Blog: Shrewsbury Castle dig diary: Day 1 – 18 July 2022

Season 3 of the Shrewsbury Castle Project has kicked off to a flying start despite the heat. With funding from Castle Studies Trust and rubble breakers on top of the motte, Museums and Heritage students from University Centre Shrewsbury (University of Chester) began with an evaluation trench to explore the curtain wall of the castle, hitting archeology within the first few minutes.

Dr Capper and Liz Painter. Image: University of Chester

Student volunteers, supervised by Dr Morn Capper, uncovered a mortar feature running from left to right across the width of the trench. The day also brought with it many finds up against the feature, including glass (Whitbread anyone?), iron hinges and latches and some beautiful, glazed pottery, to name a few. Investigations hope to uncover whether there were other features in the wall area near the postern gate.

Heritage Practice student Steven, who studies historic gardens for his dissertation, was proud to uncover an ornate piece of pottery, identifying delicate flowers and vines lacing around the rim as well as gold hand-painted bird-like decoration.

Shrewsbury Castle dig day 1

Dr Nigel Baker was also kind enough to provide student volunteers with a quick lesson on how to complete and understand ‘context sheets’ in archeology, their use in recording the layers of earth being uncovered and how the context sheets help to piece together relationships between the layers. This came in extremely useful as it made sure that students were prepared to identify and record each layer as they were uncovered and correctly label them.

George, Liz and Steve with Dr Baker. Image: University of Chester

Although the dig day was planned as a short one, due to The Queen’s Baton Relay making its way through Shrewsbury to mark the start of Commonwealth Games 2022, this was also greatly appreciated in the heatwave with temperatures reaching the high 30 degrees later today. However, even though the day was short, it was extremely productive in terms of finds and knowledge gained by students and a great start to what should be a fantastic third season at Shrewsbury Castle.

Scripted by Liz Painter, on behalf of volunteers at Shrewsbury Castle Project

The Queen’s Baton Relay festivities in The Quarry, Shrewsbury