hall in the 1990s.

Modern service cables are a common feature on archaeological sites in urban areas! In this case, we've been lucky, as apart from that cable and a drainage pipe in the southwest corner of the site, there has been very little modern disturbance.

Volunteer Joyce exposing the cobbled yard surface at the rear of No 5

The cobbled surface shown in the photograph above would once have been the back yard surface of No 5. Cobblestones were a cheap and very hard-wearing surface before the advent of Tarmac and concrete, and were a common feature of pre-20th century yards.

The tiles that once formed the floor of a passageway between Nos 4 & 5

In the northeast corner of the site, we've removed layers of demolition rubble and mortar to expose a very nice tiled surface, which we believe was the floor of the passageway that divided Nos 4 and 5. In and around this area we're finding fragments of 17th and 18th century pottery: tantalising glimpses into the lives of the early occupants of these buildings.

Come along this afternoon, Friday 19th July, for our final organised site tour - no need to book, just turn up at the gate for 14:00. See you there!

Rob Hedge

What's on: Friday 19th July

Tomorrow (Friday 19th July) is our last day of digging with our lovely volunteers, so we've got a whole host of events and activities going on throughout the day. In addition to site tours at 11:30 and 14:00, we'll have our friends from Discover History roaming the town 'in character' as Bromsgrove nailmakers.

We'll also have Worcestershire Archaeology finds expert Laura Griffin on hand in our exhibition on the High Street from 10:00 - 16:00 to identify any archaeological artefacts you may have found - bring 'em along and we'll take a look! We'll be displaying finds from the dig in the exhibition, in addition to historic maps and photos of the site.

At the north end of the High Street between 10:00 and 16:00, the brilliant 'Museum on the Move' will be bringing their interactive exhibition to the town.

So, come along tomorrow to find out more about what the #DigBromsgrove project has uncovered, and to learn a bit more about the fascinating history of the town.

Rob Hedge

Free Tours, and a site update.

This afternoon Emma Hancox (manager of the HER and Advisory sections at Worcestershire Archive & Archaeology Service) will be leading free walking tours of historic Bromsgrove. Tours will leave from the site of the dig at 13:00,15:00 and 17:45 today. It'll be a great chance to find out more about the (often hidden!) historic character of the town. No booking required, just turn up at the site!

End of Day 2, with some intriguing features appearing!

On site, the cleaning is revealing some really striking features, such as a very heavily burnt layer, visible as the black area in the centre of the photograph. Embedded in the top of the layer is an eclectic mix of household debris such as Bakelite fittings, plates and even some Lino, baked stiff by the heat of the fire! All this household debris suggests that the fire took place around the time of the building's demolition in 1951, but what we hope to find out is whether it occurred during demolition, or immediately before. Watch this space!

if you'd like to see all of our photographs in glorious high-resolution, including our 'Finds of the day', take a look at our Flickr page.

Rob Hedge