Blog: Shrewsbury Castle dig – Day 13: Sunday, and some welcome visitors

It was another sweltering hot day at Shrewsbury Castle today (Sunday 13 September 2020), but that didn’t stop the dig team. Today’s objective was to safely lower the trench and, importantly, to calculate its measurements.

To establish the relationship between our trench and surrounding castle features, including last year’s motte ditch, Dr Nigel Baker used various measuring instruments. Firstly, he calculated the length of the castle wall, then the depth of the trench in relation to the castle drive, which is the natural level of the castle, and lastly the height of the trench from the castle drive. In doing so he successfully calculated the depth of the trench and it is now at a deeper level than last year’s excavation.

Dr Baker surveying the curtain wall. Photo Lucy Salter.

One interesting find of today was a piece of medieval pottery that has been identified as part of a cooking pot, some of the soot and burn markings can still be visibly seen on the edge of the pot. Interestingly, the large piece has broken in such a manner that suggests that it had not been disturbed since it was placed there. Another find, not uncommon at this site, was a large piece of cow bone. This piece, however, shows marks from where the meat was cut off still visible, another sign of human activity from centuries ago.

Tom pursues a possible feature. Photo Lucy Salter.

There was also some exciting activity in the grounds today, with a few individuals from the Castle Studies Trust, our sponsors, who came for a socially distanced viewing of the work that the team has been doing for the past few weeks. These visitors provided useful insights on the Castle background and some of our recent pottery finds.

Another find.

Tomorrow’s objective is to delve deeper into the medieval layers in our trench and uncover more of the history of Shrewsbury Castle.

Written by Lucy Salter on behalf of the volunteers at Shrewsbury Castle