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XArch Project and Brayford Community Archaeology Group's

Welcombe Farm Excavation, April 2008

In April 2008 the XArch Project and the Brayford Community Archaeology group held a week long community excavation at Welcombe Farm, Brayford, North Devon. Geophysical survey had already revealed a possible Iron Age/Roman hillside enclosure and the aim of the excavation was to find dating evidence in the outer two ditches of the enclosure to determine if they were of the same date. The excavation also had a strong community focus and involved many members of the local community, including over a 100 children from various local primary schools, giving all children and most of the volunteers the opportunity to experience an archaeological excavation for the first time. Overall we had 23 volunteers (not all on the same day!) helping with the excavation and the XArch team of Penny Cunningham, Sam Walls and Faye Simpson and three student volunteers, Wendy Howard, Ryan Watts and Becky Miller. For more information regarding previous work in Brayford follow this link.

A 15m -3m trench was positioned over the two outer ditches. The three images below show the trench in the early phase of excavation, just as the two ditches began to be revealed.

An important aspect of this excavation was to teach people correct excavation and recording methods.

Below is Xarch's Sam Walls demonstrates planning to Lance and Elizabeth.

Becky Miller explaining how to complete 'Small find sheets' and Ryan Watts explaining the purpose and use of 'Context Sheets'

As the week progressed the two ditches began to reveal themselves and the outer ditch produced a small number of black burnished wear pottery sherds.

Some examples of the black burnished ware pottery sherds from the outer ditch.

The inner ditch was shallower than the outer ditch and was empty of finds except for a very corroded metal object that sat at the bottom of the ditch. The metal objected is currently been examined and X-rayed by the conservation team from the Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter.